The Decline of Males: The First Look at an Unexpected New World for Men and Women - Softcover

Tiger, Lionel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312263112 ISBN 13: 9780312263119

Publisher: Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press, 2000

Synopsis

From a distinguished anthropologist, a provocative look at how the balance between the sexes has fundamentally shifted toward women and away from men --with consequences ranging from divorce to teenage crime, from declining birth rates to child abuse,

About this title

Review:

Biological anthropologist Lionel Tiger, best known for developing the concept of male bonding in Men in Groups, offers what he calls "a chronicle of the decline of men and the ascendancy of women." If there were a male counterpart to feminism--masculinism?--this is where it would be found. Profound social changes over the last several decades are rooted in reproductive technology, which "has given enormous general power to women that has been translated beyond the family sphere," says Tiger. This is not an unequivocally positive development, he believes, and it has led to a slew of problems that include general family breakdown. The book is occasionally alarmist, yet there is also a freshness to its argument.

The Decline of Males is a nonsexist brief on behalf of men, and it includes a number of interesting observations. As women play a larger role in public life, men are looking for new ways to be male. "Perhaps the apparent explosion of interest in sports and pornography means that men are trying to find new outlets to express their inherent maleness, which they may feel otherwise obligated to repress," writes Tiger. Several of his proposals are politically naive, but intriguing in how they blend conservative and liberal ideas. Tiger, for example, thinks men should earn higher pay for the children they have during a first marriage, and that unmarried women with children should receive welfare without having to work. The Decline of Males will fascinate some readers and exasperate others, yet all will agree it makes a unique intellectual contribution to the ongoing sex wars. --John J. Miller

From the Back Cover:

"This provocative book raises questions about the awesome influences of nanotechnology and genetic engineering on the future of human sexuality and social structure. Highly recommended." (Library Journal)

"Lionel Tiger, a pioneer of biological anthropology and developer of the concept of male bonding, here delivers a very well-researched and well-written brief for masculinism, which if successful, may gain parity with feminism and eventually transform women's studies within academia into what they should have always been, namely, gender studies." (Edward O. Wilson, author of Consilience and Pellegrino University Research Professor, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University)

"This book, written without the ideological blinkers that obscure most contemporary discussions of gender, is full of incredible nuance and insight that will reward careful reading." (Francis Fukuyama, author of Trust and The End of History and the Last Man, and Hirst Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University)

"In an utterly persuasive book that must change the discourse on sexual politics, Lionel Tiger offers his startling perspective on humanity's future. By giving women unprecedented control of human reproduction, the new technologies of conception and contraception have already put men well on the way to becoming tomorrow's 'second sex'-with no reversal in sight." (Christina Hoff Sommers, author of Who Stole Feminism? and W.H. Brady Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research)

"The Decline of Males is an extremely well and clearly written and powerfully argued account of the changing relations between men and women. The distinguished anthropologist, claims that the male faces obsolescence... I hope that the book is unduly alarmist, but I fear that it may not be." (Richard A. Posner, author of Sex and Reason and chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit)

"The Decline of Males will perhaps be tarred with the brush of 'backlash,' but it is no such thing. Lionel Tiger's vivid, readable account will help us all move forward to a time when equality between the sexes does not have to be achieved at the expense of men, children, and families." (Melvin Konner, author of Becoming a Doctor and The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit, and professor of anthropology, Emory University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0312263112
• ISBN 13: 9780312263119
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336