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Women's Fiction
The Myth of Male Power

The Myth of Male Power

List Price: $12.95
Your Price: $11.01
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: this book has changed my life!!
Review: What a powerful, well organized and useful book Warren Farrell has written! Its an eye opening account of the ways in which men are discriminated against, and all this coming from a man who used to serve on the board of directors of the National Organization for Women (USA). It's helped me more than any book I've ever read! For the first time, I've started to question why it is only men are conscripted during war time, why I've chosen a career in business when my real interest always lay in art and literature, why it is that men have to take the initiative and deal with the consequent rejection in relationships, and why it is that men live far shorter lives than women (yet many women claim to be the "oppressed" sex?!)!! It has shattered many other assumptions too. I cannot recommend this and other works by Farrell highly enough...just a hint from personal experience - when you've read this, you will want to change the world in a hurry and it won't happen all at once. As a friend says, try to see yourself as "the sun". That is, don't burn others with too much information at once, but rather lightly tan them with bits of information and repetition over time, and they'll appreciate you much more for it. And they will be more receptive to your message. Of course, you won't be able to persuade everyone to acknowledge discrimination against men either. But this is a staggering and important book so do YOURSELF a huge favor! Buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You need to read this book
Review: The Myth of Male Power goes farther than the feminist literature I've read by powerfully combining extensive, rational research (a "male" approach) with plenty of doses of fine feeling level (a "female" approach). This book nearly made me cry in places, with the cut and dried layout of how hard it must be to be a man in this world. In other words, there's more heart in this book than the works of our founding mothers'.

The statistics of life expectancy alone should shock every son's mother. I urge women everywhere to throw off the shackles of their feminist-based education and realize that according to the numbers, the men they love - their husbands, fathers, and sons - are going to die.

It's not an us-against-them proposition; we're in this together. And although Farrel's position in the book is to make us really think about what it's really like to be a man, I believe his end goal is to help us realize just that.

...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A mixed bag
Review: It was interesting to read this book and get a new perspective. The thesis can be summed up with this quote from the first chapter: "Feminism suggested that God might be a 'She' but not that the devil might also be a 'she.'" This is definitely true. Warren Farrell's book does a pretty good job of debunking the popular notion that women are the victims and men are the suppressors, but here is my two cents: the solutions he proposes, the issues he wants a Men's Movement to raise, are neither plausible nor realistic.

I say "implausible" because while Farrell, three-time board member of the National Organization for Women, seems to have escaped the statistical and factual errors that plague modern Women's studies, he clearly has not let go of the biggest myth of the feminist worldview: that the traditional male role is evil and needs to become more feminine. Throughout the book, he discusses Stage I versus Stage II roles for men and women, and how women have moved to Stage II but left men behind in Stage I. The problem with this idea is twofold.

First, Farrell's vision of Stage II has few--if any--distinctions between the sexes. This would take us right back where we started. Feminism has helped set the tone for what is and isn't politically correct, and as such they have effectively made "boys being boys" something politically incorrect. Women and men simply are not the same; there is plenty of evidence to that end. Second, Farrell's charge would imply that feminism has been a good thing. Visit a Women's Studies program on your college campus and see what feminism has resulted in: misandry, lying, a sense of anger over a nonexistant problem, and a scornful attitude toward women who feel a compulsion to take a more traditional role in their family.

And I say "unrealistic" because, let's face it, we are not at a point where we can abolish our military. We cannot sustain the kind of infrastructure we'd need to institute all the changes we'd need to have this kind of gender conformity--and, as you can tell, I would hotly debate whether gender conformity is a good thing in the first place. And people who believe that sexual instincts should be "repressed" believe such because they have a serious instinct that the passages in the Holy Scriptures which prohobit fornication are divinely ordained, and they are not going to be convinced that religion should "progress" to focusing on the spiritual aspect of sexual relationships rather than on sexual repression. It is possible to cherish and enjoy one's sexuality while remaining staunchly monogamous, and except for the Episcopal Church U.S.A. (for which I hear a death knell in the very near future), I don't see most major sects agreeing with Farrell's goals.

Would I recommend this book? Well, yes, I would. Obviously, I am far more conservative than the author, but despite the fact that I think he would do well to scrap a few of his lingering feminist ideologies, I think it's an excellent read. It's an interesting alternative point of view, even if it didn't convince me that Farrell's particular flavor of the Men's Movement is the proper route to solving the current gender gap. It's well-written and has lots of useful information.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: it's about time/astounding read
Review: A terrific bible/mantra for any male who considers himself to be a "good guy". Farrell completely dismantles and destroys the myth of the patriarchy, and shows with well backed-up facts that sexism and opression come equally from both genders. Topics such as the politics of date rape, the female-only defense, and laws which favor women are covered exstensively. Essential reading for both men and women.
Farrell believes (and proves in his well-researched writing) that men are only considered "real men" when society makes them
expendable, disposable statistics, while men who choose to preserve themselves or assert their individuality are seen as weak and undesireable. This is implied over and over again in the media, fiction, and film, whether the public realizes it or not. Also, Farrell claims in a special chapter how women are protected to the hilt by rape laws, yet many women's ideas of the perfect man are governed by masochism, rape fantasy, and abuse of power.(Ever wonder why John Gray claims men need to tolerate verbal/emotional abuse so women can "find their femininity"? Answers in this book.)
This is controversial stuff, no doubt...yet it will provide the reader with many never-considered points of view, most strongly of which is the reoccuring theme that today's man, in any relationship, is required to take all the risks, all the responsibility, and all the rejection. Quite a book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent critique of feminism by an insider
Review: Dr. Farrell was on the board of directors of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). He broke ranks because of the increasing man-bashing by many feminists. This book was ten years in the making, and makes a compelling argument against many tenets of the feminist faith. Gloria Steinem and Patricia Ireland don't want you to read this book, because they can't answer his arguments. But the book doesn't have a polemical tone; Dr. Farrell is far more gracious than Rush Limbaugh (or James Carville).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: misguided
Review: Conservatives love to think that feminists sit around talking about how much they hate men and how they will take over the world. While I admit there are many man haters, many of them are not feminists. Feminist scholars have a long record of citing the ways in which our current social structure is alienating and oppressive to women AND men.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spartacus vs. the social manipulators
Review: The Myth of Male Power was originally written in 1993, during the height of gender feminism, political correctness, and affirmative action. That era was also the tail end of an undeclared economic depression bringing misery to everyone under thirty - particularly young intelligent individualistic white males with imperfect bodies. I myself was caught in this maelstrom, having lost a promising job due to backstabbing feminist office politics. A book like that was sorely needed back then, and it remains just as relevant now.

The media usually labels TMOMP as a conservative or right-wing book, but TMOMP exposes some of the real class oppression in North America. And it does so far better than most lib-left critiques of class, money, and power. A powerful caste of evil social manipulators has divided and conquered society at the expense of real working men and women of all colours and creeds. The "patriarchy", reviled by feminists, is only a cog in the machinery. Farrell, through TMOMP, comes to the rescue of men, and indirectly, women. Some men, the ones who appear less masculine (gays, geeks, and hard-working but unrewarded "chumps") will benefit more than others. Media liberals pillory Farrell as the male supremacist conterpart to gender feminists. They are wrong, again. A good reading of TMOMP will prove that Farrell stands for true gender equality, and champions true social justice.

TMOMP exposes the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of modern feminism, and of all modern lib-left movements in general. Being tribalist in nature, they help only certain favoured tribes, not individuals in need; and are part of a mighty political machine of hypocritical wealth and power. What else can I say about the ground-breaking TMOMP? Clear, concise, honest, bold, gutsy. The only criticism is that TMOMP is sloppy with some of the facts, such as those about the Laurie Dann case.

Men have been reduced to gladiators - divided conquered gladiators, chained by the traditions of the conservative Right and the new fabricated traditions of the Left, while sadistic powermongers cheer from the balcony. It was the same story in Waco, Ruby Ridge, Oklahoma City, Columbine, and Kosovo. Farrell may well be the intellectual Spartacus of the men's movement.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wrong Target
Review: Farrell seems to attack womyn and femynism for the horrible state of men, but he has it all wrong. the problem is PATRIARCHY! patriarchy tells men that they need to work in those horrible jobs because they are men. patriarchy is the reason why womyn are raped and those laws are needed. if he followed the femynist purpose he would see that it's for equality and the end of gender/sex based violence. then men and womyn can be on an equal playing field and no one is oppressed. yes i agree that that men are in a bad state...patriarchy affects men too, but it's not a womin's fault. get your act together farrell!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Clarifies a lot of obscured issues behind political diatribe
Review: Much of the common wisdom about Male Power is wrong and this book explains why and in the process undermines a lot of unspoken assumptions that lie behind feminazi political movements.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: We have found the enemy, and he ain't us!
Review: Nor THEM. The enemy is insanity which has a momentum of its own.

Nevertheless, I suppose there really are feminazis who sincerely believe that men have no feelings other than rage or hysteria(!) and whose principal source of amusement other than rape or murder is watching re runs of The Three Stooges while getting drunk on cheap beer.

If you're THAT far gone down stereotype alley, this book is not for you. Neither will it prove good reading to men who wish to see women as 'the enemy' , the source of all their problems. Here's a male secret: Most of us who have come in contact with such men regard them as worse than whiners; they're BORING whiners.

This is for those of us who have a shreed of sanity left and who are under the impression that something in our culture has gone very, very wrong.

Item: Men are 10 times more likely to commit suicide as a result of the death of a spouse. Strange odds for the unfeeling gender,who is suposed to be a member of the priviliged class.

Item: Garbagemen (there are no 'garbagepersons') are 2.5 times more likely to be killed than police officers. Fire fighting, construction, heavy trucking , coal mining, in short nearly all of the back breaking low paying jobs are done by males. 94% of occupational deaths occur to men. Every workday hour a construction worker loses his life. Same horrible statistics when it comes to catastrophic injuries. Secretaries may be underpaid but they can rise on the social scale without fear of amputations

Item: No comic would make jokes about the feelings of women who are raped, such as being humiliated, violated, helpless, angry, guitly, self-blaming, depressive, etc. But Farrel argues that the same feelings can occur to men who are unemployed and who have identified themselves and their self worth with their jobs. women suffer from unemployment but it is the unemployed man who is the subject of ridicule.

Why have men identified their self worth with their wallets? Here Farrel launches into an interesting argument: In order to get "love" men must excell in the persuits (football player in high school to CEO in adulthood) that MOST SEPARATE THEM from intimacy with women. Not too many parents consel their daughters to be on the lookout for a sensitive dishwasher or a poetic cabdriver, as opposed to a doctor, lawyer or indian chief---who MUST spend most of his time and energy on his job, not his family.

If you're not a provider, you're a burden. Suicide city, once again.
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Farrel was on the board of directors for NOW. There's a joke that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged and Dr Farrel seems to fit this mold when his former women friends turned against him. Thus he does go a bit overboard in his presentation. eg; to 'prove' that men are not more inherently aggressive than women he cites Margaret Thatcher and Queen Mary. This is very selective. Ditto for biology. " Bulls obviously do not behave as cows"--Darwin.

Neither history nor science are Farrel's forte.

Still, in the country of the P.C. blind, the one eyed man has written a 5 star book.


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