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The WAR AGAINST BOYS: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men Paperback – June 12, 2001

by Christina Hoff Sommers (Author)

153 customer reviews

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Despite popular belief, American boys tag behind girls in reading and writing ability, and they are less likely to go to college. Our young men are greatly at risk, yet the best-known studies and experts insist that it's girls who are in need of our attention. The highly publicized "girl crisis" has led to many changes in American schools, politics, and parenting...but at what cost?

In this provocative book, Christina Hoff Sommers argues that our society has continued to overemphasize the troubles of girls while our boys suffer from the same self-esteem and academic problems. Boys need help, but not the sort of help they've been getting.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Marilyn Gardner The Christian Science Monitor Provocative and controversial...Sommers's voice is impassed and articulate.

Richard Bernstein The New York Times The burden of [this] thoughtful, provocative book is that it is American boys who are in trouble, not girls. Ms. Sommers... makes these arguments persuasively and unflinchingly, with plenty of data to support them.

Mary Eberstadt The Washington Times This book promises to launch and influence an enduring national debate....The author trains her empirical and polemical skills on an issue of demonstrable and often poignant urgency.

Danielle Crittenden New York Post In Christina Hoff Sommers's splendid new book...she shows the damage that is being done to our sons by adults determined to stop them from being, well, boys.

From the Publisher

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

"Provocative and controversial . . . Sommers's voice is impassioned and articulate."--Marilyn Gardner, The Christian Science Monitor

"The burden of [this] thoughtful, provocative book is that it is American boys who are in trouble, not girls. Ms. Sommers . . . makes these arguments persuasively and unflinchingly, with plenty of data to support them."--Richard Bernstein, The New York Times

"This book promises to launch and influence an enduring national debate . . . . The author trains her empirical and polemical skills on an issue of demonstrable and often poignant urgency."--Mary Eberstadt, The Washington Times

"In Christina Hoff Sommers's splendid new book . . . she shows the damage that is being done to our sons by adults determined to stop them from being, well, boys."--Danielle Crittenden, New York Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st Touchstone Ed edition (June 12, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684849577
ISBN-13: 978-0684849577
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
Average Customer Review: 153 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #433 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Gender Studies > Men
- #661 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Parenting > Parenting Boys
- #920 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Parenting > Teenagers

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Moral Mandatory

August 5, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Christina Hoff Sommers deserves a lot of credit for calling attention to an educational crisis afflicting American boys before it was common to do so. As the years have passed since this 2000 study, declining male matriculation and graduation rates have made it clear that, just as girls require special focus on their educational needs, so also do boys. At her best, Sommers acknowledges that educational success does not need to be a zero sum game: Both boys and girls should be supported and enabled to succeed in school; programs that acknowledge their individual learning styles and needs (e.g., single-sex education) can be part of a solution that benefits both sexes.

Instead, as Sommers points out, some (though perhaps not as many as she indicates) educational theorists arrogantly impose their own notions of ideal male behavior, an ideal that essentially feminizes young men, in the classroom, making guinea pigs of little boys by discouraging their natural exuberance, competitiveness, and physicality. I'm a mother of two sons who would have done better with more recess, so I could easily see the commonsense basis of her argument, though I'm sure one doesn't have to be the mother of boys to stand with her on this point. Since the publication of this book, it has become much more common to encounter criticism of the repression and even medication of normal boy behavior. Not only grade schools and high schools, but colleges and universities are increasingly concerned about underachieving young men. Sommers has played an important role in facilitating the conversation that has allowed us as a society to acknowledge and address this serious problem.

But even as Sommers attacks the feminist "save the males" movement, she substitutes one of her own, ultimately claiming with a certain arrogance herself that she is the one who truly understands not only the complexity of male identity but also the range of educational practices that can help to bring a young boy to full maturity as a man. Would that she would apply her "plea for reticence" (152) to herself. Instead, she argues nostalgically for a very traditional educational framework that not only imposes specified academic standards on our schools, but that also insists upon behavioral conformity. To my eye, the "eleven be's" that she promotes in chapter 8 ("The Moral Life of Boys") are no less idiosyncratic and academically limiting than the behavioral restrictions on boys with which she disagrees earlier.

This inconsistency becomes an increasing problem. "The War Against Boys" begins by attacking those who would cast all American boys under the shadow of the Columbine killers. As Sommers states straightforwardly, "This book tells the story of how it has become fashionable to attribute pathology to millions of healthy male children." By the end of the book, however, Sommers herself is manipulating the Columbine tragedy into serving as an object lesson in the improper "socialization" of the two male killers. Current educational practice, in this argument, underestimates the "barbarism" of young males, which according to Sommers must be tamed by a "directive moral education." The main difference here between Sommers and her opponents is that SHE gets to specify what that education will comprise.

Some readers will appreciate the pithy, hard-driving quality of the argument and the prose in this book. But much of that energy is purchased at the cost of caricaturing Sommers's opposition. Carol Gilligan, for example, really plays an outsize role here. For a moment in time, to be sure, she was an important feminist figure, but she never stood for all of feminism, and she was never as key a player in feminist pedagogy as Sommers makes her out to be. No book that addresses a complicated issue like this one should devote, as Sommers does, two full chapters to one straw (wo)man.

Still, there is no gainsaying the importance and underlying intelligence of this book, despite its flaws. Sommers had the courage to stand up to those who would suppress a generation of boys in the service of a flawed utopian ideal, and her courage gave strength to many who followed. I only wish that conservative critiques like this one did not feel the need to stand so hard on polemics.

13 people found this helpful14 people found this helpful

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Harold T. Hansen

Can you handle dissent? Don't shun an intelligent challenge.

February 27, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This work is very valuable for anyone who is capable of accepting and evaluating information and criticism that runs counter to popular dogma. The analysis of flawed and harmful feminist theory is solid, and could help preserve the important gains of the women's movement, against more recent corruption of original ideals. Less solid is the material toward the end of the work, wherein Dr. Sommers relies more on her personal point of view, regarding what is natural and healthy for boys. It is nevertheless worth considering: The life experience of a person who is capable of what she shows in the earlier portion of the work certainly deserves careful regard and respect, regardless whether one agrees with all of her opinions. She may be a "traditionalist," but that does not detract from the honesty, integrity and aim of her criticism, which is to correct serious, regrettable problems in feminism, and reduce harm to both men *and* women, ultimately.

8 people found this helpful9 people found this helpful

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Five Stars

April 27, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The truth on gender wars is hidden in plain site.

7 people found this helpful8 people found this helpful

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Gosh Golly

A MUST READ!

January 21, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

A brilliant work based on thorough research, a must read for every parent and everybody else, for that matter. Puts the spotlight on the sinisterness of the left.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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Krimson

Need to know book for all fathers that want to protect their boys

September 18, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Must read for every father... if you want to raise boys, you have to understand the war against them in the government programming schools.

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jason Whitehead

Five Stars

May 23, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

great

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Benjamin J. Garner

Great book by an esteemed author

June 27, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Christina Hoff Sommers' "The War Against BOYS" was quite insightful and expertly refuted the idea that we are living in a "girl-destroying culture." However, the second half of the book strayed off-topic with Ms. Sommers' overall review of the American educational system, which drew conclusions about why boys are lagging in schools but didn't provide very much support for her ideas. Her main problem is her misunderstanding of the fact that correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation.

10 people found this helpful11 people found this helpful

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Jane Austen

How to achieve self-esteem...

April 22, 2011

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book is brilliant and I learned so much in the reading. One particular point that hit a nerve with me was the author's critisism of self-esteem exercises and anger management courses. My personal observation agrees with the author's statement that self-esteem comes from discipline and achievement.
Also, I consider the neighborhood that I live in to be rich in wise and thoughtful parents and yet... touch football, soccer, tag and other sports that boys enjoy have been banned at our local elementary school. Quite a few boys have been suspended for throwing snowballs! The author makes clear arguments for how boys socialize and bond through rough and tumble play and how necessasry it is for their healthy development.
If you have boys, teach or coach boys, or if you hope that your daughter will grow up to marry a man. .. I'd read this book. It has some very important thoughts.

16 people found this helpful17 people found this helpful

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The WAR AGAINST BOYS: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men Paperback – June 12, 2001

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