Melissa’s Reviews > Untamed > Status Update

"Boys who believe that real men are all-powerful will cheat and lie and steal to claim and keep power. Boys who believe that girls exist to validate them will take a woman’s rejection as a personal affront to their masculinity. Boys who believe that open, vulnerable connection between men is shameful will violently hate gay boys. Boys who believe that men don’t cry will become men who rage..."

"Here is your baby. Love her at home, at the polls, in the streets. Let everything happen to her. Be near."

"What a terrible burden for children to bear—to know that they are the reason their mother stopped living. What a terrible burden for our daughters to bear—to know that if they choose to become mothers, this will be their fate, too. Because if we show them that being a martyr is the highest form of love, that is what they will become."

"Why do women find it honorable to dismiss ourselves? Why do we decide that denying our longing is the responsible thing to do? Why do we believe that what will thrill and fulfill us will hurt our people? Why do we mistrust ourselves so completely?

Here’s why: Because our culture was built upon and benefits from the control of women."

"All of those differing opinions meant that I quite literally could not please everyone. That was a relief. When a woman finally learns that pleasing the world is impossible, she becomes free to learn how to please herself."

"Consumer culture promises us that we can buy our way out of pain—that the reason we’re sad and angry is not that being human hurts; it’s because we don’t have those countertops, her thighs, these jeans. This is a clever way to run an economy, but it is no way to run a life. Consuming keeps us distracted, busy, and numb. Numbness keeps us from becoming."