Rating: 
Summary: Corrected, Uncensored Full Text Of My Review Of This Book
Review: While there is precious little in this interesting book that is genuinely new, it is a singular book in the fact that a thoughtful, articulate, and open-minded woman is the author of such clinical observations. This is also a well-researched, impeccably documented, and very readable effort that marshals an impressive argument regarding the continuing damage our politically-correct social institutions (especially those like universities and colleges in which women are now in the ascendancy) are visiting onto males of the species simply for being normal males.I must admit that like most other adult males with a functioning brain, I have long since taken quiet umbrage (silent since I discovered along the way that many feminists will brook no dissent regarding their loudly argued pronouncements about the ways things are, and that nothing is gained in shouting matches that degenerate into name-calling) with the laundry list of particulars feminists drag out as evidence of male "problems" needing to be solved, since often these so-termed 'problems' consist in the main of a plethora of ways in which males either do not conform to female standards or expectations. In each case, the norm for females is being superimposed on males in the way of appropriate standards, and the males are expected to perform accordingly. Thus, discussions regarding male exhibitions of either aggression or physical violence are always based on the (female) presumption such behavior is innately abnormal, anti-social, and unacceptable; thus such behavior constitutes a key social problem requiring active intervention and change. It is through the systematic institutionalization of such notions into the various organizations associated with socializing our young that boys find themselves trapped into enduring, and it is these associated wrong-headed and unrealistic ideas that propel boys into increasing difficulties within the system. To deny the status of these activities as problems would mean redefining a whole range of social definitions that the feminists just cannot bear to admit, for it would mean risking the carefully constructed house of cards they have constructed with such effort might suddenly topple under the influence of the influence of sudden gust of truth underneath its individual members. Out here in the less rarified world of experience, male behavior is recognized to be characteristically different from that of females. Given this observation, it would be far preferable to recognize this, reconstruct and reorganize our social institutions based on this recognition, and proceed toward a more equitable future that recognizes that while males and females are strikingly different based on both phenotype and genotype, there can be an informed sensitivity to this fact that makes allowance for these differences while ensuring a consistently applied code of ethics giving equity between the sexes. Until we understand this basic truth and employ this knowledge in the socialization of our children, we do them a serious disservice and indemnify the future with our ridiculously anachronistic social baggage.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is a fantastic expose of the hypocracy of the so-called feminists in America. Men and women, boys and girls are different, and we should celebrate their differences rather than trying to emasculate men and try to turn them into touchy-feely creatures who are really only simpering non-entities.
Rating:
Summary: Right On The Money
Review: I think this book hits the nail right on the head: American boys ARE being neglected in school in favor of girls. I'm an 18 year old male that just graduated High School, and I know for a fact that girls are given more opportunity to succeed in school than are boys: ie, special girls-only classes, special attention to women's issues in the classroom, etc. According to the feminists that post here, (hmm... mostly from the People's Republic of Vermont...) if you don't believe in women first, women always, women only, you aren't a feminist. I think that women in our society are mistreated far too many times, but that kind of radical feminism is no longer necessary. For years feminists railed about equality, and then turn the other way when the roles are reversed. How hypocritical. Fortunately Ms. Sommers realizes both sides to the situation. Excellent read, I highly recommend.
Rating: 
Summary: Tendentious and dishonest
Review: Sommers' book does not even manage to be logically consistentwith itself... Sommers attacks Carol Gilligan for writing that girlsare different from boys, and then procedes to build a book on the argument that while girls are not different from boys, boys are different from girls. Moreover, Sommers does not seem capable of understanding that while many aspects of boys' and girls' lives are in fact quite healthy, the fact that there are problems specific to boys does not contradict the idea that there may be other problems that predominantly hurt girls. Much of Sommers' book attacks the work of Carol Gilligan, which Sommers either did not bother to read carefully or which she deliberately misrepresents. Gilligan's major argument in her book "In A Different Voice" refuted Lawrence Kohlberg's faulty argument that women's and girls' moral thinking was deficient when compared to boys' and men's. Gilligan argued that Kohlberg had stacked the deck in favor of males and that a fair analysis demonstrated that women and girls did in think as clearly as boys and men about moral issues in their lives. If Sommers is correct that the arguments of In A Different Voice are hogwash, then it logically follows that Kohlberg was correct, that women are in fact morally deficient. If Sommers had in fact read Gilligan's book before trashing it, she would have seen that it supports Sommers's own thesis that in many ways girls are much better off than many people would have us believe. She never realizes that In A Different Voice makes the same argument about women's moral development and abilities that Sommers herself makes about women's intellectual development abilities with respect to standardized tests. Sommers wants it all one way or all the other. Either girls are worse off in every way than boys or boys are worse off in every way than girls. Her blindness to the complexity of real life limits her to polemical cheerleading rather than making a serious contribution to the discussion of our childrens' lives. Sommers's passion for poorly documented, logically inconsistent ad hominem polemic---what even the conservative columnist Alex Beam of The Boston Globe characterizes as "drive-by character assassination"---is a waste of time. If you really want to read about the war on boys, look at Geoffrey Canada's "Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun" or "Reaching Up For Manhood."
Rating:
Summary: A breath of fresh air!
Review: Too many authors have jumped on the 'Let's blame the males' bandwagon with little research to back up their claims. Now that bandwagon is targeting our sons in schools. Ms. Sommers takes a fresh look at sexism in schools. She finds that boys are also the victims of sexism. This comes as no surprise to the millions of boys in school that are constantly facing harsher discipline than girls do for the same transgressions. It also comes as no surprise to boys since, in many classes, boys start several pegs lower than girls because, as I have heard many teachers state, 'Girls are just smarter, that's all'. People bury their heads in the sand about sexism towards boys in our schools. But they are hurting half of our school population and, ultimately, our entire society. It seems sad that the so-called reformers of education have to pick their fights with our children. School should be a place where everyone gets the same opportunities, not a place where feminists can take out their repressed hatred of males on our sons.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book.
Review: Finally, someone speaking out for the boys and men of our country. They have been slowly but surely becoming second class citizens in America for the past decade...but if a man speaks up about it, he is considered sexist. Thank God a woman wrote this book. It is very factual and acurate. VERY GOOD BOOK!
Rating: 
Summary: She's right, but she's also a little shrill
Review: For ten years (the length of time I've been the mother of a son), I've heard increasingly alarming reports from "the media" about the treacherous ways of America's sons. Sorry but the miscreants they describe seem like anomalies to me, not the norm. I never see any of these murderous, hateful, misogynous traits in my son or in his buds. Hey, call me naive, but I believe unceasing and loving involvement in our kids' lives goes a long way to preventing the types of schoolroom and street-corner tragedies we read about in the paper and hear about in the evening news. In any event, I appreciate the message of War against Boys, and I admire the point-by-point evisceration of the emasculating feminist approach to raising and educating our sons. I just wish the argument didn't sound quite so shrill. That criticism aside, this is a worthwhile addition to the growing body of literature dedicated to reclaiming all that's wonderful about our kids (including all of their many differences). Let's hope it's not too late in coming.
Rating:
Summary: The War Against Boys
Review: This author has taken some facts and because of her own prejudices and need for the limelight, reached absolutely false conclusions. It just makes news to dump on feminism and this is all she knows how to do. Dr. William S. Pollack has had much more experience with boys and finds that their present problems have little or nothing to do with the woman's movement, feminism or NOW. One star is too many. This deserves a minus 10 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't agree but a good read on one woman's opinion
Review: Wouldn't it be wonderful if we stopped evaluating the level of a man's masculinity by the amount of cruelty or violence he commits? How about looking at the constructive relationships and humanitarianism of men? I can't say I tried to agree with Sommers' presentation. I don't believe there is a war against boys, since whatever happens in the school system, once they are adults, men get the best part of the deal every time. You need only visit night court to see how men are comforted and excused by attorneys and judges, and then see what happens when a woman commiting an equal or lesser offense comes before the judge. I think they'd use the guillotine if they had one. It's the same in the workplace. Women have made great strides, but that didn't stop a man from asking me to type something for him (I'm a systems engineer, making about $100K per year, about $30K more than he does). Men still have the advantage everywhere, and even if they manage to get themselves a sub-standard education, they'll do fine in the "old/young boy network" that is still in power. That power relies on the exclusion of women and any male that doesn't meet the standard as well. Sommers isn't looking at the whole picture, but only at the failure of our schools, which is universal as far as gender and race. Girls are merely handling it better because they do have more support in society. Men have less because women's roles changed -- we no longer are supporting and stroking the men, but making progress for ourselves (yeah!). I find it hard to have sympathy for men, especially when Sommers did point out all the male achievements of the past in arts, sciences, and society that were beneficial and ultimately compassionate or delightful. We have no way of knowing if these were actually the men's ideas or the ideas of the women behind the men. In the past, after all, women were property, and if they had a good idea, the man felt justified in taking credit for it. There has been a war against women for centuries. Read Rousseau, a prized French philosopher, or Acquinas, the Catholic theologian, to see some of the most horrifying vitriol against women I have ever read -- stuff that isn't censored today in our new environment but still respected in academia. Sommers' just looks at a very small picture and not at the larger one, the real world. Girls may get the better grades in school. Girls might be more harmonious socially. Girls might even be more intelligent (I think it's true) and more capable, more achieving and more sensible. In the end, with society as it is, the boys are the ones who will still win out. This book is a good read, well written, but hold back trusting too greatly. Get the facts for yourself, and read more in this area before you start disadvantaging girls so that men can once more believe that they are the superior sex.
Rating:
Summary: A cautionary tale for every man and every boy's mother.
Review: Next time you see a man holding open a door for a girl, remember that according to feminists women/girls are one of America's most oppressed groups. They are dissed in the schools, bounced agains the glass ceiling in business and raped, beaten, riduculed and ogled nasty by men in the streets. Now Sommers balances the scale by showing how feminism's big lies have become the bedrock of an unjustified war against males that begins in the elementary school, if not earlier. Read this calm, well-reasoned book and you will learn how society has been turned against men. How it's been done with millions of dollars in government support for "gender education" materials and how real lies and false, unsubstantiated statistics have been used to justify attacks on any and every manifestation of malesness whenever and wherever found. Everyone should read this book just to learn how persistence in lying can create an aura of truth. In short, real statistics show that men are not nearly as bad as the feminists paint them.In fact, little boys and young men are even more in need of help when it comes to self-esteem etc. in school than girls. The real statistics will, well, shock you.
|
