Customer Reviews

Why Women Live Longer Than Men : And What Men Can Do about It

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Crose's point was that women live longer because of women's "capacity for flexibility, connection and resilience". For men to gain the extra "seven years" they should try to emulate women, and women's emotions. Garbage. It is only in the last generation that women have gained in life expectancy over men. Throughout history, the life expectancy of males and females has been close in age. Neither females nor males have changed. So, just by examining the differences between men and women in the current generation can not explain this late difference in life expectancy. As a Ph.D., Crose should have the education to understand such statistics. Judging from her book, she does not. Men have behaviors which skew the statistics, such as dying in war, suicide, addiction, auto and other accidents and so on. If she would bother to adjust the statistics for these behaviors, she will find that males and females have similar life expectancies. Men who would read her book, are the types who would not display the above negative behaviours, and thus, not have much to profit from her book, in terms of life expectancy gain. Crose does a fine job of reviewing some differences between men and women, and how some men have problems and difficulties with coping as age advances. (John Grey does a better job.) But the thesis that these men should act more like women is wrong. When I was a boy, about to attend my first junior high dance, I was nervous. Even though I attended class with these girls and boys all day, I was unsure how to act this a social setting. I asked my Dad for advice. He said, "just be yourself". This was the best advice that I ever heard. I have carried it through life, and of course, it worked at the dance, because I had a good time and danced with all of the girls. To "be yourself" is to let one's own soul shine through to the other person. The "real you" shines. For men, attempting to adopt some foreign, womanly characteristics is just as destructive, as is adopting the destructive behaviors mentioned above. Agreed, that for men, it is destructive (or not constructive) to play a "manly, macho" role, if that is not the real self. And contrary to what Crose says, adopting feminine traits will not lengthen anyone's life, if those traits are not innate. "Be true to yourself" and "Be yourself" is the best advice. As for longevity, see Dr. Roy Walford's "The anti-aging diet".

I liked this book because it gave me a sense of what things I could do to make my later years better. The author categorizes the qualities that make life good in an easy-to-read style. They're such things as connectedness and spirituality. With the case studies, she shows the reader how these qualities make a difference. It doesn't matter if you are a man or a woman, we need to be reminded of what really counts. The only thing I don't like about the book is the title. It doesn't do the book justice. It should have been called something like "Aging Well." Men who need the advice probably won't read it anyway. Those who do will gain from its insights.

In forty years of extensive reading, I have never read anything worth reading by an author who puts "Ph.D." after his or her name, on the title page.This book is no exception. It is shallow and virtually thoughtless. The insularity of the author is almost beyond belief. A pure product of a group mentality (to which the author has contributed nothing, and taken everything), this book is entirely off-the-shelf----that is, ready-made, Wal-Mart feminism.
I have lived long enough to see some wild and abandoned music from my youth turned into elevator music. Soon, very soon, this music will be piped into nursing homes, to render the elderly more docile and placid. With the publication of this book, American feminism has reached its dotage.
Won't someone please mop up this drool?

This book confirms what I have experienced as a man liveing in the American culture. Talking to my friends and relatives I am not alone in my experience.