Book review: “Men, Masculinity and Love”

This point was particularly close to the heart of the intelligentsia. Not without reason, the feminist movement was portrayed as anti-men. Hooks criticizes the fact that some women’s rights activists call men “evil”. The author notes that this opinion came primarily from wealthy white women. Since these often held high social positions, they were able to shape discourse. On the other hand, women from poor working-class families knew the emotional pain of their husbands and how draining a low-paid job with long work days could be.

Patriarchy as a life-threatening disease

The eloquent author does not shy away from harsh descriptions in Men, Masculinity and Love. She calls patriarchy “the only life-threatening social disease” and speaks of “psychological self-mutilation” when “men kill the emotional parts of themselves”. If one does not wish the author to be well-behaved, one can describe these formulations as controversial. The same applies to a certain penchant for interpretations that have more to do with the kitchen than with a profound psychological impact. Hawks explains that the boys felt “extreme contempt and anger” for their mothers as teenagers because at that age they realized their mothers were powerless in the world outside the home.

But such questionable passages are limited. Hooks draws mostly on the work of experts, including couples therapist Terrence Real and pioneering feminist Barbara Deming. She often quotes entire paragraphs from their books, which takes a little getting used to.