38 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Women: Theory and Practice" - A Review, January 28, 2008
This review is from: Women: Theory and Practice (Paperback)
"Women: Theory and Practice" is Bernard Chapin's third work [see our review of his excellent second work, "Escape From Gangsta Island - A School's Progressive Decline" - http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=gangsta41006.htm]. The book has been long-awaited by the many fans of Chapin's numerous previous columns detailing his views on sexual politics.
Among other things, Chapin is a culture warrior whose observations carry a sense of precision often lacking in other authors who write within that genre. That is perhaps because of his training as a psychologist, but it might just be that he is extraordinarily acute and perceptive.
His current work, as the title suggests is about how the women's revolution especially the radical feminist movement, which has and continues to poison the relationship between men and women. He does this on two levels, one theoretical, in which the intellectual underpinnings of what feminism has come to represent are dissected and then skewered, and the second experiential, illustrating how women constructed along these lines function within a culture that has become outwardly at least, female-centric.
The author carefully demonstrates that the changes that women have undergone, mirror similar changes in society in general, tracing both back to the generational tumult of the 1960s.
Starting with the chapter, "The Fairer Sex" Chapin describes the process whereby women have been transformed into a mythical construct not supportable by either reason or biology, calling it "genitalia mongering," a marketing program which has resulted in non-authentic gender roles and consequently a prodigious amount of misery for both men and women.
Chapin treads on some of the same ground that Roger Kimball has explored, and here I am thinking of his, "Rape of the Masters," however what Mr. Chapin brings to the mix is his ability to merge the real world with the theoretical in a way that aids understanding in a very clear manner.
The author is a realist, to him what is...is, so he is comfortable explaining such things as the biological reason why men are hard-wired to prefer younger women, the reason being that the urge corresponds with the seeking of "fertility and reproductive potential."
Insights such as this are refreshing and replete in "Women," especially useful given our mad rush towards permanent feminization and role confusion rather than reality-based gender identifications which accept that men and women are vastly different, but complementary nonetheless.
Of particular significance Chapin writes in the chapter, "Let's not make a deal," part of which provides a symbolic representation of feminist dynamics, that "Women today have far greater expectations than their predecessors had. When this is juxtaposed with the essential an unchanged nature of man it result in frustration because the romantic desires of individual women cannot, by definition, be met."
It is clear from such perceptive analysis that ideologically based conceptions of gender are fraudulent and lead to unhappiness. Not only that, but it can be extrapolated from that logic that similar types of regimentation imposed and not organically derived - encompassing many of the 19th and 20th century "isms" - results in similar wreckage.
If there is anything non-rigorous in Chapin's thesis at all it concerns his possibly underestimating the power whereby male biology becomes manifest marital destiny regardless of the carnage feminism has created, hence the suggestion that logic be employed in determining whether or not to marry might therefore suggest an alternative more imagined than attainable.
What recommends "Women: Theory and Practice" is the authors relentlessly applied analytical skill and his considerable ability to extrapolate real world examples as illustration. As a result it is both a speedy and thought provoking read.
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32 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The personal has become political - A 21st century Male's survival guide, August 14, 2008
This review is from: Women: Theory and Practice (Paperback)
According to Kant, writing over 200 years ago, to marry was to halve one's rights and to double one's duties. For Kant's great successor, Arthur Schopenhauer, marriage was only possible as the outcome of a conjuring trick played by nature upon men. The short lived beauty and charm of female youthfulness acting to lure lovestruck men into irrationally signing away their independence for a lifelong contract of devotion and commitment. The result of nature's sorcery perhaps, yet Schopenhauer had no doubt that marriage was essential to civilisation, even if he, like Kant, was always too wise to fall through its heavily scented trap door. For (writing three decades before Darwin spelled it out scientifically) sexual attraction and the bonds that result from it, are nothing less than vital to the reproduction of the species itself, even if in the light of the 21stcentury this essential truth has incredibly been lost behind the deceitful fog of feminist mythmaking.
Such is the setting for Bernard Chapin's quite brilliant treatise on what it means for society, as well as for the personal dignity of men and women, to lose sight of this politically incorrect truth and for nature's fundamental balance between male desire and female desirability to be disturbed and broken. In a world in which feminists have achieved their oft-quoted aim of making the `personal political', the book is an earnest plea for a rational reappraisal of the relationship between the sexes. The author shows how making the personal political has been achieved by a manipulation and perversion of the hardwired male chivalric disposition to express devotion to the female into a sad male acquiescence to the emergence of a political gynocracy . A New Womb Order in which decisions are made almost wholly for the apparent benefit of women, yet which not only leads to yet more suffering for the disposable male, actually fails to give a sense of personal happiness to the majority of women and that furthermore will be disastrous in the long term for both men and women and the civilisation to which they both belong. Feminism is reducing politics to the level of an ancient pagan mother goddess cult but men have forgotten that the reason our ancestors worshiped these fertility idols in the first place, was because they intuitively felt that the future of what they and their own forefathers had built depended upon it. The ultimate irony of feminism as womb deification is that, as Mark Steyn said to Chapin in an interview, `the future belongs to those who will be around to see it'. Feminism is leading to such a disastrous drop in Western birth rates that the likelihood is that `we' won't be around to see the results of our misguided devotion to the mother goddess who chooses to abort rather than concieve, and seeks re-election rather than reproduction.
I came to this book after becoming a devotee of the author's brilliant and entertaining video blogs on youtube (`Chapin's Inferno`). There, Chapin demonstrates a wonderfully educated and devastatingly rapier intellect which, every week, is unleashed upon some madness of the political left. I therefore had high expectations and I can honestly say that they have been quite exceeded. Not only is the argument of the book presented logically and clearly, it is also expressed at times quite beautifully. The guy is simply a very talented writer with a brilliant turn of phrase. This is demonstrated nowhere better than in his ruthless critique of the feminist position on porn and sexual objectification. He demolishes various arguments such as the idea that porn leads to sexual attacks on women ( `it simply enables men to get to sleep a little earlier') and debunks the notion of the sexually objectifying `male gaze' altogether - `(if the female sex are treated as objects then..) the female sex are treated with an awe generally reserved for religious relics'.
I couldn't find many faults with the book. Chapin's humanity and general `niceness' are transparent throughout. If I was to make a criticism, it would be that the author is rather more charitable to the distinction between radical feminism and mainstream feminism than I and many others would be, and a lot more optimistic as to the ability of women to share legislative power with men in a just and equitable way. But perhaps it is better that Chapin doesn`t quite share our pessimistic outlook, as it means that `Women : Theory and Practice' can't be pidgeon-holed by its opponents as simply an `anti-feminist' work. Destined to become a classic of the Men's Movement that it entirely deserves to be, this is also a book that every man should read simply as a guidebook to life in a brave new world.
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26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fabulous and fair critique, October 9, 2007
This review is from: Women: Theory and Practice (Paperback)
With a mix of candor, wit, meticulous research and a refreshing amount of honesty and introspection, Bernard Chapin thoroughly exposes "feminism" in its modern, radical form. Unlike your local professor or TV news anchor, Chapin did his homework and learned from his experiences---both professional and personal---as well as extensive readings from those on the other side. His agenda is not to castigate nor demean women, but to present them, rightfully, as EQUALS. This is something not often done in today's politically correct world, where women are usually seen as superior and "fairer" beings by the mainstream intelligentsia, among many others. Bernard Chapin's book is a joy to devour, and it should be the hope of all of us that it is read by many scholars as its appeal stretches from sociology, electoral politics and history to psychology and your current work environment.
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