ABSTRACT
George Stade (1984) has discussed the American fantasy that the achievement of manhood requires liberation from apron strings, a process that is never finally completed.As a result,‘all men will remain boys trying to become men’ (p. 22), and real men are those who are immune to the control of women even in the form of love.At least a major portion of this feeling is innately consequential to the fact that all men have spent a significant formative part of their lives totally in the care of women who wiped their bottoms, fed their mouths and their egos, and held their hands whenever there was danger or difficulty.The prevalence of forms of macho behavior can be generally understood as counteracting the inner fear of reversion to this earlier state.
