Boys Will Be Boys
Power, Patriarchy And The Toxic Bonds Of Mateship
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4.3 • 44 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
'Everyone's afraid that their daughters might be hurt. No one seems to be scared that their sons might be the ones to do it ... This book ... is the culmination of many years of writing about power, abuse, privilege, male entitlement and rape culture. After all that, here's what I've learned: we should be f*cking terrified.' Clementine Ford, from the introduction
Fearless feminist heroine Clementine Ford is a beacon of hope and inspiration to hundreds of thousands of Australian women and girls. Her incendiary first book, Fight Like A Girl, is taking the world by storm, galvanising women to demand and fight for real equality and not merely the illusion of it.
Now Boys Will Be Boys examines what needs to change for that equality to become a reality. It answers the question most asked of Clementine: 'How do I raise my son to respect women and give them equal space in the world? How do I make sure he's a supporter and not a perpetrator?'
All boys start out innocent and tender, but by the time they are adolescents many of them will subscribe to a view of masculinity that is openly contemptuous of women and girls. Our world conditions boys into entitlement, privilege and power at the expense not just of girls' humanity but also of their own.
Ford demolishes the age-old assumption that superiority and aggression are natural realms for boys, and demonstrates how toxic masculinity creates a disturbingly limited and potentially dangerous idea of what it is to be a man. Crucially, Boys Will Be Boys reveals how the patriarchy we live in is as harmful to boys and men as it is to women and girls, and asks what we have to do to reverse that damage. The world needs to change and this book shows the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fierce, often sharp treatise, activist and author Ford (Fight Like a Girl) considers how patriarchy is harmful to men and reflects on how society can collectively educate boys on resisting the siren songs of male privilege and sexist attitudes. Having recently had a son, Ford has personal insight on how gender roles become prescribed at an early age "boys are cars and touchdowns and arrows and rifles and guns" and advises other parents on how to avoid the trap of these prescriptions (rule #1: no gender reveal parties). She notes the need for more female-centered stories in film and television and to teach boys that stories about girls are worth their attention; discusses societal attitudes about sex, which demonize girls for being sexually active and deride boys if they are deemed insufficiently sexually motivated; and carefully outlines exactly how one might have a conversation with a young man about sex, consent, and pornography. About halfway through the book, Ford zooms out to look more broadly at patriarchy and its discontents, including the misdeeds of murderous men's rights activists, misogynist pickup artists, and Donald Trump. The analyses here may not be novel to readers already familiar with contemporary feminism, but this could serve as a useful entry point for those newer to the topic or contemplating how to parent in light of it.
Customer Reviews
Brilliant
A very difficult subject approached with enormous sensitivity, insight, anger where appropriate and humour where possible. Clementine’s writing style makes what is abhorrent more readily readable. I laughed, I cried, I read along nodding, relating, and I thought to myself many times “This book should be in every school”.
Terrible
Terrible book
Difficult but rewarding
This is not an easy book to read as a white, heterosexual, male. However, it is groundbreaking in its attempt to reach out and start a dialogue, rather than simply bemoaning the misery of the current condition of society.