Gender Knot [Hardcover]

Allan Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 1997

We are all living deep inside an oppressive gender legacy called patriarchy. On some level, most people know that gender is tied to a great deal of suffering and injustice, from inequality in the workplace, to violence and sexual harassment, to the conflict between work and family roles. 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. The result is a knotted tangle of fear, anger, blame, defensiveness, guilt, pain, denial, ambivalence, and confusion. The more we pull at it, the tighter it gets. Unraveling the knot begins with getting clear about what patriarchy really is, about what it's got to do with each of us, and about how both men and women can see themselves as part of the process of change toward something better. Based on more than twenty years of work on gender issues, "The Gender Knot" charts a course organized around three questions: What are we participating in and how are we choosing to participate in it? How do typical ways of thinking about gender blind us to what's going on? What can men and women do to make a difference? Johnson writes as a man passionately committed to the belief that oppression is not an inevitable feature of human life, and that each of us makes it matter more than we can ever know. He offers a practical, compassionate, and readable guide to understanding what we're stuck in and how to search for a way out. Allan G. Johnson is a sociologist, writer, and trainer/consultant. He teaches at Hartford College for Women and works in major corporations and schools on issues of gender and diversity. He is author of several books, including "Human Arrangements: An Introduction to Sociology", "The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology: A User's Guide to Sociological Language", and "The Forest for the Trees".

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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. The Gender Knot belongs on the reading list of every course in sexual politics that encourages students to engage (if not 'smash') patriarchy meaningfully." --Men and Masculinities "As any knitter will tell you, the way to untangle a knot is not to pull hard on one end, but gently shake the entire skein until all the threads are loosened. In this book, Allan Johnson gently and patiently shakes the patriarchal knot until each of the constituent threads becomes analytically clear. In doing so, he gives men a way to be part of unraveling that oppressive knot, rather than simply tugging defensively on their end." --Michael Kimmel, author of Manhood in America: A Cultural History "This is a good book. Why is it good? It's well written, well argued, and nails all the key issues right on the head. It's the best book I've seen in this genre." --Michael Schwalbe, author of Unlocking the Iron Cage: The Men's Movement, Gender Politics, and American Culture

From the Publisher

A compelling approach to gender inequality that empowers both men and women to be part of the solution instead of just part of the problem

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (March 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566395186
• ISBN-13: 978-1566395182
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,142,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Allan G. Johnson is a nationally recognized writer, novelist, and public speaker who has worked on issues of privilege, oppression, and social inequality since receiving his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in 1972. His nonfiction writing has been translated into several languages and excerpted in numerous anthologies. His novels, The First Thing and the Last and Nothing Left to Lose, come from a lifelong devotion to the art of writing coupled with a passionate commitment to understanding what it means to be a human being in a complex world full of unnecessary suffering. He shares his life with Nora L. Jamieson, a writer, healer, and gatherer of women. They live in the hills of northwestern Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Micro/macro view of how oppressive systems work, January 15, 2000

By 

Chris Tarr (Lake Orion, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gender Knot : Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy (Paperback)

Allan Johnson takes a complex and highly charged topic and makes it clear, concise and understandable, regardless of one's gender. His analysis spans the gamut from the personal to the general with regards to not only power relationships between men and women, but also the dynamics of all kinds of oppression. He is "radical" in that he gets to the root causes of sexism -- all isms for that matter. Yet he stays clear of the guilt/blame spiral and instead inspires a sense of empowerment, suggesting how to be part of the solution to the immense problems wrought by patriarchy's fallacies.

Also, appreciated his challenges to some of the leading gurus in the "mythopoetic men's movement" as well as the trendy gender arbiters like John Gray and Debra Tannen, who normalize male/female behavior differences, without examining the root causes and how they actually perpetuate behaviors formed out of thousands of years of patriarchal conditioning.

This book removes the veil of illusion about the world we live in -- while offering hope, not for quick fixes, but of the long-term, big-picture variety. It reveals the scholarship of one who has gone to the depths in the study of people, social systems and how they interact.

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard, compelling truths, May 10, 2000

By 

Hugo Schwyzer (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gender Knot : Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy (Paperback)

When I first read this book a couple of years ago, I was not prepared to accept the full sweep of Johnson's arguments. It was not that I disagreed with his reasoning -- his logic is as sound as his prose is lucid! But I was not prepared for the implications of what he had written for my own life -- as a man who professed to be active in the feminist movement, I was for some time not prepared to make the changes in my private life which were necessary to unravel my own "gender knot". But I have grown, I have changed, and as I mature both as a man and an academician, I realize just how fundamentally right on Johnson is. His words haunt me: "That I don't rape women doesn't mean I'm not involved in a patriarchal society that promotes both male privilege and male violence against women." Men need to remember that.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous! Highly insightful, June 25, 2000

By 

Kimberly Allen (San Jose CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gender Knot : Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy (Paperback)

Allan Johnson writes with rare clarity about gender issues.

Here at last is a book about gender relations that both men and women can feel connected to. Johnson validates women's feminist work, holding it up as an example of both moral and intellectual achievement. In fact, he takes feminism absolutely seriously, which made me realize just how rare that is. And yet, he's not a guilt-ridden "sensitive 90's guy" who is merely kow-towing to anything female because of the long history of our mistreatment at the hands of his gender. Instead, Johnson takes a far more responsible role than passive guilt. He is actively working to understand patriarchy from a male perspective in order that he can be part of a large-scale, *societal* (not individual-level) solution to the gender problems we are mired in. Men will not feel personally attacked by his stance on patriarchy, and yet, women will feel validated.

This is a very important book.