Will to Change - Moé for Solarpunk Books

English language

Published April 5, 2004 by Simon & Schuster, Limited.

ISBN:: 978-0-7434-8033-8

Feminist writing did not tell us about the deep inner misery of men.

Everyone needs to love and be loved—including men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways in which patriarchal culture keeps them from understanding themselves. In The Will to Change, bell hooks provides a compassionate guide for men of all ages and identities to understand how to be in touch with their feelings, and how to express versus repress the emotions that are a fundamental part of who we are.

With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. The Will to Change “creates space for men to acknowledge their traumas and heal—not only for their sake, but for the sake of everyone in their lives” (BuzzFeed).

1 edition

nerd teacher [books] reviewed Will to Change by bell hooks

Rubbish.

1 star

This book is rubbish, and it's nothing short of constantly reinforcing the so-called masculinity it claims it wants to dismantle.

I've effectively made an essay for each chapter in the book comments here, but I just... I cannot with this book. I have always wondered why it is that I see so many abusive men, especially abusive men who claim to be "progressive" or "radical leftists" or "anarchists," promoting it and utilising it in their screeds that support abuse apologia... And now I know why.

Every claim comes with zero references or citations. When she does cite someone, they're frequently conservative white men. One of them was a former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand (Nathaniel Branden), while two others were Oprah-promoted "therapists" who comment on the attractiveness of their patients (Terrence Real and John Bradshaw)... Or another interesting one is Michael Kimmel (but that's because he …

This book is rubbish, and it's nothing short of constantly reinforcing the so-called masculinity it claims it wants to dismantle.

I've effectively made an essay for each chapter in the book comments here, but I just... I cannot with this book. I have always wondered why it is that I see so many abusive men, especially abusive men who claim to be "progressive" or "radical leftists" or "anarchists," promoting it and utilising it in their screeds that support abuse apologia... And now I know why.

Every claim comes with zero references or citations. When she does cite someone, they're frequently conservative white men. One of them was a former associate and romantic partner of Ayn Rand (Nathaniel Branden), while two others were Oprah-promoted "therapists" who comment on the attractiveness of their patients (Terrence Real and John Bradshaw)... Or another interesting one is Michael Kimmel (but that's because he later resigned from his role in a gender equality campaign group after being accused of sexual harassment in 2018—she probably didn't know about this one in 2004, but it's still an interesting pattern of the men she cites). There's also Gary Zukav, who once wrote that dolphins are killing themselves and giving themselves sicknesses because they're exhausted (not that humans are, you know, fucking up their environment).