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Review: Clinical psychologist
Warren Farrell conducts relationship seminars for heterosexual couples to
help them deal with the interchange of roles and (to borrow from Rosenfels) polarities within their interactions.
His chief thesis is an interesting
mix of ideas already developed in opposite ways by Gilder and Rosenfels, and it is powerfully focused. While conventional
society provides men with the illusion of "power," society actually
requires men to cower in all kinds of submissive behaviors, to be reliable
defenders and providers of women and children. Even the corporate rat race
demands submission. Government, he argues, is actually stacked against men.
No wonder women outlive men today by about seven years, whereas in 1920 the
difference was one year. In his last chapter, Farrell actually proposed an
Equal Rights and Responsibilities Amendment (and improvement upon the Equal
Rights Amendment which failed). Farrell does sound like a libertarian to me.
Although Farrell's book is written
for the mainstream straight world, it has powerful implications for gays and
for understanding homophobia. To wit, young men are forced to believe that
their "power" actually melts into a roughshod, reckless readiness
to sacrifice themselves for women and children. Gay men welch on
this ukase and, with their worshipful narcissism, seem to mock the whole thing.
Gay men remind straight men that they can fail, and all so easily, and wind
up impotent, with no "masculine" identity left. Masculinity, it
seems, is like two inches of snow on a sunny yard on a 40-degree day.
The March/April 2003 issue
of The Liberator: Defender of Men, and Men’s Health
America report that Farrell’s propose interview on the Donahue show
was cancelled because “when feminist leaders had been invited to also appear
on the show, they threatened the producers with the shrill allegation that
‘Feminism is opposed to rape and the battering of women; so if you have him
on, you’d better take responsibility for making women even more
vulnerable.’” Even among different factions of liberal and
progressive camps there can be gross intellectual dishonesty.
Farrell has authored “The Boy
Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It”
Paperback – February 26, 2019” from Ben Bella, often cited in reports about
urban crime and directionlessness of many young men.
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This is a good place to mention
the children’s book, Oliver Button Is a Sissy,
by Tomie De Paola (Harcourt Brace, 1979). It has been set to lyrics
and music by James Shorter and has been performed by some gay men’s choruses.
When performed, it provides an exhilarating song valuing diversity; after
all, Oliver Button becomes a Star by advancing his own talents. The “Oliver
Button is a Satr”video is reviewed
separately at this site.
Then there is the Fox
Searchlight/Independent Film Channel film Boys
Don’t Cry, produced for just $2 million. Hilary Swank won best
actress in the 2000 Academy Awards for playing an apparently trans-gendered
woman. Teena Brandon, who “masqueraded” as a man and eventually
brought down a violent (downright gory) end upon herself from some rather
insecure “white trash” males. In fact, sometimes I was not
sure that she really was trans-gendered, rather than a freedom-seeking
lesbian. With her high-pitched voice and body-hairlessness, she
did portray what young men used to dread as “gender fraud.” Straight
young men in the olden days didn’t want to know about such things. I did not
have that much sympathy with this particular character. But the question
here, again, is what would drive young men to mutilate and kill over “knowing”
someone who is “different.” You could say that they feel that
their masculinity is threatened by the impersonation, but that’s not likely.
Perhaps they are reminded of their own possibility of failure. But I think
another important reason is that “different” people remind insecure young men
of their own powerlessness and expendability, of
their own “duty” to sacrifice a lot of their individuality and potential
“difference” in order to join warrior cults, to provide for women and
children. What angers a “trooper” about a “faggot” is that the trooper might
have to give his life and the “faggot” will get off scot
free, without being the worse for wear.
Marianne
J. Legato, MD, FACP. Why Men Die First: How to Lengthen Your
Lifespan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-230-60517-8. 252
pages, hardcover. This book makes an overwhelming case for taking
into account major biological and genetic differences between men
and women, that help explain why women live longer, and why females
are the stronger sex. The later part of the book examines the conventional
wisdom on health advice, even on matters like loss of erectile dysfunction.
At one point, she even suggests that the pattern of body hair is an important
indicator. Socially, the book makes a good complement to Farrell’s book
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