Description:
The alpha male isn't dead--but he's a dinosaur. With a power base that depends upon his ability to subordinate beta males and women alike and to put his job ahead of his wife and children, the alpha is hopelessly maladapted to our current, more egalitarian world. Michael Segell--who writes about "The Male Mind" for Esquire--takes a look at gender relations in the contentious postfeminist era, when men are caught between the demands of traditional models of male behavior and the ideological minefields they must navigate in order to respond to women's contemporary concerns. Segell's evolutionary model, the book's eponymous Standup Guy, isn't afraid to embrace the aggressive and heroic sides of his masculinity, but fully understands that real intimacy is shared power, a partnership between equals within a male-female relationship. Some of the paradigms Segell cites may come as a surprise. The Standup Guy isn't spineless, nor is he necessarily liberal. Even the neopatriarchs of the Christian Conservatives' Promise Keepers movement are standup in their heartfelt desire to put their families and their marriages ahead of all else, despite a doctrine that may seem exclusionary and decidedly old-school to some observers. For every disciple of Robert Bly's Iron John beating drums in the backyard, there are plenty of men seeking to redefine themselves simply by listening to the women in their lives. There is, finally, no single right way to become a man. --Patrizia DiLucchio
| 
