Book review by Hilary Ash:

"My curiosity piqued by the interview, and by Farrell's titles, I requested a review copy of this book."

TITLE: The Myth of Male Power: Why men are the disposable sex

 

In the car one afternoon in October I heard part of a radio interview with Warren Farrell. My curiosity piqued by the interview, and by Farrell's titles, I requested a review copy of this book. I must say, the print and paper quality are excellent. As I leafed through, I noticed that every single page included words emphasised in bold italics. What lack of confidence, I wondered, in his reader or in his own comprehensibility, would compel a writer to litter his writing in this way? A friend suggested that someone was evidently mything the point!

The Introduction explains that this is not a feminist book, and I would have to agree. It is purportedly part of an attempt to create change and dialogue between men and women. And yet Farrell comes across as angry and petulant, looking at what he perceives are women's achievements in improving their status and lives at men's expense. At the expense of rigorous research, the book contains too many unacknowledged anecdotal generalisations to support its credibility, including dodgy statistics which weaken arguments. I found myself wondering if I was supposed to be ashamed of my feminism because it hurts men.

Chapter 6 - The suicide sex: if men have the power why do they commit suicide more? - attracted me first, because I know a man who has been trying to kill himself. The strange questions chosen for discussion included: If unemployment among men leads to suicide, is it at all comparable to rape for a woman? The answer was, you guessed it, yes! I read on, only to find more of the ‘poor us’ mood, with slim pickings in the way of further thought, or ideas, for addressing the alarming rise in suicide rates among males in many age groups. Instead, I found a teenage style model of male versus female angst, which does nothing to decipher the behaviour leading to suicide and its rise. Farrell further complicates his topic with theories based again on sweeping generalisations, asserting that: 'It is the loss of love that devastates men'. He concludes that men commit suicide because no-one loves or needs them and because they are a burden. Breathtaking, eh?

Chapter 9 - Violence against whom? - looked like it might contain some ideas about working with violence among men, but no. It is more about the violence that men suffer, and the way the cinema reinforces paradigms of violence towards men as ok, and towards women and children as not ok. A culture of complaint, suggesting that men’s problems arise from the way they are perceived, somehow disallows the struggle each person has to be acknowledged and understood. I was especially disturbed by misinformation here about circumcision. Farrell asserts that it confers no health benefits, although I believe recent studies in Africa, where the disease is most rampant, have shown a lower incidence of HIV infection among circumcised men. He is also unhappy about the gender bias he perceives in criticism of female ‘circumcision’ in parts of Africa. He describes this as merely the removal of the clitoral hood; my understanding of the procedure includes barbaric practices of clitoridectomy and genital mutilation, without anaesthetic, on pubescent girls.

Chapter 2 - How successful men freed women (but forgot to free themselves) - praises male technologies of antibiotics and birth control, and complains about women who misuse their resultant freedom to trap men. I wonder why, then, the same male technologies have not come up with more reliable male contraceptives than condoms. Farrell wants it both ways, and women are once more to blame. The cover mention of his membership of "numerous fathers’ organisations", combined with an allusion in the Introduction to an ex-wife, made me wonder if Farrell's arguments are stirred by feelings of dispossession as a husband whose wife took the kids and sued him for child support. The book is redolent of that kind of bitterness.

A reader who decides, despite these difficult chapters, to try the Conclusion, will discover Farrell’s wish for a utopian future for humanity, where men as well as women will achieve autonomy and integration. However, the solutions he proposes, such as drumming in the forest, express his nostalgia for the past and wish to be the guru of the future. Paradoxically, where there is a guru there is no autonomy. I found Farrell’s blindness, to the plight of truly dispossessed boys and men, disappointing. I fear this book has too much anger to be a template for the utopia Farrell desires.

Overwhelmingly a portrait of American society, written for an American market, or its lowest common denominator, I was unable to see the application of this "Myth" to Australia. Much of the text is built around “items”, which are biased news grabs rather than brave attempts to express feeling about anything. I began to wonder if this was meant to be a study of the media? of society? of gender relations? all of these? Or perhaps it isn't a study of anything, but simply one man's opportunity to promote his own ideas, which fall rather too readily into Laura Doyle's "Give men all they want and everyone will be happy again" camp. Would that it were that simple! The brief bibliography is also 100% American. However, this Finch edition offers a local resource guide, which includes Melbourne's very own Men's Referral Service.

Given the chance, I'd rename this book, "Creating a Myth of Male Powerlessness: Why this is a disposable book". Now, how shall I dispose of my copy?

 

Hilary Ash is a Melbourne reviewer, psychotherapist, and male behaviour change group facilitator.

Give her your replies and comments on  quincetree@gmail.com

 

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