Name: Of Boys and Men
Rating: 3.9375 (8 reviews)
ISBN: 9781800750548

Richard V. Reeves

Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It

Of Boys and Men

I want so much to be able to shed my defensiveness and use this book as a way to figure out the ways which men and women are being harmed by the current system, but arguments like the above keep pulling me out of the narrative. Women don’t have great health outcomes, they’re actually terrible. Look at maternal mortality. Look at all of the understudied ‘female pain’ disorders. Meanwhile a bajillion dollars goes towards ED. And that’s the issue! The issue is that real health outcomes for men (and women) are being stymied so that pharmaceutical companies can squeeze men out of money due to their desires and their fears of inadequacy, and so while ED research is done on behalf of men, it hurts men and women! Let’s talk about corporate capitalism holding men and women down, and how it does it through different ways that aren’t gone just because today’s generation of women are taking school seriously because our grandmothers who couldn’t get their own educations are begging us to, a phenomenon which is likely to settle within a generation. 75% of this book has me thinking ‘yes, men need liberation and this is a good point’ but 25% makes me say ‘women’s success historically was depressed due to institutional structures, which we are bouncing back from. Men only have cultural and social norms to overcome, it’s not the same, but it’s a struggle women are having too, so let’s struggle together, not claim that women are fine because our grit has been tested and proven.’.

Emily McMeans

“A good first step would be to establish a Department of Men’s Health, in the Department of Health and Human Services to mirror the excellent one that already exists for women.”

I understand the split in mental health fields, I just couldn’t get a quote on that, but it says a lot about how men view women, if having a female doctor, makes them less likely to view the field as something that they would potentially like to do. Maybe that’s a lesson too.

“It’s not ideal if most substance abuse counselors are women, if most substance abusers are men.”

“Real, practical, solutions to create a world that would be better for all of us, across the gender spectrum." — Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America and author of Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family A positive vision for masculinity in more equal world. Boys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened. Our attitudes, our institutions, and our laws have failed to keep up. Conservative and progressive politicians, mired in their own ideological warfare, fail to provide thoughtful solutions. The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His new book, Of Boys and Men, tackles the complex and urgent crisis of boyhood and manhood. Reeves looks at the structural challenges that face boys and men and offers fresh and innovative solutions that turn the page on the corrosive narrative that plagues this issue. Of Boys and Men argues that helping the other half of society does not mean giving up on the ideal of gender equality.

I think that if I sat down with the author and spoke with him, we would agree on most of the topics. However, women’s’ statistical advancement doesn’t imply success of women’s full liberation and integration any more than it measures women’s resilience in the face of sexism. The heart of his argument though is everyone’s liberation from the systems that prevent the individual from finding success even if it strays from the gendered average, which I agree with, but I think there is more work left for women than the author concedes.

Hooman Askari

While Reeves made great points and presented a strong collection of data and stories, I found that his writing was strong enough to capture me. Regardless, I learned a lot and had a lot to think about.

Of Boys and Men Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It

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