bell_hooks

We all need to rid ourselves of misguided notions of self-love. We need to stop fearfully equating it with selfcenteredness and selfishness.

Those of us who were wounded in childhood often were shamed and humiliated when we expressed hurt.

To know love, men must be able to let go the will to dominate.

The inability to connect with others carries with it an inability to assume responsibility for causing pain.

When parents start out disciplining children by using punishment, this becomes the pattern children respond to.

it is unlikely that maternal affection will heal the lack of fatherly love.

Because patriarchal culture has already taught girls and boys that Dad's love is more valuable than mother love,

Women and female and male children, dominated by men, have wanted them dead because they believe that these men are not willing to change.

Women and children all over the world want men to die so that they can live. This is the most painful truth of male domination..

yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.

The word "love" is most often defined as a noun,

Our confusion about what we mean when we use the word "love" is the source of our difficulty in loving.

Patriarchy is the single most life-threatening social disease assaulting the male body and spirit in our nation.

When we love we can let our hearts speak.