Boys

What It Means to Become a Man

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By Rachel Giese

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$13.99

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around December 11, 2018. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A vital and sweeping examination of today’s “boy crisis,” demonstrating the ways in which we raise boys into a culture of toxic masculinity and offering solutions that can liberate us all

Whether they’re being urged to “man up” or warned that “boys don’t cry,” young men are subjected to damaging messages about manliness: they must muzzle their emotions and never show weakness, dominate girls and compete with one another.

Boys: What It Means to Become a Man examines how these toxic rules can hinder boys’ emotional and social development. If girls can expand the borders of femaleness, could boys also be set free of limiting, damaging expectations about manhood and masculinity? Could what’s been labelled “the boy crisis” be the beginning of a revolution in how we raise young men?

Drawing on extensive research and interviews with educators, activists, parents, psychologists, sociologists, and young men, Giese — mother to a son herself — examines the myths of masculinity and the challenges facing boys today. She reports from boys-only sex education classes and recreational sports leagues; talks to parents of transgender children and plays video games with her son. She tells stories of boys navigating the transition into manhood and how the upheaval in cultural norms about sex, sexuality and the myths of masculinity have changed the coming of age process for today’s boys.

With lively reportage and clear-eyed analysis, Giese reveals that the movement for gender equality has the potential to liberate us all.
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On Sale
Dec 11, 2018
Page Count
240 pages
Publisher
Seal Press
ISBN-13
9781580058759

Rachel Giese

Rachel Giese

About the Author

Rachel Giese is an editor-at-large at Chatelaine and a regular contributor to CBC Radio. Her award-winning journalism has appeared in Toronto Life, the Walrus, the Globe and Mail, and Today’s Parent and on NewYorker.com. She lives in Toronto with her wife and son.

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