Is There a Cure for Masculinity?

Is There a Cure for Masculinity?

Author: Adam Jukes

Publisher: Free Assn Books

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9781853432095

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Barely a day goes by without a story of a man involved in illicit or illegal behaviour-from sex to violence or financial corruption. Regardless of their circumstances, these men all have one thing in common: their masculinity. In this powerful book Adam Jukes combines theory with compelling case studies to reveal why men behave the way they do. Quite the opposite of an innate condition, he argues, masculinity is more like an illness acquired in early boyhood. It is built on a `fault' created during the Oedipal crisis. On one side of the fault is the penis, a symbol of potency, activity, independence and strength. On the other side is a rejected `femininity' identified with dependency, passivity, vulnerability and emotionality. As a result, much of male behaviour-the quest for status and power, chronic sulking, excessive masturbation, workaholism, the use of pornography, sexual perversion, infidelity, risk taking and violent abuse-is a paradoxical defence against men's overwhelming feelings of weakness, vulnerability and humiliation. The cure, if there is one, starts with what jukes calls the `mad hypothesis'-an acceptance that men are responsible for everything that is wrong in their relationships and their lives. If they start here, Jukes argues, and gain insight into their original `fault' through therapy, relief from masculinity is possible for everyone.


The Man They Wanted Me to Be

The Man They Wanted Me to Be

Author: Jared Yates Sexton

Publisher: Catapult

Published: 2020-04-14

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1640093850

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This provocative, “critically important” memoir of working-class boyhood in rural Indiana offers a searing cultural analysis of toxic masculinity in American culture (NPR). As progressivism changes American society, and globalism shifts labor away from traditional manufacturing, the roles that have been prescribed to men since the Industrial Revolution have been rendered obsolete. Donald Trump's campaign successfully leveraged male resentment and entitlement, and now, with Trump as president and the rise of the #MeToo movement, it’s clear that our current definitions of masculinity are outdated and even dangerous. Deeply personal and thoroughly researched, the author of The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore has turned his keen eye to our current crisis of masculinity using his upbringing in rural Indiana to examine the personal and societal dangers of the patriarchy. The Man They Wanted Me to Be examines how we teach boys what’s expected of men in America, and the long–term effects of that socialization―which include depression, shorter lives, misogyny, and suicide. Sexton turns his keen eye to the establishment of the racist patriarchal structure which has favored white men, and investigates the personal and societal dangers of such outdated definitions of manhood. “ . . . exposes the true cost of toxic masculinity . . . and takes aim at the patriarchal structures in American society that continue to uphold an outdated ideal of manhood.” —Book Riot


The Will to Change

The Will to Change

Author: bell hooks

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2004-01-06

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0743480333

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From New York Times bestselling author, feminist pioneer, and cultural icon bell hooks, a timelessly necessary treatise on how patriarchy and toxic masculinity hurts us all, with a new introduction by poet Ross Gay. Feminist writing did not tell us about the deep inner misery of men. Everyone needs to love and be loved—including men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways in which patriarchal culture keeps them from understanding themselves. In The Will to Change, bell hooks provides a compassionate guide for men of all ages and identities to understand how to be in touch with their feelings, and how to express versus repress the emotions that are a fundamental part of who we are. With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. The Will to Change “creates space for men to acknowledge their traumas and heal—not only for their sake, but for the sake of everyone in their lives” (BuzzFeed).


The Highly Sensitive Man

The Highly Sensitive Man

Author: Tom Falkenstein

Publisher: Citadel

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 080653933X

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Although high sensitivity affects both men and women equally, being a highly sensitive man comes with unique challenges. Working closely with Dr. Elaine Aron - the originator of The Highly Sensitive Person--cognitive behavioral psychotherapist Tom Falkenstein offers the only book written specifically for highly sensitive men and those who love them. Bestselling classic and global phenomenon The Highly Sensitive Person has helped millions of people around the world. Now Elaine Aron's colleague offers help and hope for men with high sensitivity and the unique problems they face. Highly sensitive people think deeply, empathize instinctively, and tend to behave in an ethical way that benefits everyone. Today, with the negative effects of "toxic masculinity" and aggressive behavior in evidence all around us, we need highly sensitive people--especially men--more than ever. Yet for men in particular, being highly sensitive brings distinct challenges, such as gender stereotypes that portray them as too emotional or not "manly" enough. Cognitive behavioral psychotherapist Tom Falkenstein offers the first psychological guide that specifically addresses highly sensitive men and those who care about them, and explores the unique advantages and obstacles they face. Drawing from his training with pioneer in the field Dr. Elaine Aron, and his own groundbreaking work, Falkenstein incorporates the most up-to-date research on high sensitivity--what it is and isn't--how it relates to male identity, and provides one-of-a-kind advice and practical tools. Including an illuminating conversation with Dr. Aron, The Highly Sensitive Man is an invaluable book that will help redefine masculinity and reveal how high sensitivity can enrich men's lives, their communities, and the lives of those who love them. "A book that cracks open the conversation about how men can blend their strength, sensitivity and unique gifts into a more modern and whole definition of what it is to be a man." --Alanis Morissette, singer, songwriter, activist "Rooted in the rigorous science of sensory processing sensitivity . . . provides numerous ways we can grow into our own skins." --Tracy Cooper, PhD, author of Thrill!: The High Sensation Seeking Highly Sensitive Person


For the Love of Men

For the Love of Men

Author: Liz Plank

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: 2019-09-10

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1250196256

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A nonfiction investigation into masculinity, For The Love of Men provides actionable steps for how to be a man in the modern world, while also exploring how being a man in the world has evolved. In 2019, traditional masculinity is both rewarded and sanctioned. Men grow up being told that boys don’t cry and dolls are for girls (a newer phenomenon than you might realize—gendered toys came back in vogue as recently as the 80s). They learn they must hide their feelings and anxieties, that their masculinity must constantly be proven. They must be the breadwinners, they must be the romantic pursuers. This hasn’t been good for the culture at large: 99% of school shooters are male; men in fraternities are 300% (!) more likely to commit rape; a woman serving in uniform has a higher likelihood of being assaulted by a fellow soldier than to be killed by enemy fire. In For the Love of Men, Liz offers a smart, insightful, and deeply-researched guide for what we're all going to do about toxic masculinity. For both women looking to guide the men in their lives and men who want to do better and just don’t know how, For the Love of Men will lead the conversation on men's issues in a society where so much is changing, but gender roles have remained strangely stagnant. What are we going to do about men? Liz Plank has the answer. And it has the possibility to change the world for men and women alike.


The Psychology of Men and Masculinities

The Psychology of Men and Masculinities

Author: Ronald F. Levant

Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781433826900

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This volume synthesizes and evaluates major theories, research, and applications in the psychology of men and masculinities--a thriving, growing field dedicated to the study of how men's lives shape, and are shaped by, sex and gender.


Men in Prison

Men in Prison

Author: Victor Serge

Publisher: PM Press

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1604869062

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“Everything in this book is fictional and everything is true,” wrote Victor Serge in the epigraph to Men in Prison. “I have attempted, through literary creation, to bring out the general meaning and human content of a personal experience.” The author of Men in Prison served five years in French penitentiaries (1912–1917) for the crime of “criminal association”—in fact for his courageous refusal to testify against his old comrades, the infamous “Tragic Bandits” of French anarchism. “While I was still in prison,” Serge later recalled, “fighting off tuberculosis, insanity, depression, the spiritual poverty of the men, the brutality of the regulations, I already saw one kind of justification of that infernal voyage in the possibility of describing it. Among the thousands who suffer and are crushed in prison—and how few men really know that prison!—I was perhaps the only one who could try one day to tell all… There is no novelist’s hero in this novel, unless that terrible machine, prison, is its real hero. It is not about ‘me,’ about a few men, but about men, all men crushed in that dark corner of society.” Ironically, Serge returned to writing upon his release from a GPU prison in Soviet Russia, where he was arrested as an anti-Stalinist subversive in 1928. He completed Men in Prison (and two other novels) in “semi-captivity” before he was rearrested and deported to the Gulag in 1933. Serge’s classic prison novel has been compared to Dostoyevsky’s House of the Dead, Koestler’s Spanish Testament, Genet’s Miracle of the Rose, and Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch both for its authenticity and its artistic achievement. This edition features a substantial new introduction by translator Richard Greeman, situating the work in Serge’s life and times.


Standup Guy

Standup Guy

Author: Michael Segell

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780375502279

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This is a book about men. masculinity that works.


Historians on Hamilton

Historians on Hamilton

Author: Renee C. Romano

Publisher: Rutgers University Press

Published: 2018-05-09

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0813590337

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America has gone Hamilton crazy. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical has spawned sold-out performances, a triple platinum cast album, and a score so catchy that it is being used to teach U.S. history in classrooms across the country. But just how historically accurate is Hamilton? And how is the show itself making history? Historians on Hamilton brings together a collection of top scholars to explain the Hamilton phenomenon and explore what it might mean for our understanding of America’s history. The contributors examine what the musical got right, what it got wrong, and why it matters. Does Hamilton’s hip-hop take on the Founding Fathers misrepresent our nation’s past, or does it offer a bold positive vision for our nation’s future? Can a musical so unabashedly contemporary and deliberately anachronistic still communicate historical truths about American culture and politics? And is Hamilton as revolutionary as its creators and many commentators claim? Perfect for students, teachers, theatre fans, hip-hop heads, and history buffs alike, these short and lively essays examine why Hamilton became an Obama-era sensation and consider its continued relevance in the age of Trump. Whether you are a fan or a skeptic, you will come away from this collection with a new appreciation for the meaning and importance of the Hamilton phenomenon.