Quotes About Social norms

When I went to college, as much as my parents emphasized academic achievement, they emphasized marriage even more. They told me that the most eligible women marry young to get a 'good man' before they are all taken.

To confirm the great principle with which civilization begins: any custom is better than no custom.

Cos'è il buon senso… oggi, nel Ventesimo secolo, in qualunque epoca? L'aderenza a una norma. Il conformarsi a certe convenzioni di base che regolano l'intera condotta umana. Nella nostra epoca, l'allontanarsi della norma è diventata la norma. L'incapacità di conformarsi è diventato il modello del conformismo.

When I was young if a girl married poor, she became a housekeeper and a drudge. If she married wealthy, she became a pet and a doll. —Susan B. Anthony A

Just because so many conforming kids wake up every morning asking, 'What is everybody else going to wear today?' doesn't mean that they don't wish it were different. Peer pressure is just that: pressure.

Every culture is different in terms of what is taboo and what is acceptable. I grew up in Singapore, where people are very mindful of that. One can see that as restriction or as consideration for a fellow person living within a shared environment.

If I were obliged to marry all those with whom I have jested, I should have at least two hundred wives.

My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady and the other was to be independent, and the law was something most unusual for those times because for most girls growing up in the '40s, the most important degree was not your B.A. but your M.R.S.

When I was 11, I saw this ad for dish soap powder that said, 'Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.' I was so angry. I couldn't understand why it didn't say men as well.

I think, so many times in society, women are expected to behave a certain way. You are raised to say 'sorry' and 'excuse me', and get out of the way.

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

I grew up in an upper-middle-class town with a population around 12,000. My high school held around a thousand kids. All smart. We had a strict dress code. If you wore blue jeans to school, they sent you home.

Why did Americans smile so often? Was it out of politeness or because of a gay disposition?" Whatever it was, she, who had never been "spoiled with smiles," found it pleasant!

I feel bad for men in our culture. I think we do everyone a disservice by hiding our emotions.

I have just described an unforgettable event in my life, and yet I hardly ever get a chance to speak of it. It doesn't fit the framework of social discourse.

The greater impediment was the inadequate development of a consciousness of unity in a country which was divided by barriers between religious communities, castes, language communities, between people with different social norms and practices. Joint resistance to British rule might be for the time being a unifying factor, but 'the moment the British would leave India the bond of unity thus constructed would snap'.

I thought, men who changed their names were likely to be con-men, criminals, undercover agents or magicians, whereas women who changed their names were probably just married.

He'd wanted us to be more like boys, and now we were. You don't teach boys to be charming. It makes people think they are devious.

Now she said, "I'm up to the four-letter words." And I said, "You mean the dirty ones, like shit?" And she laughed and said, "Worse ones than that." And I said, "You mean the c-word and the f-word?" and she said, "No. Like love.

In fact, the mothers of all her girl friends impressed on their daughters the necessity of being helpless, clinging, doe-eyed creatures. Really, it took a lot of sense to cultivate and hold such a pose.

IT IS TIME THAT WE ALL SEE GENDER AS A SPECTRUM INSTEAD OF TWO SETS OF OPPOSING IDEALS.

People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people - and that social norm is just something that has evolved over time.

There is a time for politeness and there is a time when you are obliged to be rude.

I do not always observe the rules of society, but I am quite aware of what they are!