The Menstuff® library lists pertinent books on Sex Roles. See also Books on fathers-general, parenting-general, sexism, sexuality-general, sexuality-gay/bi, and Issues on fathers-general, homophobia, sexuality-general.
The Journal of Men's Studies: A scholarly journal
about men & masculinities. Articles include "Negotiating
the Male Body: Men, Masculinity and Cultural Ideals; Absent
Fathers: Effects on Abandoned Sons; Gender Differences in
Heterosexual Dating: A Content Analysis of Personal Ads;
Gender Politics and the Study of Nineteenth-Century Autobiography;
Dalva: Jim Harrison's "Twin Sister" and Even a Woman Can Do
This Job Now - Reflections of technological change and male
subcultures in the modern factory. Men's Studies Press http://www.mensstudies.com
(Vol 6, No 3) 1998
Almeida, Rhea, Transformations of Gender
and Race: Family and Developmental Perspectives.
This book will help therapists improve their skills by arming them
with new theories and practices that concern inclusiveness of
identity, psyche, and culture in the therapy room. This book
radically shifts current thinking in systemic theory and practice
with individuals, children, couples, and families, giving
therapists a fresh perspective on working with clients of all
cultural backgrounds and both genders. You'll discover superb
contemporary thinking in cultural studies, post-colonial theory,
gender theory, queer theory, and clinical and research work with
numerous populations who have been overlooked and undertheorized.
You'll gain a wealth of knowledge and expertise from its
contributors who have been immersed in the issues they address.
Haworth Press www.haworthpressinc.com
or getinfo@haworthpressinc.com
1998 ISBN 0-7890-0655-3 Buy
This Book!
Alroy, Phyllis, Dick & Jane as Victims: Sex
stereotyping in children's readers. Our children's textbooks
abounded with images of girls who were passive and fearful, boys
who feared nothing and could do anything, mothers who were shown
exclusively as housekeepers and father who were shown as
breadwinners. We began looking for a series of readers that
presented a variety of options to each person. In the last three
years more people have become aware of the limitations of sex role
conditioning. Change, however, takes place slowly. Some schools
still offer home economics courses only to girls, shop courses
only to boys; sports programs are still very different for each
sex. We have compiled guidelines so that people involved with
children will be able to analyze the books they use. Also included
are suggestions for classroom activities, as well as a
bibliography for further reading. Women on Words and Images,
1975
Amadiume, Ifi, Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender
& sex in an African society. Challenging the received
orthodoxies of social anthropology, the author argues that in
precolonial society, sex and gender did not necessarily coincide.
Examining the structures that enabled women to achieve power, she
shows that roles were niether rigidly masculinized nor feminized.
Women could play roles usually monopolized by men and were then
classified as males for the purposes of power - a classification
facilitated by women's independent economic resources and the
existence of a strong goddess-focussed religion. Economic changes
in colonial times undermined women's status and reduced their
political role and patriarchal tendencies introduced by
colonialism persist today, to the detriment of women. Critical of
the chauvinist stereotypes established by colonial anthropology,
the author stresses the importance of recognizing women's economic
activities as an essential basis of their power. She is also
critical of those western feminists who, when relating to African
women, tend to accept the same outmoded projections. Zed, 1987
Hardback ISBN 0-86232-594-3 Buy
This Book! or papaerback ISBN 0-86232-595-1 Buy
This Book!
Baber, Asa, Naked at Gender Gap: A men's view of the war
between the sexes. Welcome to the world of America's most
controversial men's movement writer. Brash and unflinching, he has
been one of the earliest and most outspoken voices on the subject
of manhood. For more than a decade, he has been pouring out his
heart and mind on the inequities in the ground rules of the battle
of the sexes. He has been one of the pioneers of the men's
movement. He is a preeminent spokesman on behalf of the rights of
divorced fathers. In this book, he discusses all the issues that
try men's souls with a toughness and a sensitivity that are sure
to provoke spirited argument. Virtually no part of his personal
history - he suffered the loss of custody of his two sons who
later returned to him on their own - his psyche, or his anatomy
goes unexposed. This book, along with Iron John and Fire
in the Belly, is one of the most important books to engage in
the new dialogue about the lives of men in contemporary America.
Carol, 1992 ISBN 1-55972-114-6 Buy
This Book!
Badinter, Elisabeth, XY: On Masculine Identity. What is a
man? What is a
real man? Is masculinity a biological given or an
ideological construction? In a work that does for male gender
identity what Simone de Beauvoir's Second Sex did for
women, a renowned feminist philosopher seeks to define manhood at
a time when sex role distinctions have becomes increasingly
ambiguous, and when age-old stereotypes about masculinity have
been shattered. Drawing on biological examples, historical and
sociological analysis, fiction and biography, she offers a
groundbreaking account of the new man, which our century is in the
process of inventing. Now updated to take into account the 1994
discovery of the female gene,XY delineates the shape of this
new man. Women, the author asserts, simply exists, while man must
be constructed. As long as women give birth to males and the male
gene XY develops within the female XX, this construction will
persist. XY points out that girls are naturally initiated into
"womanhood: through the biological process of menstruation. For
boys, however, this initiation is seen not as natural process but
as educative advancement, usually embodied in a societal rite of
passage. But in the contemporary culture of disenchantment, where
cynicism has largely drained such rituals of meaning, the
transition has become uncertain. Exploring the shifting
inscriptions of male identity in the popular imagination, she
examines changing role models for masculine identity - from cowboy
in the 1950s to Terminator in the 1990's, from flesh-and-blood man
to machine. She suggests that men need new role models and that
sufficient room needs to be left for expression of male
vulnerability, a psychic space. that would accept attitudes and
behaviors traditionally labeled as "feminine." This new
model, she argues, may reduce the profound effects of homophobia
and misogyny. Columbia University Press, 1995
ISBN 0-231-08434-X Buy
This Book!
Balswick, Jack, Men at the Crossroads: Beyond traditional
roles and modern options. I want to be a man but somebody
stole the script. These are confusing times for men. The
traditional male has been attacked as a chauvinist brute. Yet less
traditional men are often dismissed as passive, soft, wimpish.
So-called New Age sages have entered the vacuum and counseled men
to recover the king, warrior, magacian and lover in each of them.
Is this good and acceptable advice for Christian
men? In this vastly helpful book, the author takes
account of the bind contemporary men find themselves in. He
assesses the burgeoning men's movement. Boldly speaking from deep
and sure faith, he points to a radical alternative beyond the
traditional brute and the dewy-eyed New Age mystic - a maleness
based on the fatherhood of God and the true masculinity modeled in
Christ. This book is a critical but entirely practical book, a
lifeline for generations of men searching for new directions in
these perplexing days. InterVarsity Press, 1993
ISBN 0-8308-1385-3 Buy
This Book!
Bem, Sandra Lipsitzm An Unconventional
Family. In 1965, when psychologists Sandra and Daryl Bem met
and married, they were determined to function as truly egalitarian
partners and to raise their children in accordance with
gender-liberated, anti-homophobic, and sex-positive feminist
ideals. During the next ten years, they exuberantly shared the
details of their daily lives in both public lectures and the mass
media in order to provide at least one concrete example of an
alternative to the traditional heterosexual family. In the 1990s,
Sandra Bem also published an award-winning book, The Lenses of
Gender, which spelled out the feminist theory behind their
feminist practices. This book, an autobiographical account of the
Bems' nearly thirty-year marriage, is both a personal history of
the Bems' past and a social history of a key period in feminism's
past. It is also a look into feminism's future, because the Bems'
children, Emily and Jeremy, now in their early twenties, speak in
the book as well. The author analyzes what aspects of family
background and psychological makeup led them to bond so
immediately and to become gender pioneers. She describes the
egalitarianism and feminist child-rearing that they invented for
their private needs and tells how these family agendas were
transformed into public feminist discourse. Finally, she
reassesses their early feminist union now that the marriage has
come to an end and the children are young adults, evaluating (with
the help of lengthy interviews with Emily and Jeremy and a brief
epilogue by Daryl) what the Bems' experiences - both positive and
negative - have to say about the viability and necessity of
nontraditional gender arrangements in society today. (Ed. I would
sure like to read more than a "brief epilogue" of Daryl's
experience through his own words. I hope that book is in the
works. It might be at least as enlightening as this one.) Yale
University Press, 1998
Bender, David, Male/Female Roles: Opposing viewpoints.
There is little question that men and women are different, and not
only biologically. The big question is why are they
different? Are gender distinctions caused by innate
physiological and psychological differences, or are they caused by
the social environment? Scientists have long studied
humans to discover the answers to this question. Their conclusions
have sometimes been bizarre. Today's scientists make strong
efforts to do tightly controlled and solidly researched studies
attempting to determine if hormonal differences affect the basic
natures of males and females or if men and women use the two
hemispheres of the brain differently. Even with these efforts,
their conclusions are not without critics. The authors in this
anthology debate the following questions: How are sex roles
established? Have women's roles changed for the
better? Have men's roles changed for the better? How
does work affect the family? and What is the Future of
Male/Female Relationships? The editors hope that by participating
in these debates, the reader will come away with more questions
and more answers about what it means to be a man or a woman in
today's world. Greenhaven, 1989 ISBN 0-89908-446-X
Blazin, Chris, The Cultural Myth of
Masculinity. While the study of gender roles has only been
officially recognized as a science since the rise of
nineteenth-century sexology and psychoanalysis, it is reasonable
to conclude that guidelines for men's gender-appropriate behavior
have been of concern for some time. To that end, this book is
devoted to the historical analysis of how, in Western culture, the
concept of masculinity has been defined and then redefined over
the centuries. To some readers, the notion that masculinity has
been anything but a constant throughout history may be surprising.
However, both Joe Pleck (1981) and Connell (1995) have suggested
that masculinity has had different meanings and definitions over
time. Ancient myths have been used in men's movement authors and
in many workshops and seminars to suggest prototpyes for men's
behavior in the current culture. This may be totally inappropriate
since the old paradigm may have outlived its usefulness and it
doesn't really speak to the current cultural situations. New
sociocultural forces may call for men to respond to the pressing
needs of the culture in new ways. While this is a scholarly
venture, it would serve all of those in sociology and the
mythopoetic area of the men's movement to learn from its wisdom.
Praeger, www.greenwood.com,
2003, ISBN 0-275-97990-3 
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 ISBN 0-415-91673-9 Buy
This Book!
Bouldrey, Brian, Monster: Adventures
in American machismo. Straight, gay, macho man, or great big
sissy, it's tough to be a guy. The author is a bona fide sissy -
but he was also an Eagle Scout and a member of the Order of the
Arrow with a secret Indian name that translates as "Active One."
In this book, he goes undercover and over the top to stalk
machismo in action. He infiltrates a bachelor party, the World
Wrestling Federation's RAW is WAR, a boxing gym, a Masonicc Lodge,
and some more unusual venues - like the cut-throat Mr. Rubber
International competition - often accompanied by a quirky cabal of
best pals. From the inner sanctums of Cool Forts and Guy Rooms, he
ponders the perennial allure of moonshining and the erotic
possibilities of Bugs Bunny cartoons, and answers the question,
"Is it okay to wear white latex after Labor Day?" This book turns
a laser-keen eye on an eccentric cross-section of prime American
butch. At the same time he bares his own soul - and imperfections
- with disarming, and often hilarious, honesty. Courting the
censure of hemp-wearing PETA extremists, he hosts a red meat
barbecue where the menu reads like the supporting cast of
Crocodile Hunter. Whether shooting a grizzly or deer
hunting with his ex-Marine, prison guard brother back home in
Michigan, his sharp wit and wry autobiographical reflection
breathe new life into worn chaps and prove that manly stereotypes
yield surprising subtleties and contradictions when viewed up
close. The essays in this book comprise a fresh and very personal
meditation on just what makes a man. Council Oak Books, 2001
ISBN 1-57178-106-4 Buy
This Book!
Brody, Leslie, Gender,
Emotion and the Family. Do women express their feelings more
than men? Popular stereotypes say they do, but in this
provocative book, the author breaks with conventional wisdom.
Integrating a wealth of perspectives and research, biological,
sociocultural, developmental, her work explores the nature and
extent of gender differences in emotional expression, as well as
the endlessly complex question of how such differences come about.
Nurture, far more than nature, emerges here as the stronger force
in fashioning gender differences in emotional expression. The
author shows that whether and how men and women express their
feelings varies widely from situation to situation and from
culture to culture, and depends on a number of particular
characteristics including age, ethnicity, cultural background,
power and status. Especially pertinent is the organization of the
family, in which boys and girls elicit and absorb different
emotional strategies. The author also examines the important of
gender roles, whether in the family, the peer group, or the
culture at large, and the various patterns of emotional expression
used to adapt to power and status imbalances. Lucid and
level-headed, this book offers an unusually rich and nuanced
pictures of the great range of male and female emotional styles,
and the variety of the human character. Harvard University Press
www.hup.harvard.edu 1999
ISBN 0674341864 Buy
This Book!
Brod, Harry, ed. The Making of Masculinities: The new
men's studies. This book is both simple in conception and
ambitious in intention. It aims at legitimating the new
interdisciplinary field of men's studies as one of the most
significant and challenging intellectual and curricular
developments in academia today. The fourteen essays included here
are drawn from such diverse disciplines as men's studies,
philosophy, psychology, sociology, history, anthropology, Black
studies, biology, English literature, and gay studies. As the
editor of this volume notes, its publication is highly propitious.
There has been a marked trend in feminist scholarship during the
pasts few years away from a focus exclusively on women to a
broader conception of gender. They study of men is a fundamental
part of this trend. Allen & Unwin, 1987,
ISBN 0-04-497035-8
Canary, Daniel, Tara Emmers-Sommer, &
Sandra Faulkner Sex and Gender Differences in Personal
Relationships. Challenging the commonly held assumption that
men and women hail from different psychological and social
"planets", this illuminating work reexamines what the empirical
research really shows about how the sexes communicate in close
relationships. The volume highlights evidence of similarities - as
well as differences - between the two groups, and shows that
stereotypical beliefs about men and women fail to predict their
actual interaction behavior. A reasoned, provocative contribution
to a significant area of study, this volume synthesizes important
findings for researchers, scholars and students in communication,
social psychology, marriage and family studies and gender studies.
It is a useful primary or secondary text for undergraduate and
graduate courses and will also be of interest to clinicians
working with individuals, couples and families. Guilford Press
www.guilford.com 1998
ISBN 1-57230-256-9 Buy
This Book!
Clatterbaugh, Kenneth, Contemporary Perspectives on
Masculinity: Men, women & politics in modern
society. In clear and insightful langauge, the author surveys
not just conservative, liberal and radical views of masculinity
but also the alternatives offered by the men's rights movement,
spiritual growth advocates, and black and gay rights activists.
Each of these is explored both as a theoretical perspective and as
a social movement, and each offers distinctive responses to the
questions posed. This is the first book to survey the range of
responses to feminism that men have made, and it is also the first
to put political theory at the center of men's awareness of their
own masculinity. The author treats all views with fairness as he
develops and defends a vision of men and masculinity consistent
with feminist ideals and a just society. Westview, 1990
ISBN 0-8133-0992-1 Buy
This Book!
Crawford, Susan Hoy, Beyond Dolls
& Guns: 101 ways to help children avoid gender
bias. This book offers parents concrete, easy-to-follow
suggestions for raising boys and girls who can treat each other
(and themselves) with dignity and respect, and can grow into
adults who are equally caring, competent, and courageous. It is a
fun, balanced, easy-to-read and ready-to-use book. It is loaded
with tips for parents, teachers and anyone who cares about girls'
and boys' healthy development. It does concenrate on sexism
against girls. Page one says "Gender stereotypes and bias hurt
boys: Boys who like to read. Boys who don't like hunting,
fishing or mechanics. Boys who don't like sports (or who do, but
are pushed too hard)." Each one of these is a gender stereotype.
And assumes that gender stereotypes don't hurt boys who like
sports, or hunting or mechanics. However, a suggestion from the
book itself is that anywhere the female reference is used, replace
it with the male reference and see if it is equal. "Gender
stereotypes and bias hurt girls: Girls who like to read.
Girls who don't like hunting, fishing, or mechanics. Girls who
don't like sports (or who do, but are pushed too hard)." Other
than that bias, it is really a valuable addition to the parenting
role. Heinemann, 1999 ISBN 0-435-08129-2 Buy
This Book!
David, Deborah, and Robert Brannon, Forty-Nine Percent
Majority: The male sex role. The last few years have seen
a surge of interest in the topic of sex roles. For the most part,
the male sex role has been ignored. In order to teach their course
at Brooklyn College on the male sex role, the authors found that
they needed easily accessible teachable materials for their
students. The result is this book. This reader is organized around
a conceptualization of the male role. Rather than assign the
articles to ad hoc categories, the authors have constructed a
theoretical model of the male role. This allows for a wider
analysis of the male role and discusses its aspects in areas where
scholarly investigation is sparse. Addison-Wesley, 1986
ISBN 0-201-01448-3
De Wit, Gerald, Symbolism of Masculinity
& Femininity. An empirical phenomenological approach
to developmental aspects of symbolic thought in word associations
and symbolic meaning of words. Richard LaPiere predicted that this
study may well do to the sexual-symbolism aspect of Freudian
doctrine what Malinowski's study of primitive peoples did to
Freud's idea that the Oedipus complex is universal and invariable.
If so, it will knock still another prop out from under Freudian
dogma and at the same time open to scientific study what has so
long been preempted by mystics. Springer, 1963
Dotson, Edisol Wayne, Behold the
Man: The hype and selling of male beauty in media and
culture. The first comprehensive study of how images of male
beauty are projected onto society, this book examines the role
media and society play in creating the image of the idealized
male. This book explores how these images are interpreted by all
genders and sexual orientation in order to investigate the
phenomenon's effect on the self-esteem of adolescent and adult
males. This book provides you with research and examples that
identify this problem from many angles to help you realize that
being a man is more than merely possessing muscles and good looks.
Harrington Park Press 1999 ISBN 1-56023-953-0 Buy
This Book
Doty, William, Myths of Masculinity. Perhaps no other
contemporary mythographer writes as insightfully from such a wide
range of literatures and perspectives. This work reviews tales of
Gilgamesh, Herakles, Hermes, Ares, Narcissus, Apollo and Dionysus,
and the Navajo Twins with an eye and an ear toward a revisionary
understanding of such real matters as homosexuality, addiction,
depression, violence, spirituality, and postmodern multi-cultural
confusion. Ths author's insights transcend the binarisms of
oppositional thinking in matters of gender. Nor are the insights
simplistic identifications of myths and behaviors, not a clever
diagostic manual using mythic images for ideological concepts, but
nuanced differences and plural possibilities for a richly imagined
masculine life, a veritable poetics of myth which makes possible a
non-literal feel for a life that is always and already mythic.
Crossroads, 1993 ISBN 0-8245-1233-2 Buy
This Book!
Epstein, Debbie & Valerie Hey,
Failing Boys : Issues in Gender and Achievement. University
of London Centre for Research, Open Univ Pr; 1998 Buy
This Book!
Faludi, Susan, Stiffed: The
betrayal of the American man. If, as men are so often told,
they are the dominant sex, why do so many of them feel dominated,
done in by the world? Anyone who reads a magazine,
watches a TV talk show, or listens to a radio call-in program has
heard the evidence: America is having a masculinity
crisis. Angry White Males have become a voting bloc. Dads are
deadbeat. Boys are on the rampage. And with each schoolyard
shooting and presidential peccadillo, with each corporate sexual
harassment lawsuit and laid-off worker gone berserk, the media
offer up the stock pronouncements: Men are out of
control, overcontrolling, dangerous, violent and even, it has been
written, obsolete. Their troubles are said to be internal, the
result of testosterone poisoning, Y chromosomes, attention
deficit disorder, a warlike nature. Furthermore, it's charged, men
have only themselves to blame, for aren't they the ones in control
of the culture? Or are they? In this new book, the same
author that just a few years ago trashed men in Backlash,
turns her often fictitious analysis and reporting to the problems
of men and came up with, to her, a revolutionary diagnosis. (Most
men and male therapists could have told her this for atleast the
past 15 years if she wasn't so intent to selling her previous book
and would have asked.) Walla: Men's problems aren't the
product of biology, or of such trumped-up enemies as feminism and
affirmative action, but of a modern social tragedy. By finally
listening to men's stories in their own voices, by taking them on
their own terms, the author uncovers a buried history - the untold
story of how America made a glittering set of promises to the men
of the baby-boom generation ...and proceeded to break every one of
them. The betrayal of the American man has been perpetrated on
many fronts, from the boardroom to the football stadium, from the
army recruitment center to the suburban living room and from talk
shows to elementary schools and college gender studies programs.
This book takes us on a journey through a contemporary masculine
landscape littered with broken promises and into the lives of
individual men whose accounts reveal the heart of the male
dilemma. With an empathetic vision that breaks down the familiar
lines of gender battle, she travels deep into the meaning of male
anguish. She intimately chronicles the struggles of industrial
workers, sports fans, combat veterans, evangelical husbands, media
executives, movie stars, porn actors, militiamen, astronauts, and
"bad" boys - whose sense that they've lost their skills, jobs,
civic roles, wives, teams, and secure futures is only one symptom
of a larger and more profound collapse. She pinpoints men's
greatest antagonist and discovers that it is not what conventional
wisdom would have us believe. What keeps men from revolting
against their circumstances? Her explanation for that
mystery opens up the possibility that men's coming rebellion could
emancipate both sexes from their true and mutual enemy, a cultural
force that constrains us all but lay the groundwork for a culture
that affirms the needs of everyone. William Morrow & Co,
1999 ISBN 0-688-12299-X Buy
This Book
Fanning, Patrick & Matthew McKay, Being a
Man: A guide to the new masculinity. A practical
book for men which details what we can do to improve the quality
and length of our lives. Things your father probably never told
you - but should have - appear here. Based on a 25-year friendship
between the authors, this book emerges from the problem-solving
skills necessary to sustain such a relationship. Practical advice
for every man concerned with achieving a sense of personal
integrity and for every enlightened feminist who wants to know
what contemporary men are saying about what it means to be a man.
New Harbinger Publications, 1994 ISBN 1-879237-40-7 Buy
This Book!
Farrell, Warren, The Myth of Male
Power. The author has embarked upon an extraordinary mission
that concerns us all - to bring the sexes back together. Backed by
a stunning array of facts, this book shatters the singular
assumption that most keeps men and women apart - the belief that
men have the power. This myth, says the author, hurts everyone -
by making women feel oppressed and angry and men feel unloved and
unappreciated. It has fueled hate between the sexes at a point in
history that would otherwise have the greatest potential for love
between the sexes. It has done this by keeping us ignorant of male
powerlessness. This courageous book, filled with staggering facts
gathered from numerous reliable sources, will empower both sexes
to ask the questions we need to begin a genuine dialogue. This
book focuses on men's perspectives so men can speak up, so there
can be dialogue, so there can be love. warren@warrenfarrell.com
or www.warrenfarrell.com
Simon & Schuster, 1993 ISBN: 0-671-79349-7 Buy
This Book!
Fausto-Sterling, Anne, Myths of Gender: Biological
theories about women and men. By carefully examining the
biological, genetic, evolutionary, and psychological evidence, the
author finds a shocking lack of substance behind ideas about
biologically based sex differences. She shows that scientists can
use observations and their interpretations to bolster or undermine
common social prejudices. Basic, 1985 ISBN 0-465-04792-0
Fraser, Antonia, The Warrior Queens: The legends and
the lives of the women who have led their nations to war,
Vintage Books, 1989
Garfinkel, Perry, In a Man's World: Father, son, brother,
friend & other roles men play. Freud once asked, "What
does a woman really want?" But many women, and as many
men, have an equally baffling question: "What makes men behave the
way they do?" This ground-breaking book goes far toward
providing the essential answers, as it examines the roots of a
man's feeling and behavior: his relationships with other men,
beginning with his relationship with his father. Drawing on a
wealth of research as well as in-depth interviews with men from
all walks of life, this fascinating study views the double-edged
quality of male relationships. We see, on the one hand, the deep
urge toward male bonding and companionship. And on the other, we
see the competition, fear, aggression, envy and self-loathing that
so often set man against man. We hear men talk about their mixed
feelings of love and hate for their fathers...of mutual support
and unceasing rivalry with their closest friends...of dependence
on, and rejection of, their mentors...and of attraction and
repugnance toward homosexuality. We become aware of the lack of
trust between males that leads men to their sense of isolation, to
their inability to express real feelings, to communicate real
concerns. And now we begin to understand what is really going on
behind the male mask of stoic strength and rigid self-control. New
American, 1985 ISBN 0-453-00490-3
Gerzon, Mark, Choice of
Heroes: The changing faces of American manhood.
When first published, the author's pioneering look at American men
received praise for its penetrating examination of many long-held
beliefs and its call for a redefinition of both masculinity and
heroism. Now, in a world in which many of the ideas raised are
heard in current discourse, the author has added an extensive
afterword in which he reflects on how men's awareness has evolved
during the past decade and how these changes will affect our
future. Houghton Mifflin, 1992 ISBN 0-395-61152-0 Buy
This Book!
Giles, Fiona, Chick for a
Day: What would you do if you were one? What would
do if you suddenly woke up a woman? The bestselling Dick
for a Day: What would you do if youhad one? was
an unprecedented crossover pheonmenon, tickling humor fans,
impressing gender studies buffs, and winning over readers of all
ages. Now, in the interest of equality and fairness, editor Fiona
Giles turns the tables recruiting a varied stable of Y-chromosomed
wordsmiths to wax playful, erotic, and philosophic about how they
would react if they suddenly discovered they had become distinctly
female for a day. "Unlike the predecessor," Giles tells us in
her introduction, "for this collection it turned out that a day
just wasn't enough!" Among the collection's brave contributors are
alternative press darling Jonathan Ames, acclaimed novelist Rick
Moody, premier British poet Jeremy Reed, Nerve founder Rufus
Griscom, and rising star Justin Chin. Many of the contributions
are comic, some are cautionary, and others are downright strange;
but each, at its core, pays homage to women and their sexuality.
Beyond the hilarious leaps of imagination and cleverly spun
conceits, this book's chief revelation is the way physical
transformation into a woman encourages greater insights into the
mind and spirit of both sexes. Alternately outrageous and
profound, this book is an eclectic, unique tribute, loaded with
eyeopening reading for men, women, and everyone in between. Simon
& Schuser, www.simonsays.com,
2000, ISBN 0-684-85517-8 Buy
This Book!
Gilmore, David, Manhood in the Making: Cultural
concepts of msculinity. What does it mean to "be a man"
in different cultures around the world? Why is the
exhortation to "act like a man" heard in so many kinds of soceity,
from the most complex civilizations to the simplest neolithic
villages? Why is it so often true that the state of
being a "real man" is a prize to be struggled for, a rigorous test
of skill, power or endurance? In the first
cross-cultural study of manhood as an achieved status, the author
finds that a culturally sanctioned stress on manlineess -- on
toughness and aggressiveness, stoicism and sexuality -- is almost
universal, deeply ingrained in the consciounesess of hunters and
fishermen, workers and warriors, poets and peasants who have
little else in common. Using insights garnered from anthropology,
neo-Freudian ego psychology, and feminist studies, he investigates
why this is so. He compares manhood ideals in cultures as diverse
as those of Japan, India, China, the Mediterranean lands,
aboriginal South America, Oceania, East Africa, ancient Greece and
modern North America. He also describes two "androgynous" cultures
that are exceptions to the manhood archetype, cultures in which
manhood as a behavioral category distinct from femininity is
virtually unknown.He concludes that under certain environmental
conditions, ideals of manhood are a factor in successful
adaptation. In many contexts, he argues, manhood ideals make an
indispensible contribution both to the continuity of social
systems and to the psychological integration of men to their
community. In addition, he suggests that manhood should be seen as
a nurturing concept, although the beneficiary of male nurturing
may most often be society in general rather than specific persons.
Yale University, 1990 ISBN 0-300-04646-4 Buy
This Book!
Golombok, Susan
& Robyn Fivush, Gender Development. This is the
first book to examine gender from a truly developmental
perspective, filling a need for a textbook and sourcebook for
college and graduate students, parents, teachers, counselors and
researchers. It examines the processes involved in the development
of gender, addressing sensitive and complex questions. The authors
provide an up-to-date, integrative review of theory and research,
tracing gender development from the moment of conception through
adulthood and emphasizing the complex interaction of biology,
socialization and cognition. The topics covered include hormonal
influences, moral development, play and friendships, experiences
at school and work, and psychopathology. Cambridge University
Press,1996 ISBN 0-521-40862-8 Buy
This Book!
Gosline, Sheldon Lee,
Archaeogender: Studies in genders material culture.
Since the mid-80's, the question of gender has been trendy in the
West, but those who are studying the gendered past are still
mapping out the territory and laying down connecting routes to
archaeological facts. This volume introduces a new approach to
tackling sex and human relationships in the archaeological record.
Cultures, in all societies, shape sexual expressions and desires.
Sex is provided, while gender is acquired, imposed or selected
depending on the cultural constraints that prevail in a given
culture. Our roles in any society are labeled and placed. This
changes through our life, from birth to old age, and even in
death. This book studies in detail the material culture of many
ancient societies; Yoruba, Natufian, Egyptian, South Asian and
Chinese, to see how society shapes gender roles and how that is
preserved in the archaeological record. Shangri-La Publications,
shangri-la.ocatch.com,
1999, ISBN 0-9677201-2-5 Buy
This Book!
Gurian, Michael, Boys and Girls Learn
Differently: The best kept secret in education. Many of
us have felt instinctively that boys and girls don't learn the
same way or at the same rate. And in today's highly charged
nationwide debate about how to improve our children's school
performance, the difference betrween how boys and girls learn may
be the key to advancing true educational reform. In this
profoundly significant book, the author presents the latest
scientific evidence that documents biological gender differences
that influence learning and offers a dramatic new way to educate
our children based on brain science, neurological development, and
chemical and hormonal disparities. This pioneering manifesto is a
breakthrough for real and lasting educational change. Jossey-Bass,
2001, ISBN 0-7879-5343-1 Buy
This Book!
Hales, Dianne, Just Like a
Woman: How gender science is redefining what makes us
female. Throw out the stereotypes! The very phrase is a
put-down, echoing the long-entrenched stereotypes of what it means
to be female. From earliest recorded history, women have been cast
in terms of males: lesser versions that are frailer, smaller,
dimmer, less competent, defective. Never again. This lively,
meticulously documented book turns the dismissive old catch phrase
inside out. It is only in the past few years that researchers in
many fields have actively focused on what being female really
means. Their startling conclusions: almost every
assumption made about women - physical, medical, historical,
psychological - turns out to be untested, unproven or untrue.
Rather than classifying women only by their biology (as the
medical establishment has) or denying they are biological
creatures (as some feminists have), this book presents the
cutting-edge findings in anthropology, physiology, psychology,
neuroscience, endocrinology and medicine that are redefining what
a women is. This book offers a stunningly liberating message that
expands our concept of human potential and will forever change the
way every woman views herself, and how men view women. Bantam
Books, www.bantam.com 1999
ISBN 0-553-10228-1 Buy
This Book
Hill, Gareth, Masculine & Feminine: The natural
flow of opposites in the psyche. At last someone has attempted
a reformation of the masculinie and feminie principles. The author
frees us from some of the gender-related fallacies that Jungian
psychology has for some time fallen heir to. This book represents
a wedding of clinicial and archetypal poles of Jungian psychology
and a distillation of the Jungian approach to psychotherapy. It is
essential reading for Jungians as well as non-Jungians, the
experienced clinician as well as the novice. Shambhala, 1992
ISBN 0-87773-674-X Buy
This Book!
Horrocks, Roer, Male Myths and Icons: Masculinity in popular
culture. This book studies some of the important myths of
masculinity in popular culture, including the western, the horror
film, rock music and pornography. The book begins with an
assessment of some of the key theoretical issues in gender studies
and cultural studies, including identification between subject and
text, and the debate over the male subject position and female
object position in patriarchal culture. The author also makes use
of an unusually wide-raning theoretical background, derived from
feminism, anthropology, psychology, Marxism and sociology. The
book argues that popular culture does not simply present tales of
male heroism and conquest, but also gives us highly complex and
ambivalent images of men. The hero turns into the anti-hero'
feminine and homoerotic material leak in; the male is often shown
as the victim. Thus popular culture does not simply express male
hegemony, but also reveals many images of male defeat, damage and
confusion. St. Martin's Pres, 1995 ISBN 0-312-12623-9
Buy
This Book!
Jackins, Harvey, John Irwin, & Charlie Kreiner, The
Liberation of Men. Includes articles full of useful ideas and
suggestoins for ending men's oppression. Some are excerpts from a
growing literature on lifting the oppression and the internalized
oppression of men. They also clarify and challenge men's
long-standing participation in the oppression of women. These
articles assume that the reader is acquainted with Re-evaluation
Counseling. In case that is not true for a particular reader, here
is a quick description. RC began in 1950. It consists of
people taking turns listening to each other with attention and
intelligence for committed periods of time. They will exchange
roles either then or at a later time, with the previous listener
becoming the person listened to and vice versa. Being listened to
well can create profound effects in the person who is being
listened to. To be able to talk openly about matters that concern
one enables one to think more clearly and profoundly about them
than people can do without such attention. The process seldom
stops at the talk level. When the speaker relates past emotional
or physical tensions, tears may appear, and trembling, laughter,
storming and yawning. These expedite the release of tension and
the attainment of great relaxation and result in clear thinking.
The results of this process are profound. Since its discovery its
practice has spread to sixty-eight countries. Rational Island
Publishers, PO Box 2081, Main Office Station, Seattle,
WA 98111 ISBN 0-913937-59-2
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 of the Vietnam
experience in film, oral history, novels, and short stories and
finds that the 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 Buy
This Book!
Johnson, Allan, The Gender
Knot: Unraveling our patriarchal legacy. A powerful
approach to gender inequality that empowers both men and women to
be part of the solution instead of just part of the problem. We
are all living with an oppressive gender legacy called patriarchy.
Millions of women are weary from the struggle simply to hang on to
what's been gained, and many well-intentioned men do nothing
because they can't see how to acknowledge what's going on without
inviting guilt and blame simply for being men. In this book, the
author defines and addresses patriarchy in terms that we can all
understand. He explains what it's got to go with each of us and
reveals how both men and women can see themselves as part of the
process of change toward something better (not matriarchy). With
more than twenty years of experience in addressing gender and
communication issues, the author offers a practical,
compassionate, and readable guide to resolving gender inequality.
Temple University Press 1997 ISBN 1-56639-519-4 Buy
This Book!
Jones, Terry, The Elder Within: The
source of mature masculinity. This is an exploration into the
potential of eldership, the second half of life expression of
mature masculinity. It surveys the way a man can tap this
archetypal energy within himself. The author has developed a
passion for understanding what a healthy and spiritual expressoin
of masculinity would look like. By participating in ritualized
weekend workshops and ongoing men's groups, he found that many men
share a hunger for spiritual and emotional growth and the desire
to make a difference. He believes that the man who embraces
eldership makes himself available to younger men, to the family
and to the community. He has confidence in the fruits of his long
life of experience and wants to see the future by sharing with the
young. This book examines traditional male qualities, such as
protector, while painting a picture of the mature masculine who
energizes himself by using tools of wisdom: meditation,
contemplation, and listening. This book is a must read for both
men and women alike, as it presents an enlightened view of the
elder as a major contributor to society. This is a much needed
resource for empowerment of mature men as well as an enlightened
forecast of the journey many men will travel. Bookpartners,
www.bookpartners.com
2001, ISBN 1-59151-088-8 Buy
This Book!
Kanner, Bernice, When it Comes to Guys,
What's Normal? How do you behave compared to other
guys? The fact is, men are both predictable and utterly
surprising. This book takes a look at who they really are, how
they behave in the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, office, driver's
seat, and wherever else they happen to be on the planet. The
author is a syndicated columnist for CBS Marketwatch and
erstwhile columnist for New York magazine and Bloomberg
(radio, TV and print). She is also the author of several other
books. St. Martin's Griffin, www.stmartins.com,
2005 ISBN 0-312-34816-9 
Keen, Sam, Fire in the Belly: On being a man.
What does our culture tell "real men" they have to
do? Join a fraternity. Get a letter in football,
baseball or basketball. Conquer a lot of women. Be tough. Don't
show feelings. Dominate, succeed, win... The trouble with the old
definitions is that they don't work anymore - and maybe they never
did. With traditional notions of manhood under attack, today's men
(and women) are looking for a new vision of masculinity. This
groundbreaking book presents an alternative vision of virtures and
virility for a modern age. It's an inspiring guide for men seeking
new personal ideals of strength, potency and warriorship for a
fuller, more passionate life. Ask almost any man "How does it feel
to be a man these days? Is manhood honored, respected,
celebrated?" Those who answer usually say they feel blamed,
demeaned, and attacked. They're told: "Men are too
aggressive. Too insensitive. Too macho. Too much like little boys.
Too wimpy. Too violent. Too obsessed with sex. Too detached to
care. Too busy. Too rational. Too lost to lead. Too dead to
feel." It's a confusing picture. How men are
supposed to act and what they are supposed to become is not clear.
At no time in history have there been so many restless,
questioning men looking for new roles, ways of being, and healing
from male woundedness. This book helps provide meaningful answers.
It begins with a frank discussion of men's unconscious bondage to
"Woman," not a woman, but to the primal power that women wield
over men. Only when men begin to learn the uniquely male mysteries
can they go on to build nurturing, satisfying relationships with
each other, with a mate, and with a family. Although he explores
the meaning of being a person from the perspective of the male
experience, the story of injury and promise he tells is relevant
to both sexes. In this way, this book is written for women, too,
as they strive to understand the men they love, raise, and live
with. But most of all this spirit-lifting, hopeful and helpful
guide to a new manhood is aimed at men in their quest for being
and fulfillment. From the ancient forces that send men on the
hero's journey to the contemporary drives that have changed the
direction of that journey, this book tells the story of the search
for what it means to be a man. This empowering, enriching book
offers a path for that search. Bantam, 1991
ISBN 0-553-07188-2 Buy
This Book!
Kilmartin, Christopher, The Masculine Self. The 2nd edition
provides an introduction to the theoretical and scientific study
of men. Building on its solid psychological foundation, this new
edition provides a stronger multidisciplinary perspective as well
as coverage of he research in men's studies that has emerged since
the first edition. Offered here is a wide variety of perspectives
on masculinity: contemporary concepts, scientific studies of
sex and gender, major schools of psychological theory, and men's
issues ranging from work, emotion, relationships, and fathering to
physical health, mental health, sexual harassment and violence.
With 50% new material, boxed features that highlight the human
aspects of the subject matter, and a clear organization, no other
text gives students as balanced a treatment of the changing
definition of what it means to be male in contemporary society.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education, www.mhhe.com,
2000 ISBN 0-07-303532-7 Buy
This Book!
Kimbrell, Andrew, Masculine Mystique: The politics of
masculinity. American men are in crisis; we see the
consequences all around us: the alarming incrase in male
unemployment and homelessness, punitive custody laws that deprive
men of their chidden, and high-pressure competitive jobs that
leave men vulnerable to stress-related diseases and substance
abuse. And the author brilliantly shows, these are not the problem
of "fringe" groups or misfits, but of every man living and working
in our society. How did this happen? How have downward
mobility, negative male stereotypes, and societal indifference
converged to threaten men's very lies? The author has
seen the fear that men are living with and has heard their anxious
voices. From the corporate executive facing downsizing to the
disenfranchised African-American, Vietnam vet and divorced father,
men are in pain. In this book, he traces the turbulent history
that has brought men to this crisis. From the laws of enclosure
that first separated men from their land centuries ago to the
steep decline in real wages earned by American men in the last
twenty years, he explains the shifts that have steadily undermined
men and created a destructive masculine mystique. Ballantine, 1995
ISBN 0-345-38658-2 Buy
This Book!
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!
Kipnis, Aaron & Elizabeth Heron, Gender War, Gender
Peace: The quest for love & justice between women
& men. This book tells the story of a group journey
into the wilderness led by a woman and a man on a quest to build
bridges over the gender gap. The man, a leading voice from the
men's movement and the woman, a trailblazer for a new feminism,
guide women and men toward mutual respect, understanding, and
compassion in this account of a ground-breaking summit meeting of
the sexes. Through a series of adventures and encounters, the
participants learn how to communicate the potent depths of anger,
fear, grief, love and appreciation between women and men. They
also discover a way to create a map for future peace between the
sexes, a future in which women and men can recognize and respect
both their genuine differences and shared challenges. Weaving
together dialogues from late night discussions around the campfire
with judicious, well-researched references to scholarly texts, the
authors present a detailed and surprisingly optimistic portrait of
the potential for communication and personal growth between women
and men, growth that celebrates diversity rather than condemning
it. Provocative, powerful, and of great importance, this book
begins a new era of understanding and partnership between the
sexes. William Morrow, 1994 ISBN 0-688-11924-7 Buy
This Book!
Kipnis, Aaron, Knights Without Armor: A practical guide
for men in quest of masculine soul. The nights of ancient
times were heavily armored from head to toe. These men in steel
were invincible in battle - until the crossbow was invented. This
new technology, intorduced in the late medieval times, gave arrows
the force to penetrate even the thickest armor. The armored knight
quickly became a thing of the past as men realized that they could
no longer remain safe behind their impervious ccoverings. However,
the knightly ideals of chivalry and masculine honor, and the
spiritual quest for the Holy Grail persisted for centuries. Today,
men doing battle in the marketplace have donned a new sort of
armor. Many powerful men have constructed a heroic personality
that is hard, inflexible and, like the amor of old, heavy to drag
around. It is difficult to feel much pleasure or joy in life when
one is burdened with a self-image that says: in order to be a
man you must be tough and cool as steel. In today's society,
however, men are discovering, like their medieval counterparts,
that they are no longer impervious to the armor-piercing arrows
slung by people who have lost connection to their souls. This book
weds ancient myths of masculinity to the subjective experience of
modern men and the objective perspectives of hundreds of studies
from various scientific fields. What emerges is a fresh vision and
new understanding of men that points the way for a new male
psychology and spirituality. This book presents a rich adventure
of self-discovery for the male reader who will undoubtedly hear
many of his own issues expressed by the male voices in this book.
Women readers will gain new insights into the inner lives of men,
deepen their understanding of the forces that shape the men in
their lives, and learn how to support men's changes in a changing
world. This knowledge will be helpful in imporving relations
between men and women. Jeremy P Tarcher/Perigee Books, 1992
ISBN 0-87477-704-6 Buy
This Book!
Kriegel, Leonard, Flying
Solo: Reimaging manhood, courage, and loss.
Childhood polio left the author without the use of his legs. Here
he writes in a lyrical, uncompromising voice about the interlaced
themes of courage and masculinity against the backdrop of loss.
Tracing memories back to his coming of age in the 1940s and 1950s,
he portrays an interior life partly sustained by traditional
visions of manhood, partly raging at the impossibility of fully
living them out. This book is a beautiful personal writing that
will change the way we think about manhood. Beacon Press,
www.beacon.org 1998
Lahaye, Tim, Understanding the Male
Temperament. Men and women are different - no doubt about
that. And, it has never been so difficult to be a man. This book
takes an insightful look at masculinity and the male personality
and explains men to themselves. But it goes beyond that: It
explains men to their wives. It also helps men build on personal
strengths and understand their weaknesses. This book will also
help women understand why the men in their lives behave the way
they do. Baker Book House, 1996 ISBN 0-8007-1719-8
Buy
This Book!
Levine, Suzanne Braun, Father
Courage: What happens when men put family first. A new
group of today's fathers is aiming for the "triple crown " - a mix
of success at work, intimacy with family, and time for friends.
They are learning - as women have learned - that you can't "have
it all." Their efforts to find new ways to balance work
and love are beginning to change both the family and the
workplace. Other books have described the malaise, but until now,
no one has described the dimensions of the revolution or pointed
to the light at the end of the tunnel. The author, a journalist
and feminist, and founding editor of Ms. magazine,
interviewed scores of men and learned about the pitfalls and
payoffs of twenty-first century fatherhood. Men don't tend to use
each other as sounding boards the way women do, so the author does
it for them. She identifies some of the surprising factors that
make it so hard for men to put family first. At home, the
parenting learning curve is steep; and moms don't always want to
give up the role of "the General." The workplace is much less
family-friendly to fathers than to mothers, and the 24/7 life of
corporate American is taking its toll. The author uncovers the
reasons causing the stress felt by fathers and mothers, and she
offers solutions that range from the commonsense to the
revolutionary. This is a brilliant and bracing new look at what is
right - and wrong - in American family life. Harcourt, 2000
ISBN 0-15-100382-3 Buy
This Book!
Lichtenberg, Greg, Playing Catch with
My Mother: Coming to manhood when all the rules have
changed. After the Sixties, after feminism, after political
correctness, how does a boy become a man? This book
speaks for the silent sons of the gender revolution. It is an
astonishing debut: exquisitely written, funny, sexy, wise and
painfully honest about the fate of good intentions. Bantam
www.bantam.com 1999 ISBN
0-553-09982-5 Buy
This Book
Lofas, Jeannette & Joan MacMillan, He's OK, She's
OK: Honoring the differences between men and women,
Tzedakah Publications, 1995
Lorber, Judith, Paradoxes of Gender. In this innovative
book, a well-known feminist and sociologist challenges our most
basic assumptions about gender. She argues that gender is wholly a
product of socialization, subject to human agency, organization
and interpretation, and that it is a social instituion comparable
to the economy, the family, and religion in its significance and
consequences. Calling into question the inevitability and
necessity of gender, she envisions a society structured for
equality, where no gender, racial, ethnic or social class group is
allowed to monopolize positions of power. This book deserves to be
read by both specialists and general readers alike. Those who are
familiar with the literature will find her insights and her
ability to reorganize various pieces of the puzzle of gender
construction unmatched. Those scholars who want an introduction to
gender studies will find her book to be an intelligent and
thoughful summary. Yale University Press, 1994
ISBN 0-300-06497-7 Buy
This Book!
Mann, Nichola, His Story: Masculinity in the
post-patriarchal world. Today, men so often feel alienated and
rootless, lacking tribe and even community. Unlike any book
before, this provides men of European descent with a means to
connect with their own inherent source of personal power and with
a sense of their own native tradition. This has the potential to
transform a man's relationship to those around him and to the
world. It steers the incipient Men's Movement in a new direction.
It emphasizes historical continuity, personal power and grass
roots, not passing trends, celebrities and centralization. Men who
are interested in European prehistoric and pagan mysteries will
find them here. It weaves together an analysis of the institution
of patriarchy with the issues of masculine identity,
self-definition, sexuality, symbology, mythology, archetypes and
spirituality. Now you can gain a wealth of information on the
traditions which once directly informed men on the nature of their
masculinity. Now you can connect again. Lleyellyn Publications,
1995 ISBN 1-56718-458-8 Buy
This Book!
Minor, Robert N., Scared Straight: Why it's so hard
to accept gay people and why it's so hard to be human. From
the criticism of our universities as purveyors of hopelessness to
the dynamics of "getting laid," this book is an eye-opening and
penetrating analysis of U.S. culture. Without sparing any
institutions, it identified our culture as fear-based and in
denial. Like software on a computer, our system installs a
"straight role" in us which actually has little, if anything, to
do with sexual orientation, religion, tradition, or the Bible, and
everything to do with maintaining limiting definitions of a "human
being," a "real man," and a "real woman." People of all sexual
orientations are hurt by being "straight," torn from their full
human potential, and squeezed into molds that support our dominant
institutions. Human relationships with either sex are incomplete
and unfulfilling. Chapters on "How to Be Straight" and "How to be
Gay" describe the roles heterosexual and non-heterosexual people
are conditioned to live in order to maintain this status quo. Yet,
not content to merely identify the problem and its depth, the
author describes the elements of healing that this cultural
disease requires. One reader said to the final chapter: "This is
the most empowering piece on activism that I have ever read."
HumanityWorks, 2001, minor@libertypress.net
or Humanitywks@aol.com or
www.fairnessproject.org
ISBN 0-9709581-0-2 Buy
This Book!
Moir, Anne and Bill, Why Men Don't
Iron: The fascinating and unalterable differences between men
and women. Much of what is written and taught today presumes
that most of the differences between men and women have been
caused by society and so can be altered. Once this is done, men
and women will become alike. And so men are challenged, pestered,
and lectured to change from the old, dominat male to become the
New Man, to get in touch with their feminine side...But what if
that feminine side does not exist? The authors show
that men's brains are, in fact, wired very differently from
women's, so their reactions to stimuli cannot be the same. Thus,
increasing feminization of society, of food, and of education is
detrimental to men, and eventually will be to women, too. To
understand men's desires and drives is to comprehend the forces in
society that many academics of gender studies deny. Here are a few
examples of what sets men apart: Men can lose weight by
exercise alone, but women must combine diet changes and exercise.
Among the mathematically gifted, there are thirteen boys for every
one girl. Boys excel in areas that require three-dimensional
thought processing, girls in verbal skills. Testosterone fuels the
sex drive in both men and women, but males have ten times more.
Men's brains are built for action, and women's for talking; men
do, women communicate. This book offers a scientific and contrary
view of the fascinating and sometimes unbridgeable differences
between men and women. Citadell Press, 2000
ISBN 1-55972-521-4 Buy
This Book!
Nadeau, Robert L.,
S/he Brain: Science, sexual politics and the myths
of feminism. Margaret Mead's argument that gender identity is
learned in sexless minds separate and distinct from sex-specific
bodies legitimized the "sex/gender system" in feminist theory. In
this system, sex refers to physiological differences in the domain
of the body and gender to learned behavior in the domain of the
mind. Since this "two-domain" distinction obviated the connection
between biological reality and gender identity, it allowed gender
identity to be viewed as a product of patriarchal cultural
narratives - stories, myths, legends and the like invented by men
in order to control and oppress women. In this book, the author
demonstrates that the sex/gender system is not some arcane bit of
academic jargon that has no impact on our daily lives. It is the
greatest source of conflict in politics or our sexual lives for a
now obvious reason: the brains of men and women are not the same,
and the differences have behavioral consequences. Yet the intent
of the book is to serve the cause of full sexual equality and not
to escalate the gender war. The author argues that an improved
understanding of the relationship between sex and gender cannot
only enlarge the basis for meaningful communication between men
and women, it could also serve as the basis for an improved
standard of sexual equality that eliminates the grossly unfair
treatment of women sanctioned by the current standard. Praeger,
1996 ISBN 0-275-95593-1 Buy
This Book!
Newberger, Eli H., The Men They Will
Become: The nature and nurture of male character. How do
boys develop character? And what can parents, teachers and
society do to help nurture admirable qualities in young
men? The author, one of this country's most
distinguished pediatricians and experts in child development,
brings decades of experience and insight to these vital questions.
In riveting stories, both heartwarming and heartrending, he delves
to the deepest roots of male character, showing how boys face the
harsh challenges that forge or break character: cheating,
bullying, dealing with drugs, alcohol, and competition. The scope
of his insight is broad and full of respect for the tenacity and
devotion that sustain strong families. (See Treating
this Heavy Midlife of Men.) Perseus Publishing, www.perseuspublishing.com,
2000, ISBN 0-7382-0363-7 Buy
This Book!
Oliver, Gary, Masculinity at the Crossroads. In recent
years it's become clear that growing up male can be hazardous to
your health! Men are reeling from the challenges and
changes that have taken place in the last twenty years. Today
American males face a crisis of identity. They need to find
answers to the qustion, "What
does it mean to be a man?" Most men have pursued excellence as
breadwinners, work machines, and performers. Meanwhile, other
things have suffered. Many struggle with feelings on confusion,
guilt and inadequacy. Emotionally wounding childhoods have left
others trying to cope with anger, grief, and despair. The author
looks at why men are at a crossroads today and how they can choose
to move beyond the myths and stereotypes. He eamines the role
moders and standards that have been used to judge masculinity.
You'll learn how faith in Christ is an essential key to renewed
honesty and healing in your life. This booklet is a call to
freedom for men everywhere. Freedom to live life with passion and
intensity. Freedom to discover the meaning of true strength. And
freedom to create a fulfilling life rich with relationships and
achievement. Moody, 1993 ISBN 0-8024-3712-5 Buy
This Booklet!
Phillips, Holly Faith, What Does She Want from Me, Anyway?
Honest answers to the questions men ask about women,
Zondervan, 1997
Pleck, Joseph, Men & Masculinity. "Seek
achievement and suppress emotion," the masculine role tells men.
This book describes how this role is learned, how it limits men,
and how men today are freeing themselves from it. In this book,
men speak from many viewpoints - student and mid-career, married
and single, gay and straight, established social scientist and
radical critic. They relate their experiences with the masculine
role in such settings as a high school dance, a baseball field, a
child-care center, and a sociology department. This presents
psychological and sociological studies that show how suppression
of emotion and anxiety about achievement restrict men's ability to
work, play and love freely. Prentice Hall, 1974
ISBN 0-13-574301-X
Pleck, Joseph, Myth of Masculinity. A secure sense of
masculinity is most readily developed by boys who have strong
bonds with their fathers...Excessive masculinity, delinquency and
crime are outlets used by males to mask their inner uncertainties
about their sexual selves...Elementary schools, dominated by
women, have a "feminizing" influence on boys...Adult me, whatever
their stated attitudes, fear deep down that the assertion by women
of their rights is having an "emasculating" effect. These are
among the popular beliefs that the average person would probably
agree with. This book demonstrates that the same assumptions and
obsessions, largely unexamined and accepted on faith, have been
shared by nearly every social scientist engaged in sex-role
research over the past forty years as well. The author examines
and analyzes the full body of research literature on the male role
that has appeared since the 1930s and subjects it to a devastating
critique. He makes explicit the various components of what he
terms the "male sex role identity paradigm" - some of them
mentioned above - which has formed the underlying theoretical
structure of the research, and identified numerous instances of
blatant misrepresentations of data, twisted reinterpretations of
disconfirming results, misogyny, homophobia and class bias. In
order to provide a firmer basis for research, he then proposes a
new theory, the "sex role strain paradigm," which holds that the
problem of traditional sex roles is that they can never be
fulfilled and are fraught with harmful characteristics. The book
also offers a reinterpretation of sex role stereotyping and a
critique of research by sociobiologists that allegedly
demonstrates a biological basis for human male aggression. MIT,
1981 ISBN 0-262-16081-1
Robinson, Sally,
Marked Men: White masculinity in crisis. In the
past two decades, white men have proclaimed themselves the new
victims - buffeted by feminism and other forces out of their
control, and often even 'falling down.' In this textured and
nuanced reading of central works for that era, the author helps us
understand the crisis of white masculinity and thus chart a course
away from victimhood and towards accountability. This book turns
the emergent field of whiteness studies on its head: where other
scholars posit that making whiteness and masculinity visible as
specific forms of embodiment is an inherent critical insurgency,
she shows that such critical strategies are actually complicit
with the dominant project of white masculinity in the public
sphere. This book is the single most important and concise
revisiting of the social and scholarly terrain of white
masculinity to date. Columbia University Press, www.columbia.edu/cu/cup,
2000, ISBN 0-231-11293-9 Buy
This Book!
Sage, Gender & Society. It is well accepted that
gender is socially constructed. Gender is not a fixed category;
rather, it is an accomplished activity - accomplished through the
routine activities of daily life and embedded in the institutional
structures of society. The articles included in this issue
elaborate this idea in different contexts. One shows how gender
figures in the mobilization of social movements that, even when
not specifically organized around gender issues, are nonetheless
structured by gender relations. Others show how gender, in the
context of maternal thinking, shaped the development of a protest
settlement by Jewish women on the West Bank. Another author's
cross-cultural analysis of Australia and the US shows the
dimensions of gender in different forms of friendship for men and
women. Yet others look at the gendered character of the state, as
demonstrated by support for women's public pensions in comparison
to men. Each of these articles examines in different ways the
social construction of gender and its presence in identity,
interaction and social structure. Vol 9 # 1, Sage Periodical
Press, Feb, 1995
Sayers, Janet, The Man Who Never Was: Freudian tales of
women & their men. Father, lover, hero...we call have
powerful images of "manhood", visions of dream and nightmare. Why
do we cling to them so strongly? What harm do they do
to us? How can we put it right? To bring these vital
issues to life, the author tells us stories. Tessa, closeted in
one room with her small son while the rest of her house is left
bare, is determined to keep out everything male - as if she had
adopted the notion of "Virgin Birth." Chris is a type
of Don Juan, satisfying the emptiness in himself by seeing all
women as sexual prey. Mr. Benn is a model housekeep who abuses his
daughter. Sheila constantly relives the death of her father and
husband as if she cannot let her men go. These are true stories,
intimate and moving. One by one, the fifteen cases studies show
both sexes acting out different male stereotypes - pervert,
tomboy, wimp, tough-guy, or Superman. They also trace the way
these figures fuel depression, obsessive behavior, or severe,
schizoid break-up of personality. These powerful modern tales make
us conscious of our deep, imagined ideas of men and masculinity.
Vivid and humane, this is a pathbreaking exploration of dangerous
mental territory: A world at once strange, yet familiar to us
all. Basic, 1995 ISBN 0-465-04557-X Buy
This Book!
Segal, Lynne, Slow Motion: Changing
masculinities, changing men. This book approaches the changing
nature of men's lives and experiences in a new way, by looking not
at masculinity, but at specific masculinities. From tough guys to
martial men, to camp, gay, black-macho, and anti-sexist men, their
competing images and roles are analyzed. From the complex and
contradictory web of different male identities a new approach to
sexual politics begins to emerge. The author maintains that men's
resistance to change is not simply due to psychic obstinancy or
incapacity - men can and do change. Her forceful and perceptive
analysis of this uncharted territory moves beyond cynicism to
create a new sexual agenda for the 1990s. Rutgers University
Press, 1990 ISBN 0-8135-1620-X Buy
This Book!
Segell, Michael, Standup
Guy: Masculinity that works. Three decades after
American women changed their strategy in the battle of the sexes,
how do men really feel? About themselves? About
feminism? Is it still possible for men to be
heroes? Aggressive pursuers of status and dominance - their
traditional goals? In this candid dispatch from the
front lines of the gender war, journalist and author delivers some
provocative answers. As a columnist for Esquire and an
editor at Cosmopolitan, he began to document a serious
disconnect between American men and women, a seemingly
unbridgeable divide between what men and women say in public about
sexual roles and their very real private thoughts and desires.
Women today expect that they will be fulfilled both professionally
and personally. But often, the author found, men are secretly too
angry and resentful to woo, or stay married to, women they view as
competitors. The result for men: a passive-aggressive approach to
women, a historic aversion to intimacy (the euphemistic "lack of
commitment"), and a rapidly declining marriage rate. Even,
astonishingly, a new mode of payback: sexual withholding. So, the
author embarked upon a search for the kind of man who can end this
sexual stalemate - a man who doesn't retreat from successful
women. Over time, a portrait resolved: both a lover and a fighter,
he's tough and competitive yet loving and compassionate, stoic yet
emotionally sophisticated, skilled in the bedroom and the
boardroom. In short, a standup guy. Deep in an all-male universe -
at men's retreats and in locker rooms - he limns the evolution of
a new masculinity, a model that reaffirms traditional male
virtues, the durability of manly friendship, the immutability of
the ancient laws of sexual attraction, the delights of marriage
and children, and the importance of the bond, however challenging
and strained, between fathers and sons. Along the way, he turns
his focus upon himself, offering moving accounts of the events and
relations that have shaped his own vision of what it means to be a
man. Finally, through keen analysis of sexual manners and
rhetoric, he offers a blueprint, for both sexes, for a
détente in the thirty-year gender war. Intelligent, direct,
and deeply felt, drawing upon comprehensive research and personal
history, this book will enlighten and inform men and women alike.
Villard Books www.atrandom.com
1999 Hardcover ISBN 0-375-50227-0 Buy
This Book! Soft cover ISBN 0-679-78360-1 Buy
This Book!
Shields, Stephanie A., Speaking from the
Heart: Gender and the social meaning of emotion. Who gets
called "emotional?" And what does it mean when that
happens? What tells us that a person is "speaking from the
heart?" The prevailing stereotype is that she is
emotional, while he is not. In this book, the author draws
on examples from everyday life, contemporary culture, and the
latest research, to reveal how culturally shared beliefs about
emotion shape our identities as women and men. This fascinating
exploration of gender and emotion, in a clear and engaging style,
takes up topics as diverse as nineteenth-century ideals of
womanhood, weeping politicians, children's play, and the
Superbowl. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the
way emotion affects our everyday lives. Cambridge University
Press, www.cambridge.org,
2002, ISBN 0-521-80297-0 Buy
This Book!
Siegel, Carol, Male Masochism: Modern revisions of the
story of love. With the coming of the term "masochism" in the
late nineteenth century began the transformation of the
traditional, sacrificial male lover of women into an unmasculine
pervert. Today literary criticism, theory and gender studies
suggests that we have lost faith in men's capacity to love women.
What was once considered love is now seen as misogynistic
sickness. This book traces the development of this new vision
through modern and postmodern texts as they respond to prior
representations of male submission to love. Showing how our
understanding of love was and continues to be shaped by narrative,
and how literature has both aided and resisted the redefinition of
male love as male masochism, the author recovers a mode of
understanding hereosexuality that departs from the patriarchal
gender ideology that has dominated our readings for the past
hundred years. She explores the literary tradition of representing
male love as service and ordeal and looks at how modernist and
postmodernist writers and filmmakers have responded to this
tradition and how psychoanalytic theorists have depicted the
behaviors they labeled masochistic. Among the novels and films she
discusses are Mary Webb's Gone to Earth, James Joyce's
Ulysses, D.H.Lawrence's Women in Love, Iris
Murdoch's A Severed Head, Kathy Acker's Great
Expectations, Jonathan Demme's Something Wild, Stephen
Frears's Dangerouns Liaisons, and Liliana Cavani's The
Night Porter. Indiana University Press, 1995
ISBN 0-253-35228-2 Buy
This Book!
Stearns, Peter, Be a Man! Males in modern society, 2nd
Edition. The familiar admonition "Be a man!" has lost its clear
meaning. The author traces the history of ideals and images of
"manhood" and "masculinity," updating his discussion to the
present day in this new edition. Insightful and provocative, this
candid work focuses on the criteria for maleness as they evolved
through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the US and
Western Europe. The author deepens our understanding of these
standards by relating them to earlier - classical and
preindustrial - models of maleness. This new edition has been
expanded to include recent examples of social change and the
continually evolving gender roles. With boldness and sensitivity,
he addresses the differences in the dilemmas faced by working
class and middle-class men in their roles as workers and as family
members. He also assesses the current tensions between the sexes
and the confusion that has accompanied the revolution in gender
roles and identity. Homes & Meier, 1990
ISBN 0-8419-1281-5 Buy
This Book!
Steinberg, Warren, Masculinity: Identity conflict &
transformation. What is a man? The model offered by
family and culture too often leaves men with a feeling of "not
measuring up." The result can be a host of
psychological problems that become roadblocks on the path to the
state of maturity and wholeness that C.G. Jung called
individuation. The author sees these perils on the path as
opportunities to go beneath conventional models and to gain a deep
understanding of masculinity - one that includes traditional
masculine qualities along with recognition and acceptance of the
anima, or a man's inner feminine. Using dreams, myths and the
experiences of actual men, he demonstrates how this inner balance
can be the key to establishing a free and strong masculinity.
Shambhala, 1993 ISBN 0-87773-620-0 Buy
This Book!
Steward, Samuel, Bad Boys and Tough Tattoos: A social
history of the tattoo with gangs, sailors and street-corner punks,
1950-1965. This is no mere book for tattoo buffs, nor is it
only on tattooing. It's for a far larger audience of readers who
may be ready to accompany the author right into the Anchor Tattoo
Shop - with all its dangers, pathos, and bathos - for close-up
views of a large segment of young men seldom mentioned (let alone
so well portrayed) in any other context. And what a guide. An
admirable piece of anthropological research. The author lived
within his 'tribe'; scrutinized it with an acutely perceptive eye,
and reported his findings in clear and concise narrative. He leads
the reader into a special underworld known to few and makes it
vividly alive and realistic. Any student of human behavior or
anyone interested in the diversity of human life will profit from
this fascinating book. Harrington Park Press, 1990,
ISBN 0-918393-76-0
Stoltenberg, John, Refusing to be a Man: Essays on sex and
justice. After reading this book, you will never again think
about men and women as you do now. Inspired by the ideas of
radical feminism, the author probes the heart of men's belief that
they are "men", and finds it to be an invention: a political and
ethical construction based on sexual injustice. The attempt to
maintain that social fiction exacts an enormous human
cost: rape, homophobia, sexual objectification, pornography,
battery, men's control of women's reproduction , war. "The male
sex," he writes, "requires injustice n order to
exist." These essays offer a positive solution to the
problems of sexism. He presents a fully researched and carefully
argued vision of personal and social identity, based on an ethics
of sexual justice. This pioneering book promises to be a key tent
in any discussion of sexual politics. Breitenbush Books, 1989
ISBN 0-932576-73-7
Tanenbaum, Leora,
Slut! Growing up female with a bad reputation.
This is a groundbreaking account of the lives of young women who
stand up to the destructive power of name-calling - written by one
of the rising young talents of journalism today. This book
seamlessly weaves together three narrative
threads: powerful oral histories from an impressive and
diverse group of girls and women who tell us their stories and how
they finally overcame sexual labeling; the author's own
fascinating story; and her cogent analysis of the underlying
problem of sexual stereotyping. A girl may be labeled a slut or ho
for any number of reasons, including expressions of sexuality, but
also for nonsexual expressions of independence or openness, or
because she was raped. The author herself was labeled a slut in
high school. The confessional article she wrote about the
experience caused a sensation after it was published in
Seventeen (it was ranked the No. 1 story for that issue in
a readers' poll) and led her to write this book. Seven Stories
Press, www.sevenstories.com
1999 ISBN 1-888363-94-0 Buy
This Book
Tavris, Carol, Mismeasure of Woman: Why women are not the
better sex, the inferior sex or the opposite sex. Here the
author applies a critical eye to the false assumptions that govern
how we think about women and men, and dissects the myths that
perpetuate misunderstanding. She explodes the conventional wisdom
that women are more passive, more peaceful or more emotional than
men; that they are less logical, competent, and sexual than men;
and that their hormones, brains, and psyches are fundamentally
different from men's. She begins by showing how all of these
visions of women share a common frame of reference, a standard
against which women are continually judged and found
lacking: the universal, normal male. He is the standard
everywhere: In law, which is based on what a "reasonable man"
will do. In medicine, which is based on the physiology of a
"70-kilogram man." Even in notions of the ideal female
shape, which are based on alternating visions of being like the
male body or opposite from the male body, but never accepting of
the female body itself. In this, the author examines headlines and
popular theories of sex differences. She shows how these theories
serve society's interests by preventing women from even being able
to "measure up," whether they try to be like men or opposite from
them. She explores the reasons for the "pathologizing" of women -
the many ways in which society induces a sense of guilt and
deficiency in women - as workers, lovers, mothers, wives and human
beings. The point is not to replace a view of women-as-problem
with one in which men are the problem; the author is just as
critical of the popular notion that women are by nature better,
sweeter, kinder, move loving and more peaceful than men. Rather,
this book moves the discussion beyond "us-them" arguments
entirely, and forces us to think anew about how women and men
together can create the lives, the loves and the soceity we most
want. Simon & Schuster, 1992 ISBN 0-671-66274-0
Buy
This Book!
Tiger, Lionel, The Decline of Males.
The author offers a unique biological perspective on major
questions of the age that have thwarted sociological, economic and
political explanation. Why are one-third of the babies
in the industrialized world born to single mothers? Why
has there been an increase in both legal and illegal abortions -
even though contraception is vastly improved and widely
available? Why are so many men reluctant to support
their families? Why do so many women want to - and have
to - work? Most experts see the cause in social
forces: the rise of feminism, changes in the makeup of the
workforce, or political programs such as workforce. But, according
to the author, the master issue is reproduction, a biological
process. He argues that the most basic cause of these changes is
the spread of effective contraception. Controlled by women, it
gives them the sole power to decide whether or not to bear
children, independent of men's desires and even of their
knowledge. Since the advent of the birth control pill nearly forty
years ago, human society has been under going a dramatic but
little-understood revolution in the fundamental relationship
between the sexes. The unforeseen and unintended consequences of
efficient contraception are now a major focus of the "gender
wars". Removed from the responsibility to use birth control and
without a way to know for certain that a sexual partner is even
using birth control, men have been marginalized in the process of
reproduction. They have begun to feel obsolete and out of control.
The result is an unprecedented withdrawal of men from family
systems, leading to increased pressures on the government to take
their place - an arrangement the author calls "bureaugamy". The
book provides valuable lessons for parents to teach their sons -
and their daughters - as we enter the twenty-first century. Golden
Books 1999 ISBN 1-58238-014-7 Buy
This Book
Tyrone, T. S., The Choices of
Men: A novel of male power and sexuality in a feminist
age. This is a fiery novel of gender politics written from the
rarely heard male perspective. Guy Scheels traded the free-love
'70s for a wife, career and home. Now he finds he relinquished too
much power over his lifestyle, career and the custody of his child
by a former marriage. Worse, he has relinquished his sexual power.
He is maddeningly frustrated by his wife's sexual disinterest and
by the culture's disapproval of extramarital sex in any
form..fact, its virtual war on male sexuality. Guy has choices to
make. His decisions and actions will stimulate men to think about
their own choices. Women will be drawn into the plot out of
curiosity, then ponder what choices the men in their lives are
preparing to make. The story culminates in an explosive series of
events that propel Guy to declare new rules by which he will live.
Far from being a misogynist, he ceases blaming women and assumes
responsibility for his own action -- and inaction. This book is
intended to provoke a gender dialogue. For too long, we've been
hearing a monologue and women have been doing the talking. The
book gives men a voice, too. www.choicesofmen.com
1st Library Books, www.1stbooks.com
2001 ISBN 0-75965-455-7 Buy
This Book!
Upton, Charles, Hammering Hot Iron: A spiritual
critique on Bly's Iron John. This is a rare work that raises
important questions, draws vital distinctions, and elevates
discourse within the spiritual community on the Men's Movement
(only a very small part of it-ed.), Jungian psychology, archetypal
and mythological studies, and polytheistic religions. Drawing on
the perennial philosophy, the universal expression of absolute
truth, the author offers a metaphysical and cultural critique of
Robert Bly's Iron John. He adopts Bly's shadow in the
Jungian sense. His intellectual argument is masterfully
intertwined with his own personal and spiritual journey, often
expressed through original poetry. Quest, 1993,
ISBN 0-8356-0697-X
Waldron, Jan, In the Country of Men, My Travels. Part
memoir, part social commentary, this is a thoughtful and
provocative exploration of the meaning of gender, male-male
relationships and manhood. The author's powerful but warm voice
both provokes and seduces as she exposes the folly of gender
shtick while carefully unraveling the intricate stitching of her
life vis-à-vis the men who have contributed to her
definition of manhood: her father, her brother, her lovers, her
sons. She begins with memories of her father, a boy who never
really grew up, and her brother, a boy who had to grow up too
fast. We experience the high drama of her first kiss, and the deep
disappointment of her relationship with the father of her sons,
who left the family when their two boys were four and five. She is
frustrated with men and the trappings of manhood but has finally
found a happy, lasting relationship with a man; and in raising her
sons, she has found hope. Her boys, now sitting on the cusp of
manhood, are the stars of this book.Written with tenderness, humor
and great empathy for males, this is not a manifesto of absolutes
or a male-bashing gripe; it is not aligned with a movement, nor is
it about men as compared with women. She is just as claustrophobic
at a feminist rally as she is at a rowdy men's sports bar, and
teenage boy humor cracks her up. This is a book of impressions,
insights, and stories that speak to everyone, told so beautifully
that everyone will want to listen. An Anchor Book 1997 Hardcover
ISBN 0-385-48564-6 Buy
This Book! See paperback below.
Waldron, Jan, In the Country of Men, My
Travels. An Anchor Book 1998 Paperback
Walkerdine, Valerie, Daddy's Girl: Young girls and
popular culture. Harvard University Press, 1998
Wenniger, Mary Dee, Mary Helen Conroy, ed.,
Gender Equity or Bust! On the road to campus leadership
with women in higher education. Since 1992 women faculty and
administrators have turned to Women in Higher Education as
their barometer of campus climate and survival guide to the
topology of career advancement. Now, in this lively compendium of
articles from the newsletter's first eight years, the editors
provide a wild ride across the turbulent gender equity landscape
of American higher education. They offer a broad view of the
progress women have made toward achieving full and fair career
recognition, and assess the distance that remains to be covered.
Readers will appreciate the book's blend of serious commentary,
safe advice, and healthy doses of wry humor, as well as successful
strategies from women who have broken the academic glass ceiling
and scaled campus career ladders. Jossey-Bass, www.josseybass.com.
ISBN 0-7879-5284-2 Buy
This Book!
Williams, Christine, Still a Man's World: Men who do
women's work. The men have consistently been the butt of
pejorative jokes, derided for their supposed lack of drive and
masculinity. In this eye-opening study, the author turns this
stereotype on its head, providing a wholly new look at men who
work in prdominantly female jobs. Having conducted extensive
interviews in four cities, she uncovers how men in four
occupations, nursing, elementary school teaching, librarianship
and social work - think about themselves and experience their
work. Contrary to popular imagery, men in these occupations do not
define themselves differently from men in more traditional
occupations. She finds that most embrace conventional, masculine
values. Instead of bucking society's notions of maleness, the
mostly subscribe to its tenants. Anecdotally rich and persuasively
argued, this volume will appeal to a wide range of readers
interested in gender and work. University of California Press,
1995 ISBN 0-520-08787-9 Buy
This Book!