A Man's World: How Real Is Male Privilege-And How High Is Its Price? - Softcover

Cose, Ellis

3.6

10 ratings by Goodreads

9780060927226: A Man's World: How Real Is Male Privilege-And How High Is Its Price?

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060927224 ISBN 13: 9780060927226

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1996

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In a provocative examination of male identity in today's society, a successful author discusses the confusion of men over changing gender roles and expectations, using both personal accounts and startling statistics to explain how men can cope with an increasingly confusing world. Reprint.

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From the Publisher:

With the same mix of interviews, reportage and analysis that gave his previous book Rage of a Privileged Class its acclaimed and respected perspective on the African-American middle class's fury, A Man's World addresses the confusion men are feeling as changing gender roles and expectations challenge the core of male identity. Many men today fear that their rights and roles are shrinking, that they are the new "endangered species": White men are prime targets for male-bashing; black men are considered a pathologically dangerous and endangered species; and Latinos are told their culture is irredeemably sexist.

Filled with revealing statistics and candid personal accounts, this book discusses such fascinating and troubling subjects as why men commit suicide in much higher numbers than women, how child custody disputes affect men, what happened to the men's movement, what intimate relationships are like in an age of sex codes and anti-date-rape campaigns and much more. An eye-opening guide for men navigating in an increasingly unconventional world.

From Booklist:

Newsweek editor Cose follows his successful summary of the continuing discomforts of middle-class black Americans, The Rage of a Privileged Class , with a report on an old, reliable topic, the war between the sexes, as regarded from a fairly new perspective, that of the "masculinist" reaction to contemporary feminism. Citing prominent ideologues and authorities of both sexes and on both sides of the issues while maintaining neutrality himself, Cose expresses facets of his argument in terms of media catchphrases, "Man as Victim" (title of the first chapter), the endangered black male, the men's movement, the sensitive man, Mr. Mom, date rape, "Men Who Just Don't Get It" (another chapter title), fathering, feeling our (male/female) pain, and battered spouse syndrome. (The most absorbingly treated of these is fatherhood; all opinions seem to be converging in the understanding that fathers are essential to children's healthiest psychological development.) As usual for this kind of once-over, there's much here that is provocative, such as the many enormous discrepancies between the findings of sound social science and the claims ostensibly based on them made by radicals, both feminist (e.g., Andrea Dworkin) and masculinist (e.g., Warren Farrell). Although Cose's flat, reportorial style gets tiresome, particularly when one reads more than a chapter at a time, his book is a current awareness briefing well done. Ray Olson

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