The Myth of Male Power

Rating:
Summary: problematic
Review: Actually, some of Farrell's citations did not lead to the 'facts' he claimed in his book. This is the biggest shortcoming of The Myth of Male Power. He should be more thorough in his fact-checking next time, because there were quite a few errors in the book.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST read for any who seek healing between the sexes
Review: As a TV/radio reporter and talk show host, I've not only read this book but spoken with many others who have -- as well as interviewed the author himself.

Working first in southern California, then in upstate New York, I've been struck by how many people from all walks of life find Dr. Farrell's writings as helpful, enlightening and uplifting as I did. The author has a gift of speaking to both women and men, telling us things crucial to understand about one another, WITHOUT casting blame on either gender.

As I've spoken with other MYTH OF MALE POWER readers in person, or listened to them respond to this author during his appearances on my talk shows, it has been my observation that women seem to delight in the tenderness and compassion with which this social scientist approaches his subject while men are simply shocked and overjoyed to see in print things they felt no one would ever speak of out loud.

The only people I have seen consistently crit! ! icize this work are those with an apparent overwhelming attachment to that small twisted tangent of the women's rights movement now known as victimhood feminism.

I once reported on a campus seminar led by Dr. Farrell. The audience of close to a thousand contained people of all ages and interests. Most loved what he had to say as he reviewed the highlights of his findings in this book. But a small group from the university's Women's Studies department were obviously outraged at any suggestion of historical sex roles being harmful to men as well as women. They demonstrated remarkable unwillingness to hear that males die much earlier, are far more frequent victims of violence, of workplace injury, and even of suicide than are females -- let alone any other discussion casting doubt on their dearly held conviction that only women are ever victimized.

As with others I've encountered from within this clique of feminist distortionists, their only interest see! ! med in desperately searching for any small area of question! in interpretation of data, then jumping on such difference of opinion as excuse to repudiate all logical discourse. On the other hand huge gaps in the data they wanted presented were not open to discussion.

Encouragingly, those women's rights activists I've interviewed who adhere to the original tenets of feminism -- as a movement dedicated to healing and equality for all -- have expressed thorough admiration for the revolutionary findings contained in this outstanding work.

Of this author's two most recent books, WHY MEN ARE THE WAY THEY ARE is certainly the softer, gentler approach. THE MYTH OF MALE POWER will come as more of a shock for those steeped in the cultural convention that hurt is an exclusively female experience. But both volumes are absolute MUST reads for any rational adult human being who believes our world needs to some day be made of women and men willing to understand, appreciate, come to terms with, and love one another.

Rating:
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:
Summary: problematic
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:
Summary: Spartacus vs. the social manipulators
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:
Summary: An Eye-Opening Read
Review: Farrell's basic thesis is that men protect women, and no one protects men, who are regarded as expendable. Take healthcare, for instance. In spite of claims by feminists that female healthcare is neglected in comparison with male healthcare, since 1920 the male-female life-span *gap* has increased 600 percent to the present seven years by which female life span exceeds that of males.

Suicide as an expression of powerlessness: "As boys experience the pressures of the male role, their suicide rate increases 25,000 percent." (0.1 suicides per 100,000 boys under the age of nine to 25.8 suicides per 100.000 boys [men] between ages 20-24. That's six times as high as the rate for women ages 20-24.)

And Farrell notes that the advantages men enjoy, i.e., better pay on jobs, are actually a benefit for women, in that while men may earn fat salaries, women spend them (men often don't have the leisure). And while high-status male- dominated occupations, e.g., surgeon, investment banker, are associated with stress-related illnesses, low-status male-dominated occupations, e.g., construction worker, coal miner, garbage-truck driver, are associated with higher rates of injury and death. In other words, women may earn less, but their occupations are safer.

Farrell also enumerates the dis-Viagrifing risks men run when they have sexual relations with women: (1) If pregnancy results, the woman can tell the man or not--her option, (2) If pregnant, the woman can keep the fetus or abort--her option, (3) If the woman gives birth, she can extract 18 years of child-support payments from the guy or not--her option. I wouldn't necessarily argue that this should be otherwise, but clearly there's a big difference in power here.

This pretty much conforms to my view: men are expendable, not designed for the long-haul, designed to fight, breed, and die, their function served. Women, on the other hand, are designed to perpetuate the culture, educate the young, etc., and have to last longer. It's a little ! worrisome to note, however, that the programming of our genes has been greatly assisted in recent years by extra-genetic attacks on men.

Not that I'm complaining, I hasten to add. We guys are tough; we can take it.

Rating:
Summary: Men - Please Read this Book
Review: I frequently lend this book to my male friends and colleagues and their reaction is always one of amazement and often, anger.

Yes, this book presents some hard truths for women and feminists , but for most men, it articulates that which you were probably aware of but unable to put your finger on.

For me, it pulls together all the main areas where men are discriminated against, and contrary to the negative female reviews of this book, proves it with hard facts. It is illuminating to note that the criticisms in the other reviews refer to "unsubtantiated assertions" and focus on the comparison between rape and male unemployment. So let's ignore the sociological leaps of logic that people claim plague Farrell's work and work solely with facts.

If you look at the cold hard facts this book presents, you will find that FACT - as a man, you will die 5-7 years earlier than a woman FACT - Mens Health is grossly underfunded compared to womens FACT - You will die from all major diseases in greater numbers than women FACT - You account for 95% of all workplace fatalities FACT - when all relevant factors are taken into consideration, women do not earn up to 50 cents per hour less than you, they earn the same FACT- You are 20 times more likely to receive the death penalty in the USA than a woman for the same crime FACT - You are five times more likely to commit suicide than a female FACT-You are more likely to be homeless FACT - You make up 99% of the workforce of the so called "Death professions" i.e. dangerous jobs such as firefighting, oil drilling, lumberjacks etc.

These facts are cited and referenced. There are many many more examples. He examines the Gulf War where feminists claimed female soldiers were sharing "equality of risk". Therefore they should qualify for the extra "danger money" that being on active duty in a conflict zone attracts. They got it. However, strangely, 27 men died for every US woman in the Gulf war, but there are only 9 men for every woman in the US army. Strange isn't it???

The problem that feminist have with this book seems to be that any focus on men's problems detracts from womens. This book captures the fact that life is not easy for men either. Farrell suggests for example that you consider the person who drives your garbage truck, unblocks your sewer, climbs the electricity pylons, builds the skyscrapers and brushes the streets. They're 99% men and he asks that the next time you hear about women doing low paid and menial jobs, you should think about the men who are doing the low paid and dangerous jobs.

Life is not necessarily easy for either gender, but the attempts to dicredit and smear Farrell, his book and legitimate male problems are sickening. But on a positive note, I'm gratified that we're having this effect. It's raising men's awareness and building a movement that is beginning to challenge female sexist attitudes that are also pervasive. e.g. children belong to the mother. Feminists don't like it and the fact that even reviewers on this site are scrambling madly with frantic, petty and hostile attempts to keep their myths in place show that it's beginning to work. The truth will out!!

Rating:
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:
Summary: Why are women the only ones trashing this book?
Review: Watch out for female chauvinists disguised as feminists. I certainly realize what our society puts women through, but any woman-feminist or otherwise-who can't accept that the price of male privilege has been quite high throughout history is flat out blind. I don't see feminists clamoring for the right to sign up with selective service, nor for the privilege of having their genitals surgically altered within hours of birth. They have no idea what it feels like to be male, and many don't care to learn either. Women complain that men don't discuss their feelings, but the minute a man speaks about them he's accused of being weak, homosexual, or of trying to hold women down. But don't take my word for it, just check the other reviews.

Sure, there may be some inaccuracies in this book, and the comparison between an unemployed man and a raped woman is tactless to say the least. However, the underlying message is still quite valid. Perhaps Farrell is inconsiderate of women when making his arguments, but let's get real here; feminists have often been tactless and inconsiderate of men when phrasing their arguments for the last 35 years. Need proof: In a review of 'The Beauty Myth' by Naomi Wolf (5/12/81, SF Chronicle), Marcia Millman comments of breast augmentation, "it's difficult to imagine men mutilating themselves to conform to some image of desirability." Excuse me, has she ever heard of circumcision? In 1981, the male circumcision rate was nearing ninety percent. I'd say it's highly inconsiderate and quite arrogant for Ms. Millman to suggest that a woman who elects a surgical procedure is being oppressed by society, while an infant male who has one forced upon him is not.

I recommend that all men read this book. Should you come across any women who disrespect its message, view them in the same light as they would view a man who disrespects the message of feminism-as chauvinists.