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The Will to Change

Men, Masculinity, and Love

bell hooks

Everyone needs to love and be loved -- even men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving. In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are -- whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the …

Everyone needs to love and be loved -- even men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving. In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are -- whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. She believes men can find the way to spiritual unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of themselves -- and lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that have historically been the exclusive province of women. A brave and astonishing work, The Will to Change is designed to help men reclaim the best part of themselves.

Paperback, 188 pages

English language

Published Dec. 21, 2004 by Washington Square Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-7434-5608-1
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Subjects

Masculinity
Men -- Identity
Self-esteem in men
Men -- Psychology
Sex role
Intimacy (Psychology)

Reviews

nerd teacher [books] reviewed Will to Change by bell hooks

Rubbish.

1 star

This book is rubbish, and it's nothing short of constantly reinforcing the so-called masculinity it claims it wants to dismantle.

I've effectively made an essay for each chapter in the book comments here, but I just... I cannot with this book. I have always wondered why it is that I see so many abusive men, especially abusive men who claim to be "progressive" or "radical leftists" or "anarchists," promoting it and utilising it in their screeds that support abuse apologia... And now I know why.

Every claim comes with zero references or citations. When she does cite someone, they're frequently conservative white men. One of them was a former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand (Nathaniel Branden), while two others were Oprah-promoted "therapists" who comment on the attractiveness of their patients (Terrence Real and John Bradshaw)... Or another interesting one is Michael Kimmel (but that's because he …

This book is rubbish, and it's nothing short of constantly reinforcing the so-called masculinity it claims it wants to dismantle.

I've effectively made an essay for each chapter in the book comments here, but I just... I cannot with this book. I have always wondered why it is that I see so many abusive men, especially abusive men who claim to be "progressive" or "radical leftists" or "anarchists," promoting it and utilising it in their screeds that support abuse apologia... And now I know why.

Every claim comes with zero references or citations. When she does cite someone, they're frequently conservative white men. One of them was a former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand (Nathaniel Branden), while two others were Oprah-promoted "therapists" who comment on the attractiveness of their patients (Terrence Real and John Bradshaw)... Or another interesting one is Michael Kimmel (but that's because he later resigned from his role in a gender equality campaign group after being accused of sexual harassment in 2018—she probably didn't know about this one in 2004, but it's still an interesting pattern of the men she cites). There's also Gary Zukav, who once wrote that dolphins are killing themselves and giving themselves sicknesses because they're exhausted (not that humans are, you know, fucking up their environment).

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