What Makes a Man

This being the 1st text I have read written by Rebecca Walker I am swayed to encourage others to read this novel and to purchase from this site. Read Rebecca Walker because she has provided those who may and may not be familiar with Feminism, gender roles and the crippling effects of patriarchy with a contemporary way to view these issues from which we should be freed.

This book presents commentary from a very wide spectrum of writers, of different races and social classes. In fact, I thought the diversity of perspectives presented was one of the book's strongest points. A very timely question, given a very thorough exploration in this book.

Makes a very entertaining reading and at the same time makes you think.

Author Rebecca Walker brings us a very interesting collection of essays by a variety of contributors in her work, "What Makes A Man." I knew this work would hold some enticing reading. Here are a few questions for you. What does it mean to be a male? What exactly is required of our men and is it fair what we demand from them? How do they feel about the role they are made to take? These are some of the questions addressed in this work, and the responses may surprise you. In these essays you will find heart felt stories and honest raw emotions set before you. Perhaps for the first time you will understand the true heart of a man as he struggles to find his own identity, which is often suppressed by what he feels he should be, but is not. Or longs to be, but is not given the liberty to pursue his hearts desire. Very sad. I found this work to be very refreshing and certainly made me stop and re-think of the pre-conceived ideas that have been handed down to me concerning the place men should have in our society. The essays kept my interest as I could feel through the words that were penned a true heart cry of the writer for others to understand the turmoil that they were experiencing. This work is truly one that would benefit all in bringing us more understanding of fears unspoken, goals not able to be achieved and dreams unfulfilled from those who have played the role for so long, men.

This book caught my eye at the bookstore because of its title, and even though it was only available in hardcover I decided I had to have it. I read the initial chapter a few times before actually reading the book fully, and I thought I had an idea of what it would be all about. Fortunately, I was wrong. Parts of this book (chapters by certain authors) are amazing. Others are reiterations of information I had learned elsewhere, reiterations that reminded me of the "standing on your soapbox" image. The chapters that really interested me were the one by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah where she discusses the stereotypical perceptions of "masculinity" and "femininity," the chapter by Michael Moore where he candidly discusses gender roles (and how to escape a room if your wife has set your bed on fire), the chapter by Ruth Bettelheim about the affects of divorce on male children (and how parents should work with their children post-divorce), and Martha Southgate's story of "her girlish boy." Above all what I took from this book was a sense of awe; not only do we not understand that society is creating unhappiness (in both women and men), but we also are buying into it. We keep pushing ourselves to become what it is that someone, somewhere else than where we are, is telling us is "good" and appropriate for our genders. This motion is creating depression, anger, aggression, and general malaise in both women and men. Hopefully more people will read this book, or more books like it, and begin to have an understanding of what is happening, if not do something about it.