The Feminine Scare

'One thing I haven't mentioned but have been interested in recently in my work with creative men (and uncreative men) is the horrible fear of anything that the person himself would call "femininity" or "femaleness", which we immediately call "homosexual." If he's been brought up in a tough environment, "feminine" means practically everything that's creative. Imagination, fantasy, color, poetry, music, tenderness, languishing, and being romantic are walled off as dangerous to one's picture of one's own masculinity. Everything that's called "weak" tends to be repressed in the normal masculine adult adjustment. And many things are called weak which we are learning are not weak at all.'

- Abraham Maslow, 'Emotional Blocks to Creativity.'