"I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's posture, my father's opinions, and my mother's contempt for my father"
About this Quote
The intent isn’t simply self-deprecation. It’s to expose how families reproduce themselves less through biology than through atmosphere. You don’t just inherit a parent; you inherit the household’s emotional weather: the glances, the silences, the running commentary. The mother’s contempt becomes a kind of second education, shaping his inner narrator even as his outer self hardens into the father. That tension - becoming the person you were trained to judge - is where the line turns from witty to bruising.
Feiffer’s context matters: a mid-century American upbringing where dads often carried authority and ideology, and moms, boxed into domestic proximity, became expert critics of that authority. As a cartoonist and satirist, he specializes in social X-rays: showing how private life manufactures public attitudes. The joke is also a warning about identity’s trapdoor - you can resist a parent so hard you end up reproducing them, just with better commentary.
Quote Details
| Topic | Father |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Feiffer, Jules. (2026, January 15). I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's posture, my father's opinions, and my mother's contempt for my father. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-grew-up-to-have-my-fathers-looks-my-fathers-152401/
Chicago Style
Feiffer, Jules. "I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's posture, my father's opinions, and my mother's contempt for my father." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-grew-up-to-have-my-fathers-looks-my-fathers-152401/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I grew up to have my father's looks, my father's speech patterns, my father's posture, my father's opinions, and my mother's contempt for my father." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-grew-up-to-have-my-fathers-looks-my-fathers-152401/. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
