The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity

Ducat, Stephen J.

ISBN 10: 0807043443 / ISBN 13: 9780807043448

Published by Beacon Pr, 2004

Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00094319763

Synopsis:

A professor of psychology shows how "anxious masculinity" is a factor in many wars and conflicts, offering a sweeping treatment of the subject, from the contentious politics of ancient Greece through the backlash against Hillary Clinton and the current War in Iraq.

Reviews: Just as George Herbert Walker Bush announced his candidacy for president in October 1987, the cover of Newsweek pegged him with the emasculating headline "Fighting the Wimp Factor"-a line that clinical psychologist Ducat (Taken In) says put the candidate, his handlers and eventually his son, George W., on the defensive for the next decade and a half. Bush's patrician habits-from asking for a "splash more coffee" at a New Hampshire truck stop to using effete expressions like "dippity do," "darn" and "heck"-would soon be replaced with a (strained) Real Man From Texas image. But if the senior Bush never quite convinced the public, or his own party, that he was anything more than a Connecticut WASP who used "summer" as a verb, Ducat argues that the Republicans had their revenge when the younger Bush won the presidency largely because he was able to convince voters that he was a regular guy, a true Texan. In this insightful analysis of the role male fear plays in politics, Ducat provides in-depth examples of the emotions that may have fueled the Right's attacks on Hillary Rodham Clinton and its animosity towards Bill Clinton. He stumbles a little when he uses his own minimal research to analyze men's psychological reactions to the Persian Gulf War but, overall, Ducat lays out a cogent theory for the motivations behind the good ole boy defense mechanisms. Though this book does preach to the converted, its fresh and complex insights may reach a new generation of swing voters.
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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and...
Publisher: Beacon Pr
Publication Date: 2004
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good