The Decline of Males - Hardcover

Lionel Tiger

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1582380147 ISBN 13: 9781582380148

Publisher: Golden Books Publishing Company, 1999

Synopsis

Why have sexual and family norms of American society changed so dramatically in the last few decades? Lionel Tiger presents a unique perspective, offering arresting evidence that the real issue is reproduction, a biological process. He argues that the spread of effective contraception, controlled by women, gives them the sole power to decide to, or not to, bear children. Removed from the process of reproduction, men have begun to feel obsolete, resulting in their unprecedented withdrawal from family systems.

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 Books Publishing Company
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1582380147
• ISBN 13: 9781582380148
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 323