Quotes About Cultural norms

Pauline felt uncomfortable with the few black women she met. They were amused by her because she did not straighten her hair. When she tried to make up her face as they did, it came off rather badly. Their goading glances and private snickers at her way of talking (saying "chil'ren") and dressing developed in her a desire for new clothes.

What was wrong with being a girl? Was it really a man's world like my mom said? And if so, where did that leave us?

They do not practise the art of conversation in quite the way the English do, but are straightforward to the point of bluntness.

Compliments in America can take an almost aggressive form, as if the speaker needs to defend her own shortcomings rather that simply to rejoice in another's ability.

She was from an era when daughters were dutiful and deferential to their mothers, at least until they married and deferred to their husbands – not that Mrs. Speedwell had ever deferred much to hers.

If my face is uncovered, a man—even someone I do not know—may fall into sin. Consequently, the scarves are necessary, essential. For life, I am wrapped as if in death. Why not have the man cover his eyes instead?

Sometimes she even wore cardigans, what she felt women wore when their sex life was over.

At the end of the day, women are expected to hold up the world, not annihilate it.

In spite of all our speeding it's still the style to be late.

Pinchando insectos, sosteníamos al orden civil, defendíamos las leyes y las costumbres. No era crueldad: era civilidad.

That generation's shibboleths—well, you know. What

Do you want people to think you're crazy? Because only crazy people capitalize every word.

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh' (Genesis 2:24 NRSV). This radically upside-down statement would have shocked the original readers of Genesis and should shock us too. I don't know of any culture where men are depicted as clinging to their wives. Certainly within a patriarchal world, this is getting things backwards. There the wife leaves her parents and is absorbed into her husband's family.

Mexican people never say they're sorry. My grandmother, when I was young, hit me with her car. I was in the driveway–pang! "You know where I park, cabron. Mira, where the oil is." Did she say she was sorry? "Ta loco, he's seven. When he starts paying the bills, then I'll say sorry."

Small wonder he refused to marry. Why buy a cow when there were udders all around begging to be milked?

Cheap? If he was at the Last Supper, he would have asked for separate checks!

The nail that sticks out is hammered down.

Cuteness in children is totally an adult perspective. The children themselves are unaware that the quality exists, let alone its desirability, until the reactions of grown-ups inform them.

Definition of a Jewish nymphomaniac: A woman who will make love the same day she has her hair done.

Well, the English have no family feelings. That is, none of the kind you mean. They have them, and one of them is that relations must cause no expense.

Qué le da derecho a sentir asco por los tópicos cuando el resto del mundo los acepta y vive de acuerdo con ellos?

He didn't even know what it was, Vishous." "The tux?" V lit a hand-rolled. "Of course he didn't. He's a real male.

Traditional laws and cultural norms are flimsy mantles of power and influence. Democracy, however, when it is truly exercised, is a stone fortress that cannot be surmounted, blown asunder, or burrowed under.

This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do.