I think there are a lot of rules for women. We have a lot of expectations and a lot of rules for women. So we're expected to march in a straight line, and when we don't, all hell breaks loose.
Roxane GayRead
If you feel like it's hard to be friends with women, consider that maybe women aren't the problem. Maybe it's just you.
Interpretation
The quote suggests self-reflection in the context of friendships, particularly with women.
Roxane Gay's quote encourages individuals who find it difficult to maintain friendships with women to introspect and consider their own behaviors and attitudes as potential barriers. It implies that the issue may not lie with the women themselves but rather in one's own perceptions and actions, fostering a call for personal growth and understanding.
In practice
This quote could be shared in a discussion group about friendship dynamics.
I think there are a lot of rules for women. We have a lot of expectations and a lot of rules for women. So we're expected to march in a straight line, and when we don't, all hell breaks loose.
I believe in the freedom of expression, unequivocally - though, as I have written before, I wish more people would understand that freedom of expression is not freedom from consequence.
Public intellectuals are often put in the position of having their words, no matter how off-the-cuff, treated as doctrine.
No one is helped when cultural critics use their voices irresponsibly.
I have never dreamed of being a princess. I have not longed for Prince Charming. I have and do long for something resembling a happily ever after. I am supposed to be above such flights of fantasy, but I am not. I am enamored of fairy tales.
There has been, and there will continue to be, vigorous discussions about race in America. I worry that little will come of these discussions because we aren't addressing what must be done to change the current racial climate.
Do not allow yourself to be imprisoned by any affection. Keep your solitude. The day, if it ever comes, when you are given true affection, there will be no opposition between interior solitude and friendship, quite the reverse. It is even by this infallible sigh that you will recognize it.
I felt like we had stories about family loyalty; I didn't feel like we had stories about what to do when you felt that loyalty to your family was in conflict with loyalty to yourself.
I think people have an idea in their heads about entertainers[and] celebrities. I think they feel like their lives are so perfect, and it's really hard to go through painful experiences when you are in the public eye because it's hard to have closure.
Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you're really strangers.
When it comes to everybody else's thing and their lane and their timing, I'm never doing anything intentional to, like, come after somebody. That will always be my biggest mistake or anybody's biggest mistake if that's their intention.
You cannot share your life with a dog, as I had done in Bournemouth, or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities and minds and feelings.
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