Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture [Paperback]

Paul Nathanson (Author), Katherine Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2006

Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young argue that since the 1990s men have been portrayed in popular culture as evil, inadequate, or honorary women, from "Designing Women", "Home Improvement", "Oprah", and "Cape Fear" to Hallmark cards, comic strips, and the "New York Times" columns of Anna Quindlen. The first of a three-part series, "Spreading Misandry" offers an impressive critique of popular culture to identify a phenomenon that is just now being recognized as a serious cultural problem - misandry, the sexist counterpart of misogyny. Nathanson and Young urge us to rethink prevalent assumptions about men that result in profoundly disturbing stereotypes that foster contempt. "Spreading Misandry" breaks new ground by discussing misandry in moral terms rather than purely psychological or sociological ones and by criticizing not only ideological feminism but other ideologies on both the left and the right.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Perhaps it was inevitable that equal time should have been granted to those who claim that modern popular culture is biased against men. Nathanson (Over the Rainbow: The Wizard of Oz as a Secular Myth) and Young (religious studies, McGill Univ.) use an extensive appendix of antimale bias in film, television, and even greeting cards to show that in the past ten years, the pendulum has swung too far. Equally challenging is their notion that academic elites (i.e., feminist idealogs) are to blame. The problem with their approach is twofold. The potential examples of both misogyny and misandry probably run nearly neck and neck in film, television, and music today. Moreover, it is in the very nature of these media to describe conflict, especially gender conflict, as their core subject matter. The entertainment beast is such that somebody has to be the bad guy excuse me person, and hence the authors' sincerest wish that Hollywood end the war between the sexes is not likely to be fulfilled. Academic libraries may want to add this title to balance their collections in the interest of rigorous academic fairness. Jeff Ingram, Newport P.L., Newport, OR
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"In our culture, it's fine to say that men are brutes. This book is a welcome antidote." Globe and Mail "It's about time! Spreading Misandry is a major achievement in raising awareness of how men are insidiously and indifferently attacked in popular culture." Everyman: A Men's Journal "Genuinely intelligent and insightful. Spreading Misandry is provocative and will help point the way toward social harmony." Donna Laframboise, columnist for The National Post and author of The Princess at the Window: A New Gender Morality "What makes Spreading Misandry a useful book is that it puts a small spoke in the works of the large and noisy machinery of moral indignation that feminism has succeeded in constructing in academe and the media over the last 20 years." The Sunday Independent

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Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press; annotated edition edition (March 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773530991
• ISBN-13: 978-0773530997
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #867,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamite!!, December 17, 2001

By 

Martian Bachelor (Feminacentric America) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture (Hardcover)

(...) this book (in spite of a few small flaws) is perhaps the best thing dealing with men's issues to come down the pike in the last couple of years. And that includes Warren Farrell's last two books, the first of which, "Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say", deals with much the same topic (though it's nevertheless distinct in its particulars). The critique Nathanson & Young offer up is absolutely devastating and one can only hope that it opens up an entirely new field of badly needed criticism because, as extensive as the book is, it barely touches the surface when one stops to think about it. For example, the immensely popular "Frazier" TV show isn't even mentioned, and Seinfeld only appears in a footnote -- so there's much material yet to be mined, especially at the rate the garbage is being produced for dozens of channels.

One weak spot I noticed was the tendency to analyze works from the early 90's rather than more recent offerings. I got the impression much of the material had sat on the shelf for a long time and it made me wonder why this was, so it would have been nice to have had some explanation of this, perhaps in the preface. Because of the ephemeral nature of "hits", I wasn't sure that I'd even heard of some of the films they go into great depths on. This was only a minor drawback, but I did wonder why, if they were going back in time some, they ignored, for example, the mid-80's (`85?) Best (sic) Picture "Out of Africa", which seemed a prime example of many of their themes (which also touch on race), while perhaps trying too hard to make their case on one or two other films. No matter, I'm being picky. No book as impassioned as this could be absolutely perfect. They successfully make it impossible for anyone who reads this book -- even someone already somewhat sensitive to the central idea -- to ever look at popular media quite the same way again, which is exactly what they intended. Even if their exact theory as to *why* all this is going on might be subject to some more debate IMO, the overwhelming evidence they present is more than reason enough to read the book. I know I'll be re-reading sections of my copy for a long time to come in order to fully absorb all the important ideas here.

67 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it for your sons and grandsons!, October 14, 2003

By 

Hot One (Suffragette City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture (Hardcover)

This book is absolutely enlightening! Just about any man who is honest with himself already realizes that male bashing is an allowable pastime within out pop culture. Not long ago, I walked into my front room to find my son upset at his favorite cable cartoon channels. He told me glumly that every man on there was stupid or incompetent or evil. I sat down with him, and sure enough, he was right. The big stupid guy looking for a date, but the women all physically assaulted him. The superhero girls saving the stupid city mayor (who has a smart and capable female assistant who really runs the city). The girl crime fighter, with a comic sidekick boy, who repeatedly needs rescuing. Yep, it's so blatant that a 12 year old could see it!

But how deep is this? Did my son merely fixate on a few anomalous exceptions? This book goes to great length to show just how widespread misandrous (anti-men) expressions have become in our culture, and how we got here. Don't read this book for yourself, read it for your sons and grandsons. There's something insidious going on here, and if you care for the young men who will inherit this country, then you need to get alarmed at the world that is being made for them.

51 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating and eye-opening book, April 4, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture (Hardcover)

In this fascinating book, authors Paul Nathanson and Katherine K. Young look at the pervasiveness of misadry (hatred and belittling of men) in American popular culture. Throughout the book, the authors give a great many examples of blatant misandry, and then carefully put them into context within the feminist worldview. The final chapter is, though, the crowning glory of this book, examining what ideology is, and how modern feminism is an ideology and what that means for ourselves and our future.

This is a fascinating and eye-opening book. I do believe that anyone who even casually watches television or movies is aware of a prevalent misandry, but the authors of this book go a long way towards putting the phenomenon in context, showing why it is being done and by whom. If you are interested in the course that American culture is taking, and why, then I highly recommend this book to you.