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Margaret Mead Quotes - Page 9

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The suffering of either sex - of the male who is unable, because of the way in which he was reared, to take the strong initiating or patriarchal role that is still demanded of him, or of the female who has been given

The suffering of either sex - of the male who is unable, because of the way in which he was reared, to take the strong initiating or patriarchal role that is still demanded of him, or of the female who has been given too much freedom of movement as a child to stay placidly within the house as an adult - this suffering, this discrepancy, this sense of failure in an enjoined role, is the point of leverage for social change.

Margaret Mead
Strong, Sex, Children

And as I had my father's kind of mind-which was also his mother's-I learned that the mind is not sex-typed.

Margaret Mead
Mother, Sex, Father
Margaret Mead (1972). “Blkberry Winter”

In contrast to our own social environment which brings out different aspects of human nature and often demonstrated that behavior which occurs almost invariably in individuals within our society is nevertheless due not to original nature but to social environment; and a homogeneous and simple development of the individual may be studied.

Margaret Mead
Simple, May, Our Society
Margaret Mead (1962). “Growing Up in New Guinea: A Comparative Study of Primitive Education”

today's children are the first generation to grow up in a world that has the power to destroy itself.

Margaret Mead
Children, Growing Up, War
Margaret Mead, Rhoda Bubendey Métraux (1970). “A way of seeing”

In almost any society I think, the quality of the nonconformists is likely to be just as good as and no better than that of the conformists.

Margaret Mead
Thinking, Quality, Conformist

[Among the Arapeh... both father and mother are held responsible for child care by the entire community...] If one comments upon a middle-aged man as good-looking, the people answer: 'Good-looking? Ye-e-e-s? But you should have seen him before he bore all those children'.

Margaret Mead
Mother, Children, Father
"Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies". Book by Margaret Mead, p. 55, 1935.

The prophet who fails to present a bearable alternative and yet preaches doom is part of the trap that he postulates.

Margaret Mead
Alternatives, Failing, Pessimism
Margaret Mead (1970). “Culture and Commitment”

The pains of childbirth were altogether different from the enveloping effects of other kinds of pain. These were pains one could follow with one's mind.

Margaret Mead
Family, Pain, Mind
Margaret Mead (1972). “Blkberry Winter”

Many women, particularly young women, have claimed the right to use the most explicit sex terms, including extremely vulgar ones, in public as well as private. But it is men, far more than women, who have been liberated by this change. For now that women use these terms, men no longer need to watch their own language in the presence of women. But is this a gain for women?

Margaret Mead
Sex, Women, Watches

Creationism: the theory that Rome was built in a day.

Margaret Mead
Rome, Theory, Creationism

It is of very doubtful value to enlist the gifts of a woman into fields that have been defined as male; it frightens the men, unsexes the women, and muffles and distorts the contribution women could make.

Margaret Mead
Men, Males, Fields

In the presence of grandparent and grandchild, past and future merge in the present.

Margaret Mead
Grandchildren, Past, Grandparent
Margaret Mead (1972). “Blkberry Winter”

Maleness in America is not absolutely defined; it has to be kept and re-earned every day, and one essential element in the definition is beating women in every game that both sexes play.

Margaret Mead
Sex, Games, Play

It has been a woman's task throughout history to go on believing in life when there was almost no hope.

Margaret Mead
Women, Believe, Tasks
"The spirit of Houston: the First National Women's Conference, Vol. 84". Book by Mim Kelber (p. 153), 1978.

Because of their age long training in human relations for that is what feminine intuition really is women have a special contribution to make any group enterprise.

Margaret Mead
Women, Long, Training
BlackberryWinter ch. 14 (1972)

I think the important thing about sisters is that they share the same minute, familiar life-style, the same little sets of rules. Therefore they can keep house with each other late in life, because they share the same bunch of housewifely prejudices. The important thing about women today is, as they get older, they still keep house. It's one reason they don't die, but men die when they retire. Women just polish the teacups.

Margaret Mead
Men, Thinking, House

When I stand on a street in a Canadian city and look across the street, it couldn't be anywhere but Canada, but how can I prove it?

Margaret Mead
Cities, Looks, Canada

Dancing is the only activity in which almost all ages and both sexes participate.

Margaret Mead
Sex, Dancing, Age
Margaret Mead (1973). “Coming of Age in Samoa”

Keeping even the most humble talent wrapped in a napkin becomes the more reprehensible the greater the emergency.

Margaret Mead
Humble, Emergencies, Napkins

We must bear in mind the possibility that the greater opportunities open in the twentieth century to women may be quite withdrawn, and that we may return to stricter regimentation of women.

Margaret Mead
Opportunity, Mind, May

Britons put up with, Americans fix, Canadians cope

Margaret Mead
Britons

the task of each family is also the task of all humanity. This is to cherish the living, remember those who have gone before, and prepare for those who are not yet born.

Margaret Mead
Family, Humanity, Tasks
Margaret Mead (1965). “Family”

As far back as our knowledge takes us, human beings have lived in families. We know of no period when this was not so. We know of no people who have succeeded for long in dissolving the family or displacing it.

Margaret Mead
Family, Long, People
Margaret Mead (1965). “Family”

... some veil between childhood and the present is necessary. If the veil is withdrawn, the artistic imagination sickens and dies, the prophet looks in the mirror with a disillusioned and cynical sneer, the scientist goes fishing.

Margaret Mead
Mirrors, Fishing, Imagination
Margaret Mead (1975). “Male and female: a study of the sexes in a changing world”, William Morrow & Co

I am interested in what happens to people who find the whole of life so rewarding that they are able to move through it with the same kind of delight in which a child moves through a game.

Margaret Mead
Children, Moving, Games