From Publishers Weekly
Unlike most books on the "crisis of masculinity," this call to action by lawyer and environmentalist Kimbrell (The Human Body Shop) is neither an attack on nor a reaction to feminism. Rather, it advances the proposition that men, no less than women, have been victims of social change since the advent of the industrial revolution. The effect of such changes, Kimbrell argues, has been to turn workers into machines whose only concern is to turn out more products and for whom feelings are nothing but excess baggage. Thus the modern masculine mystique presents a gender model who is competitive, aggressive, violent, insensitive and hyperrational, a portrait accepted by sociobiologists, who maintain that these qualities are in the genes. Not so, says Kimbrell, who asserts that the resultant misandry has damaged men in their relations with women, their children and other men. After exploring precisely how men suffer from this stereotype, he issues "a manifesto for men" with recommendations to remedy the situation, none of them antifeminist and all of them achievable. An important analysis that recalls The Feminine Mystique (1963) of Betty Friedan. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
"Kimbrell offers a political manifesto around which men can gather to save their lives, save their friends and families, and save the earth."
--Utne Reader
American men are in crisis. We see the consequences all around us: the alarming increase in male unemployment and homelessness, punitive custody laws deprive men of their children, and high pressure competitive jobs that leave men vulnerable to stress-related diseases and substance abuse. As Andrew Kimbrell brilliantly shows, these are not the problems of "fringe" groups or misfits, but of every man in 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 lives?
Andrew Kimbrell has seen the fear that men are living with and has heard their anxious voices. From the corporate executive facing downsizing to the disenfranchized African-American, Vietnam vet, and divorced father, men are in pain. In The Masculine Mystique, 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, Kimbrell explains the shifts that have steadily undermined men and created a destructive masculine mystique.
As a lawyer, activist, environmentalist, and father, Kimbrell urges men to mount a campaign of social, political, and community action. In this fiercely reasoned, deeply persuasive book, Kimbrell encourages men to stand up and demand a better life, a better world. Through stories of men who are working to better their condition, he gives us much-needed models. His political manifesto outlines the platform men need to adopt on a personal, legislative and societal level. Because the time has come for men to act.
