Of Boys and Men – by Richard Reeves
Having finished my read through of Of Boys and Men by Richard Reeves – sadly, I found myself disappointed. Bitterly so.
But perhaps, not entirely surprised. And I should add, not disappointed by every little bit in totality. There were things about the book I really enjoyed and agreed with. But it was a bumpy ride. One paragraph would hit the nail on the head, the next would leave me face palming with frustration.
By the end I was left feeling that sadly, whilst Reeves is somewhat elevating the level of discussion about the issues faced by men and boys in today’s world, he was doing this through a potentially deeply destructive lens, kowtowing to other ideologies and perhaps even trojan horsing more suffering upon us.
Whilst there were lots of bits I liked, overall, unfortunately, I believe Reeves to be, sadly, yet another in a long line of “concerned feminists” who want to try and “help” men by using an ideology (and supporting theories) which hates them.
This isn’t, I would argue, what we need.
Solutions FOR men must come FROM us, by US, throwing off the oppression of our traditional gender roles. We have to do this for ourselves with a mixture of the best of old ideas and some new/innovative ones. Not through existing ideologies that hate us and certainly not through what women choose for us.
This all sounds very dramatic, I know. If you have five minutes though, please let me explain why I feel this way and tell you what I agree with and what I don’t about Of Boys and Men.
