The Menstuff® library lists pertinent books on Social Theory. Also, see Sex Roles.
Abbott,
Franklin, Boyhood: Growing up
male: A multicultural anthology. By turns
touching, funny, poignant, and painful, this book chronicles the
road to manhood through the personal narratives and poems of
accomplished writers from around the world. Shepherd Bliss, RObert
Bly, John Gilgun, Terry Kupers, THomas Moore, Rakesh Ratti,
Malidoma Some, Bhante Wimala and many others. 2nd Edition.
University of Wisconsin Press, 1998 ISBN 0-299-15754-7
Buy
This Book!
Amneus, Daniel, Garbage Generation. "The feminist/sexual
revolution is not a breakthrough but a throwback. Its program,
highly successful thanks to the betrayal of the family by the
legal system, is to undermine and destroy patriarchal social
organization, based on male kindship, and to restore matriliny,
the female kinship system whose results can be seen in the
ghettos, on Indian reservations, in the islands of the Caribbean
and in surviving Stone Age societies. In primitive tribal society
matriliny is well adapted to the people's needs. In civilized
society it is pathological - the source of most crime,
delinquency, illegitimacy, educational failure, drug addiction,
infantilism, gang violence, demoralization and sexual confusion.
According to today's lawmakers and judges, society must provide
props for the strongest link in the family, the mother-infant tie.
According to the author, society must insteand provide props for
the weakest link, the father's role. Mom got along without
patriarchal society and the legal system for two hundred million
years, but Dad has got to have them and have them on his side or
there will be no two-parent family. The solution: place the
children of divorce in the custody of the fathers rather than
mothers. This was the 19th century practice and it made the
Victorian family a stable institution. There were only 7,000
divorces annually in the 1860's, when John Stuart Mill wrote,
"They are by law his children." Today's judges
are virtual accessories to child abuse when they place children in
female-headed households where they are far more likely to be
mistreated, neglected, impoverished and delinquent." Primrose,
1990 ISBN 0-9610864-5-9 Buy
This Book!
Barry, John M, Rising Tide: The great
Mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed America. An
American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society and
the Mississippi River, this book tells the riveting and nearly
forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has
ever known - the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated
the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long
governor, and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of
thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and
politics forever. Touchstone Books www.SimonSays.com
1998 Buy
This Book!
Bornstein, Kate, My Gender Workbook. From living without
gender to thwarting the gender police, from uncoupling the
sex/gender puzzle to finding out what you really think about
yourself and other people, this is the author's guide to exploring
the big G. Transgendered writer and performer, author of Gender
Outlaw, and reluctant authority on living outside rules (all
kinds of them), Kate takes you on a class trip through the wilds
of gender. So, put your thinking caps on, get your pencils ready,
and please don't read your neighbor's work. You'd only be cheating
yourself. Routledge www.routledge.com
1998 Buy
This Book!
Bradley, Mike, Unbecoming Men: A men's
consciousness-raising group writes on oppression &
themselves. As women and gays have found it productive to come
together in small consciousness-raising groups, to share their
experiences and recognize and deal with their oppression, so too,
have men adopted this process. Our group meets one night a week,
usually for about 3 hours, although the time is open ended. The
articles in this pamphlet are an outgrowth of things we have dealt
with in our group. They attempt to trace our experiences back to
their roots, discovering how we learned to be male and sexist, to
oppress women and dehumanize ourselves - how we became "men". The
lack of articles on our present living situation in the pamphlet
accurately reflects a problem we have in the group-fears of
delving too deeply into others feelings and fears of confronting
or criticizing each other. We have no pretensions of being
anyone's ideal of liberated men. We offer these articles only as
an aid to others wishing to deal with their own limitations as men
and their growth as people. Times Change Press, 1971
Burke, Phyllis, Gender
Shock: Exploding the myths of male & female,
Phyllis Burke. The author explores the many myths surrounding our
rigid gender system of male and female. Analyzing the latest
research in psychology, genetics, neurology and sociology, she
finds that gender is not the result of one's biological sex, and
that gender and sexuality are separate elements of the self.
Looking through three lenses of gender identity - behavior,
appearance, and science - she challenges the notion that men and
women are from different planets. By revealing how there are more
variations within each sex than there are between the two, she
udders the embrace of a "gender independent culture", one in which
individuals develop their best traits traditionally associated
with both sexes, e.g., strong and nurturing, rational and
empathetic. An artful combination of investigative journalism,
personal stories, and cultural criticism, the book liberates men
and women alike from the prison of gender by envisioning a new and
healthier understanding of our lives. Anchor Book 1997
ISBN 0-385-47718-X Buy
This Book!
Cohan, Steven, Masked Men: masculinity and
the movies in the fifties. When we think of the films of the
1950’s, we inevitably remember the confident swagger of John
Wayne, the suave sophistication of Cary Grant, and the emotional
intensity of Marlon Brando But today’s cultural critics see
in the decade a period when heterosexual/homosexual dualism came
to dominate the representation of American masculinity. This book
documents how movies of the 1950s represented masculinity as a
multiple masquerade. Hollywood depicted the sexual anxieties of
the domesticated breadwinner, the repudiation of wartime homo
erotic male bonding, the exhibitionism of muscular bodies, the
transvestite connotations of boyishness, and the playboy bachelor
apartment. These presentations channeled the postwar ideal of the
typical American male, that omnipresent and seemingly invisible
Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. Indiana University Press 1997
ISBN 0-253-21127-1 Buy
This Book!
DeMeo, James, Saharasia: The 4000 BCE
origins of child abuse, sex-repression, warfare and social
violence in the deserts of the old world. This is a
controversial work providing critical cross-cultural and
geographical-historical support for Wilhelm Reich's original
sex-economics findings. It solved in a quantitative manner the
riddle of the origins of human armoring. Over 10 years in the
making, this "Marriage of Heresies" will change forever your way
of looking at the world, your home culture and current events. The
book contains over a hundred maps, tables, illustrations and
photos, and was a major research and publishing project. Anyone
interested in the study of human violence, abuse, war, sexuality
or the final decimation of the last truely human beings of planet
Earth should read this book! Orgone Bisphysical Research Lab,
www.orgonelab.org or
demeo@mind.net 1998
ISBN 0-9621855-5-8 Buy
This Book!
Digby, Tom, Men Doing Feminism. The relation between
feminism and men is often presumed to be antagonistic. Men are
expected to resist feminism; feminists are assumed to hate men.
However, that opporitionality is thrown into question by the
increasing numbers of men involved in feminist theory and
practice. This collection of essays, most of them published here
for the first time, presents both enthusiastic and cautionary
views of men doing feminism. The eighteen contributors to this
book, women, men, blacks, whites, gays, straights, transsexuals -
move the conversation about male feminism beyond simplistic
notions of opporitionality between feminism and male identity.
Many of the authors use personal narrative to show ways men's
lives can shape approaches to doing feminism, and to convey the
opportunities and challenges involved in integrating feminism into
men's lives. Routledge www.routledge.com
1998 ISBN 0-415-91626-7 Buy
This Book!
During, Simon, ed., The Cultural Studies
Reader. This is the ideal introduction for students to this
exciting discipline. A revised introduction explaining the history
and key concerns of cultural studies brings together important
articles by leading thinkers to provide an essential guide to the
development, key concerns, and future directions of cultural
studies. Routledge, www.routledge.com
1999 ISBN 0-415-13754-3 Buy
This Book
Hearn, Jeff & David Morgan, Men, Masculinities
& Social Theory: Critical studies on men
& masculinities 2. This book presents a series of
illustrative and critical perspecitves upon the developing study
of men and masculinities and its importance for sociological
theory. The contributions, by women and men from Britain and the
United States, are organized around the unifying themes of Power
and Domination; Sexuality; Identity and Perception. Feminism has
raised profound questions for the social sciences, for
sociological theory and for the study of men. The contributors to
this volume discuss how such questions can be addressed. They
demonstrate the range of theoretical traditions that can be
brought to bear on the study of men, and underline the importance
of understanding 'masculinities' in the plural. In a concluding
section, three different views upon the controversy surrounding
'Men's Studies' are presented. This book aims to stimulate debate
rather than to construct new orthodoxies. It will appeal to
students of sociology, social psychology, and political science,
and to all those seeking to understand the role of gender in
political and social life. Unwin Hyman, 1990
ISBN 0-04-445657-3 Buy
This Book!
Jeffords, Susan, The Remasculinization of America: Gender
and the Vietnam War. This book argues that the crisis of
Vietnam demonstrates better than other social and cultural
upheavals the pervasiveness of patriarchal values in the U.S.
culture. The author examines representations f the Vietnam
experience in film, oral history, novels, and short stories and
finds that he media have helped "remasculinize" or "regender"
social relations. She argues that the war, instead of leading to a
reexamination of the U.S. value system, has spurred a
revitalization of the traditional values of capitalism and
bourgeois individualism. Since few previous critical studies of
Vietnam representations have focused on the gender issue, the
authors examines a broad range of texts - from Michael Cimino's
The Deerhunter and Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country to
Norman Mailer's Armies of the Night and Richard Nixon's
No More Vietnams - to determine the extent to which such
works reinforce patriarchal domination. Her new reading of this
war literature suggests that gender, rather than class or race,
defines the mechanisms of relations supporting patriarchy in
contemporary U.S. society. Indiana University Press, 1989
ISBN 0-253-20530-1
Y: The descent of men, revealing the
mysteries of maleness, Steve Jones. Men's beards grow faster
when their bearers expect some sex. Fewer sperm cells are made in
summer. Circumcised boys are more frightened of injections than
boys who have not undergone the operatoin. And, the average length
of a man's penis is less than six inches, while that of a blue
whale is ten feet. These are only a few of the remarkable facts
that spill out in this book. With marvelous literary flair, the
acclaimed scientist and author offers a landmark exploratoin of
maleness, based on today's explosioin of biological research about
what makes a male - a topic of consuming interest to at least half
the population. From what males consider to be the "prince of
chromosomes" - the Y - to novel insights into men's hormones,
hair loss and the hydraulics of man's most intimate organ, he lays
out the case for and against masculinity. He hints at a startling
truth: men are the second sex. Compared to their partners,
men are in relative decline, whether in social status or in length
of life. Both halves of the population have to learn to cope and
this book helps show them how. Houghton Mifflin, www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com
2003 ISBN 0-618-13930-3 Buy
This Book!
Kauth, Bill with Zoe Alowan, We Need Each
Other: Building gift community. Co-create core communities,
safety nets and social inventions to design new cultural
systems. This is part of an emerging “gift culture”
worldview. It seems many people have matured beyond the
“me-first” attitude, feel truly fulfilled and long to
simply give their gift. For 15 years, the author has been
“living the gift” offering training retreats around the
world and always delivering his service first, then inviting a
gift contribution at the end. He trusts his work as a valuable
contribution to people’s lives and invites reciprocity, based
on the value received, ability to pay and interest in supporting
his work in the world. Silver Light Publications, 2011.
ISBN: 978-0-9744890-9-4 
Kaye, Harvey, Male Survival: Masculinity without myth.
Do you suffer from the Superman Syndrome? Are you an
Achiever, Provider, Playboy, Sexual Athlete or Neanderthal Ideal
lost in the twentieth century? Do you feel threatened,
obsolete, insecure, impotent and up against a wall? This book
will take you on a sophisticated and irreverent jaunt through the
obfuscation of masculine myths to the liberating possibilities for
modern man. It challenges the mistakes and misconceptions that
civilization has taken thousands of years to erect. It rescues men
from the siren song of the Masculine Mystique - from myths that
stereotype them in roles, freeze them in the status quo, and
distort their humanity. Surrounded by conflicting standards, and
besieged by unrelenting demands to be more than whatever they are,
no wonder men feel increasingly insecure, obsolete, and up against
the wall. This book offers men and women new definitions of
masculinity, new perspectives with which to cope with the
requirements of modern society. It is a way out of the Masculinity
Maze to the liberating possibilities of realistic expectations.
For every man who wonders who he is, where he is going, and why -
for every woman who wonders, too - here is a male survival kit.
Grosset & Dunlap, 1974
Kimmel, Michael and Michael Messner, Men's Lives. Inspired
by the growth of gender studies and by constant requests from our
colleagues in women's studies for articles on men, the authors
have assembled here some of the best social science and popular
writings on men and masculinity. Selections are based n the
courses that they taught at Rutgers and California State-Hayward.
This anthology can, therefore, be used as a main or supplementary
text in courses in men's studies, women's studies, sex roles,
gender, sociology of men or women, and the psychology of women.
Over the past four years, they have been teaching courses on the
male experience, or "men's lives". Their courses have reflected
their own education and recent research of feminist scholars and
profeminist men in American society. (By profeminist men they mean
active supporters of women's claims against male violence and for
equal opportunity, political participation, sexual autonomy,
family reforms, and equal education.) Gender, these
scholars have demonstrated, is a general feature of social life,
one of the central organizing principles around which our lives
revolve. This book explores what it means to be a man in
contemporary American society. Macmillan Publishing, 1989
ISBN 0-02-364061-8
Kimmel, Michael, The Politics of
Manhood: Profeminist men respond to the mythopoetic
men's movements (And the mythopoetic leaders answer). "...a
watershed in the national conversation of masculinity that has
emerged over the past few years. By encouraging dialogue between
the two major camps in the men's movement, this book represents
not only an extremely interesting text and an historically
important document, but also an intervention that will likely
change the nature of discourse about men's lives. It will serve to
facilitate the joining of ethically responsible public politics
with the more private politics of promoting the freer expression
of emotion among men." (Editor: Several things to understand
about this. First, it is the pro-feminists who have called these
mythology and poetry gatherings cined mythopoteic by Shepherd
Bliss a "Men's Movement" and by calling it, expect people who are
involved in this kind of work to be activists. Mythopoetic is by
far move aligned to Recovery (also involving ALOT of therapists,
and Recovery people like John Lee and Marvin Allen) and they
wouldn't, of course, chastize the people in Recovery to reveal
themselves and become political. It's like asking the
Pro-Feminists to make the political personal and do their own
healing work first. My experience was that the leaders of the
movement were VERY uncomfortable saying how they were feeling
at national council meetings with much more than a reply "I'm
fine", which isn't a feeling, and for men stands for Furious,
Isolated, Numb and Empty. Secondly, to make this fictitious
"movement" of writers and readers of mythology and poetry as one
of two major camps in the men's movement that the pro-feminists
want to encourage a dialogue with, the Men's Rights are by far a
larger segment than mythopoetic or pro-feminist and at least the
National Organization for Men Against Sexism, of which the author
(Kimmel) is that national spokesperson, refuse vehemently to
dialogue with much more than personal attacks. So, that's a bit of
a background from this person's perspective of having been
associated directly with all three camps). Temple University
Press, 1995 ISBN 1-56639-366-3 Buy
This Book!
Lynch, Aaron, Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through
Society, The New Science of Memes. An intriguing book that
asks, how do beliefs spread through society? Do people absorb
ideas or do ideas collect people? Lynch defines a "meme" as an
identifiable unit of cultural imitation that becomes important
through its effectiveness at self-replication. An "actively
contagious idea". Memes exert profound influences on how people
live and the influences can run from benign to malignant. Included
are many popular beliefs about family, sex, abortion, religion,
economics and war. For example, the ideas designating some
household chores as "manly" and others as "womanly" spread by
making adherents have more children: men marry quickly or suffer
without a decent cook in the house; women marry quickly or suffer
without home repairs. And they leave more imitators for the next
generation. Turning to sexually transmitted beliefs, he discusses
the motives behind subjects like extramarital sex, chastity,
promiscuity, homosexuality, gay gender differences, large breast
fetishes and masturbation. He theorizes that homosexuality and its
taboo affect the popularity of various sexual fetishes common to
heterosexual males. A big breast fetish meme evolves and spreads
among boys eager to declare an orientation. "By voicing attraction
to protruding breasts, males can publicly imply their exclusive
heterosexuality--because protruding breasts are only noticed
publicly on females." Explaining why this differs from culture to
culture, he notes that in Europe where males hold less fear of
latent homosexuality, the culture places less emphasis on large
breasts. Interesting. Basic Books, 1996
Mazzeo, Rob, A Man’s Viewpoint: Viewing gender issues
through men’s eye’s, Rob Mazzeo. Do men matter?
Discover how men can expand gender roles that have stagnated since
the 1950s. How the myth of bad man-good woman has hurt both men
and women. That most American men are nurturing and not predators.
That most American woman are not victims but assertive, sharing
partners with the men they love. That gender double standards hurt
both men and women. That couples in healthy relationships share
life’s benefits and responsibilities. A man’s book that
women will want to read and give to the men in their lives.
Viewpoint Publishing mazzeo1@prodigy.net
1998 ISBN 0-9660666-0-X Buy
This Book!
Messner, Michael, Politics of
Masculinities: Men in Movements. The profound
changes wrought by the feminist movement were by no means
restricted to women. In the years since feminism has taken root,
the role of men and masculinity has (theoretically) begun to
undergo its own redefinition. Here the author provides a
sociological framework to understand the responses of men to the
changes, challenges, and crises in the social organization of
gender. By examining not only what certain groups of men say about
gender but what they do, the author helps to illuminate the
various social movements engaged with the politics of masculinity.
This is a (one-sided) introduction to the discussion of gender
roles and masculinity (from a strong feminist perspective and
analysis). Sage Publications order@sagepub.com
1997 ISBN 0-8039-5577-4 Buy
This Book!
Nixon, Sean, Hard Looks: Masculinities, Spectatorship &
Contemporary Consumption, Sean Nixon. A fascinating
examination of the new masculine imagery that has developed in
relation to popular consumption over the last decade and its
relationship to contemporary formations of masculinity and
masculine culture. Drawing strongly on contemporary cultural
theory, it combines stimulating theoretical debates on
representation and cultural identity with authoritative empirical
research on the media and retail industries. A must for anyone
interested in the study of men and masculinities and students of
cultural, media and gender studies. St Martin's Press, 1996
Penn, Mark J & E Kinney Zalesne,
Micro Trends: The small forces behind tomorrow's big
changes. In 1982, readers discovered Megatrends. In
2000, The Tipping Point entered the lexicon. Now, in
Microtrends, one of the most respected and sought-after
analysts in the world articulates a new way of understanding how
we live. The man who identified "Soccer Moms" as a crucial
constituency in President Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, is
known for his ability to detect relatively small patterns of
behavior in our culture - microtrends that are wielding great
influence on business, politics, and our personal lives. Only one
percent of the public, or three million people, is enough to
launch a business or social movement. Relying on some of the best
data available, the author identifies more than 70 microtrends in
religion, leisure, politics, and family life that are changing the
way we live. He shows readers how to identify the microtrends that
can transform a business enterprise, tip an election, spark a
movement, or change your life. In today's world, small groups can
have the biggest impact. www.TwelveBooks.com,
2007, ISBN 0-446-58096-1 
Pfeil, Fred, White Guys: Studies in
postmodern domination & difference. What do men - white
straight men in particular - want? In a series of witty and
provocative investigations of American popular culture, the author
exposes the contradictions in the construction of white
heterosexual masculinity over the last fifteen years. This book
probes such topics as the rock'n'roll bodies of Bruce Springsteen,
Axl Rose, and the late Kurt Cobain; the 'male rampage' films
Die Hard and Lethal Weapon and the films of
'sensitive transformation' that followed in their wake; and the
curious yet symptomatic activities of the men's movement whose
'rituals' the author has investigated firsthand. His aim is to
reveal the ambiguity and flux in a social category too often
assumed to be monolithic and unchanging. The book invites its
readers to consider the shifts in mainstream masculinity's
representations, in relation to the general emergence of
postmodern 'tribalisms' and in the context of changes in both
contemporary feminism and the global economy. Verso, 1995,
Hardbound ISBN 1-85984-937-7 Buy
This Book! or paperback ISBN 1-85984-032-9 Buy
This Book!
Roszak, Betty, Masculine/Feminine: Readings in sexual
mythology & the liberation of women. The book starts in
the forward with one of the best readings on women and men
averrable anywhere. "He is playing masculine. She is playing
feminine. He is playing masculine because she is playing feminine.
She is playing feminine because he is playing masculine." And if
goes on, a skillful piece of writing on how much of the game is
still played today, over 30 years after this book was printed.
It's worth scouring used books stores, just for that piece. It all
boils down to "How do we call off the game." "I'll stop when you
do." Right. Harper Colophon, 1969
Roszak, Theodore, The Gendered
Atom: Reflections on the sexual psychology of science.
With daring originality, the author explores the uncharted depths
of the scientific soul. There, beneath the scientist's rational,
purportedly objective surface, he finds a maelstrom of repressed
sexual biases and gender stereotypes. Far from a purely objective
view of the natural world, science - down to the very conception
of the atom, is suffused with sexual politics. And the result,
sadly, is a culture at risk from global warming, nuclear
proliferation, toxic waste, genetic engineering, and more. "Male
scientists," he observes, "have always been more male than
scientists." So modern scientists, from the age of Galileo
and Newton, have subjected nature - Mother Earth - to a typically
masculine drive to control and exploit. Deftly drawing on insights
from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - the classic tale of
science gone mad - and from the new field of feminist psychology,
the author shows how centuries of male domination have distorted
not only scientific research and development, but also our
relationships to one another and to the natural world. The fallout
from gender stereotypes, however, is not a problem that can be
solved merely by recruiting more women into the sciences. In the
author's view, "It is not just individual scientists who account
for gender bias in science, but the official psychology of the
field as a whole. As long as a good scientist is expected to treat
nature as something outside, alien, and detached from our feelings
and responsibilities, as long as scientists think nature is ours
to use as we see fit, science will be shot through with masculine
characteristics." This book envisions a new, gender-free science
that lies beyond sexual politics, respects our community with
nature, and promises a healthier, more sustainable relationship
between ourselves and the world we inhabit. Conari Press, 1999,
ISBN 1-57324-171-7 Buy
This Book!
Sanders, Herman A.,
Daddy, We Need You NOW! A primer on
African-American male socialization. There is a saying that
goes something like, "Any man can be a father, but it takes a
real man to be a daddy." The increasing problem facing the
black community is that there are a lot of "fathers" that are not
fulfilling their role as "daddy". Positive black male role models,
in the black community, are becoming as scarce as the black male
himself. Too many black children are being forced to grow up
without the benefit of a strong black male in their lives. Of
course this hurts all children, but it is especially harmful to
black boys growing up without the proper "road map" that will lead
them into manhood. We agree that parents are the first teachers in
their children's life. So the question comes to mind that if daddy
is missing, what are his children learning from him? Among other
things, this book provides empirical evidence that the presence of
a supportive and employed father in the home during the formative
years contributes greatly to the emotional stability, positive
self-concept and academic success of the children. University
Press of America, 1996
Savran, David, Taking It Like a
Man: White masculinity, masochism and contemporary American
culture. From the Beat poets' incarnation of the "white Negro"
through Iron John and the Men's Movement to the paranoid
masculinity of Timothy McVeigh, white men in this country have
increasingly imagined themselves as victims. The author explores
the social and sexual tensions that have helped to produce this
phenomenon. He contends that with the limited success of the civil
rights and women's movements, white masculinity has been
reconfigured to reflect that fantasy that the white male has
become the victim of the scant progress made by African Americans
and women. Leaves a lot to be desired. Princeton Paperbacks
www.pup.princeton.edu
1998 ISBN 0-691-05876-8 Buy
This Book!
Schellhorn, Cope, When Men are Gods. "Now that we have
outlined the great godly potential of Adamic man and studied his
early roots, both naturally and extraterrestrically bioengineered,
it is time to take a closer look at more recent man to see if he
is living up to his capacities and, if not, why he is not. First,
however, let us look at him as a coalition of matter and energy
which transcends, in some ways, any overt and direct biological
engineering. Then we will analyze the spiritual and social malaise
of the 20th century which has done so much to impede the
development of both the earthbound-oriented and cosmic-oriented
man. We will look closely at some of the influences now shaping
him, everything from the movement toward a New World Order to the
present-day extraterrestrial abductions, and attempt to
demonstrate, as best we can, the interconnectedness of these many
influences. We will also look at ancient and modern prophecies
which predict and proclaim his difficulties and the dangers that
may face him again soon from great earth changes which threaten to
wrench and wrack the planet. Finally, we will try to place him in
larger perspective once again, as the coming cosmic quester, as
the potential god-in-the-making which seems his rightful destiny,
if he will only find within himself the will power to claim that
destiny. Horus House, 1991 ISBN 0-938294-43-1 Buy
This Book!
Schwalbe, Michael, Unlocking the Iron
Cage: the men's movement, gender politics and American
culture. The mythopoetic men's "movement" grew quietly for ten
years before Robert Bly's best-seller Iron John brought the
"movement" to national attention. (Note: pro-feminist writers like
to misname it as a "movement" so they'll be able to criticize it
later for not being a "movement". It's like calling a 12-step
group a "movement". My use of the quote marks is a reminder who is
defining it.) Reactions to the "movement" ranged from bemused or
dismissive stories appearing in Sunday supplements and magazine,
to outrageous lampoons on stage, to harsh criticism by many
feminists. Bly and some others claimed to be misunderstood. (The
author conveniently left out the fact that there is still a large
portion of men who don't believe that there is any need to defend
the work versus just keep doing it.) After reading it, it gives
one a clear understanding why the pro-feminist men's movement has
been drastically shrinking over the 30+ years it's been trying to
birth itself. If you want to read it, check it out at the library.
Oxford University Press, 1996 ISBN 0-19-509229-5 Buy
This Book!
Seidler, Victor, Recreating Sexual Politics: Men,
feminism & politics. How should men respond to
feminism? Is it possible for men to change in
relationships? What is the impact of feminism on ideas of
morality, politics and culture? This thought-provoking
book examines sexual politics in a world which is being radically
changed by the challenges of feminism. There are illuminating
insights in this account of men's and women's encounters. He
explains responses and behaviors which are rarely examined, often
assumed to be "natural", and shows how they arise. In seeking the
sources of well-worm patterns, the incomprehension, anger and
resentment which often explode in male/female relationships become
more comprehensible...Helpful, clear and demystifying. Routledge,
1991 ISBN 0-415-05854-6 Buy
This Book!
Sexton, Patricia Cayo, The Feminized Male: Classrooms,
white collars & the decline of manliness. "Our insights
about boys have been limited by our lack of concern. We have given
delinquents some attention, but only because they beat us over the
head. Indeed, we have filled our detention homes with them, our
city slums with street workers to pacify their gangs, and volumes
of research with our curiosity. Fascinated as we have been by the
bad boy, we have rarely examined the masculine component of his
protest, or that of the new male protesters. Nor have we
confronted violence in the streets, the violence of young males,
in its right context - the context of a society that can't find
enough positive ways to deal with male aggression and the male
need for autonomy and mastery. Violence of the poor in the streets
and of the privileged in the universities have some common roots:
the suppression of manliness by school and society; and the need
of young males for dignity, meaningful activity, autonomy, intense
group life, aggressive outlets and adult challenges. The more
carefully we look at the violent and the withdrawn in this
context, the better off we will be." If only someone
had been listening to this author's words 30 years ago.
Unfortunately, they still aren't listening. After all, Ritalin
will do the trick. Right. A great book if you can find it in an
old bookstore. Random House, 1969
Solomon-Godeau, Abigail, Male
Trouble: A crisis in representation. Why did the
male nude become an object of spectacle and erotic display in
French painting and sculpture in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries? Why was the male nude, which dominated
French art for nearly half a century, later eclipsed by the female
nude? Why have art historians ignored this "crisis" in
the representation of masculinity, characterized by a taste for
feminized, passive male bodies? In this pioneering
book, which include illustrations of works rarely, if ever,
reproduced, the author shows that the masculine ideal, whether in
the guise of martial, virile heroes or languishing, disempowered
youths, raises important questions about the fashioning of
masculinity itself - questions relevant not only to the elite
culture of the past but also to the mass culture of the late
twentieth century. Examining the different forms of ideal manhood
in relation to the cataclysms of the French Revolution and to
international Neoclassicism, she explores how and why the
beautiful male body dominated the visual culture of the time and
appealed so powerfully to male spectators. Drawing on feminist,
psychoanalytical and critical theroy, as well as art and cultural
history, she proposes a radical revision of Neoclassical visual
culture as it relates to the emerging bourgeois order,
demonstrating how both reflect the status of women. With
scholarship and wit, she challenges preconceptions as well as
offering new insights to the specialist. Thames & Hudson,
1997 ISBN 0-500-01765-4 Buy
This Book!
Stein, Harry, How I Accidentally Joined
the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy and found inner peace. Best
selling author and renowned ethics columnist didn't start out
conservative. But somewhere along the way, real life - and
fatherhood - gave him pause. In this passionate and provocative
memoir, he recounts his personal journey from '70s liberal to '90s
conservative - a journey that began with a few troubling questions
he couldn't even share with his friends. Now the truth is out - in
this daring, brilliantly argued, often savagely funny work that is
bound to resonate with many who have witnessed the social
revolution of the past thirty years and questioned even some of
its outcome. Even secretly. The author's left-liberal credentials
were spotless. As a journalist in an industry populated by
liberals, he carried the left-wing banner in his life and work.
The transformation began when he became a father. And nothing in
his wildest dreams could have prepared him for what was to
come...First of all, the Right was beginning to sound right. Even
worse, the Left was beginning to sound - and look - wrong. In a
memoir both personal and political, he cuts through the
distortions on both sides and shows how liberating it is to no
longer have to pass as a correct thinker. Speaking to his peers
and to his times, he fearlessly tackles such provocative topics as
feminism, affirmative action, PC education, media, gay
rights, and sexual McCarthyism. He tells what he really thinks
of...sex, lies, and Bill Clinton...how his columns on Murphy
Brown and day care were his personal "coming out"...the daily
corruption of network news and big-time front pages...what has
happened to a once-great newspaper, The New York Times.
Here are portraits in political courage - and cowardice.
Unforgettable anecdotes about newsmakers he has known. It's all
here and more in the witty, trenchant observations - and candid
confessions - of a former liberal bound to incite, entertain and
maybe even change a few minds along the way. Delacorte Press,
2000, ISBN 0-385-33396-X Buy
This Book!
Stone, Sidra, The Shadow King: The invisible force that
holds women back. Ending the tyranny of the inner patriarch.
Many women have worked to free themselves from the rigid
patriarchal values that have dominated our culture for so long.
The author helps them to take the next step by making them aware
of the Inner Patriarch - the voice within each of them that echoes
those values. This inner voice is called the Shadow Kind because
he is invisible and works from the shadows to sabotage even the
most liberated women. The book shows women how to transform their
Inner Patriarch from an unseen enemy to a powerful ally so that
they can claim their full feminine power. Nataraj, 1997
ISBN 1-882591-31-3 Buy
This Book!
Taylor, Gary, Castration: An
abbreviated history of Western manhood. Stone Age man invented
it, the Sumerians exalted it, the Christians banned it, and Freud
got it wrong. Over the last century, castration has meant loss of
manhood. But at earlier points in Western history, the author
argues, it was a mark of power and divinity. This book is a lively
history of the meaning, function, and act of castration from its
place in the words of Jesus in the Gospel According to Matthew and
the early Church - where Augustine and the Fathers shaped the
basic philosophic concepts of sexuality and chastity - to its
secular reinvention in the Renaissance and its twentieth-century
position at the core of psychoanalysis. With wit and insight, he
connects castration to the ancient (and continuing) human drive to
re-engineer our own biology. In the medieval love story of Abelard
and Heloise a violent castration makes Abelard a better
theologian. In the year 2000 a sterile but otherwise functioning
man is a boon to the woman who desires sex without the burdens of
pregnancy. Clever, offbeat, and learned, ranging from allegory to
zooarchaeology, the book turns an unusual and discomforting topic
into a thoroughly enjoyable narrative on man's obsessive
relationship to his genitals, his sexuality, and his manhood.
Routledge, www.routledge-ny.com
2000 ISBN 0-415-92785-4 Buy
This Book!
Tiger, Lionel, Men in Groups. Why do men seek each other
out? Why do they form exclusive male groups such as secret
societies, fraternities and clubs? In this controversial
study, the author claims that it is biologically necessary for men
to form groups: it is, for them, a matter of survival. Maion
Boyars, 1984 ISBN 0-7145-2899-4
Wills, Garry, John Wayne's America, Touchstone,
1998
Young-Eisendrath, Polly, Gender
& Desire: Uncursing Pandora. Contradictory and
provocative pathways crisscross the terrain of gender among
contemporary psychologists and psychoanalysts. Clearing a path
through this terrain, the author describes and illustrates issues
of gender and desire among women and men. She introduces three
world views: pre modern, modern and postmodern. Then, she
calls our attention to how we shape reality and clearly explains
how a lived postmodern philosophy is essential for us to
understand ourselves and how we can change. One of the major
themes in depth psychology of gender is that of Woman as the
'object of desire'. The Greek myth of Pandora deftly illustrates
the problem of female beauty: as the "desire awakening maiden"
Pandora is powerful but empty. The link between female beauty,
power and evil teaches us about the consequences of female
appearance as a commodity to be used among men. Zeus placed the
curse of Pandora on humankind, as a punishment for the theft of
fire from the gods, and we are still living with the effects of
this patriarchal curse. The double bind for female beauty (damned
if you engage in and damned if you don't) must be lifted from the
male-female relationships in this time of growing equality and
reciprocity between the sexes. For women and men to reach their
full potential of development as individuals and in relationships,
they must break Pandora's curse and free themselves from the myth
of the power of female beauty. Texas A&M University Press
1997 Buy
This Book!
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