Men's Studies, Gender Studies - General & Miscellaneous, Sex Role - United States, Relationships - Interpersonal, Women's Studies - General & Miscellaneous, Self-Improvement

The Myth of Male Power

Name: The Myth of Male Power
Author: Warren Farrell
ISBN: 9780425181447

by Warren Farrell

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Overview

More than a classic bestseller...

"a bombshell"* in the battle between the sexes.

Beyond anger. Beyond controversy. Beyond dogma...

...lies understanding. This is what bestselling author Warren Farrell discovered when he took a stand against established views of the male role in society, and pursued a course of study to find out who men really are. Here are the eye-opening, heart-rending, and undeniably enlightening results...

A deeply liberating work that empowers both sexes and deepens love...Read it, please. (Harold Bloomfield, M.D.)

A bombshell...Forces us to see our everyday world from a fresh perspective. (Camille Paglia, The Washington Post)

This is one terrific book...As groundbreaking and provocative as The Feminine Mystique was decades ago. (Carol Cassell, Ph.D., author of Tender Bargaining)

Provocative ideas likely to challenge...should be a part of any future discussion of the gender issue. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Powerful insights...For men and women, The Myth of Male Power could be an unforgettable wake-up call. (David Kaplan, Houston Post)

Intellectual dynamite...Farrell continues to open genuine communication between the sexes. (Anthony Robbins)

Impressive and important. (Nancy Friday)

Explosive...armed with hundreds of thoroughly documented statistics and legal citings...its very provocativeness.... (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

The bestselling author of Why Men Are the Way They Are sheds new light on the state of men in today's society, arguing that male power is a myth with startling and eye-opening facts. Farrell brilliantly illusrtrates how the male-as-oppressor image has fueled hatred between the sexes: making women feel angry and victimized and men unloved and unappreciated.

Synopsis

A deeply liberating work that empowers both sexes and deepens love...Read it, please. (Harold Bloomfield, M.D.)

A bombshell...Forces us to see our everyday world from a fresh perspective. (Camille Paglia, The Washington Post)

This is one terrific book...As groundbreaking and provocative as The Feminine Mystique was decades ago. (Carol Cassell, Ph.D., author of Tender Bargaining)

Provocative ideas likely to challenge...should be a part of any future discussion of the gender issue. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Powerful insights...For men and women, The Myth of Male Power could be an unforgettable wake-up call. (David Kaplan, Houston Post)

Intellectual dynamite...Farrell continues to open genuine communication between the sexes. (Anthony Robbins)

Impressive and important. (Nancy Friday)

Explosive...armed with hundreds of thoroughly documented statistics and legal citings...its very provocativeness.... (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))

Publishers Weekly

Men who make their way through the interminable subtitle and embark on this orignal and significant study will find that they haven't lost the ability to cry after all. While some feminists may assert that it is an attack on women, the book attempts to show areas in which males operate at a disadvantage without claiming that women are responsible for their plight. Psychologist Farrell stresses economics, pointing out that the 25 worst types of jobs, involving the highest physical risk, are almost all filled by men. He also considers warfare, in which virtually all of the military casualties are men; the justice system, where sentences for males are customarily heavier; and sexual harassment, which has become a one-way street. He concludes with helpful advice on ``resocializing'' the male child, adolescent and adult. Clever cartoons enliven the text. (Aug.)

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Library Journal

Consider this: a professional football game between the Atlanta Munchkins and the Dallas Fairies! Farrell, the only man ever elected three times to the board of the National Organization for Women in New York City, juxtaposes this incongruity with our normal reference to more powerful images in order to call attention to the myth that males are the more powerful sex. He defines power as the ability to control one's life and explains that men do not possess this power to the degree that most people think. Farrell cites numerous statistics about higher workplace death rates for men, military role inequities, and examples from violent sports to illuminate his unique perspective. Glib statements abound, so the printed text is essential for anyone seeking to ascertain Farrell's factoids. His anthropological and historic analyses, combined with his thoughts on the male psyche, will surely stimulate discussion.-- Dale Farris, Groves, Tex.

Kirkus Reviews

The War Between the Sexes escalates considerably with this broadside attack in which men's-movement leader Farrell (Why Men Are the Way They Are, 1986, etc.) contends that the more subjugated sex is...the male. Farrell was on the board of directors of NOW in N.Y.C. until he realized that he'd "been listening to women but not...to men." What he finally heard from men—and from his research into socioeconomic issues—is explosive. Through numerous short-take paragraphs, Farrell—armed with hundreds of thoroughly documented statistics and legal citings—argues that men are oppressed by several "glass cellars," among them war (in which it's mainly men who die); suicide ("A husband whose wife dies is about ten times more likely to commit suicide than a wife whose husband dies"); and "the death professions" ("The Jobs Related Almanac...found that twenty-four of the twenty-five worst jobs were almost-all-male jobs"). He emphasizes that women live, on average, seven years longer than men, and that men's health issues, unlike women's, are basically ignored. He contends that women's net worth exceeds men's, and that economic power, if measured by spending rather than by earning, belongs primarily to women ("Both sexes buy more for women"). Farrell accuses government of becoming a "substitute husband" through welfare and through discriminating in favor of women in cases of murder, sexual harassment, and rape; castigates current laws regarding date rape and spousal rape; and claims that many accusations of rape are false. Finally, he predicts that the "mythopoetic" men's movement will become "political and activist"—a prediction he seems to be trying to fulfill through thisbook. Farrell's claimed aim is to heal through rebalancing, not to wound. But as a veteran of confrontational TV (Oprah, Donahue, etc.) and other media, he must know that this work will cause far more dissension than dialogue—and that its very provocativeness may well make it the hottest men's book since Iron John. (Illustrations)