The Will to Change

Men, Masculinity, and Love

by

188 pages

English language

Published Dec. 21, 2004

ISBN:
9780743456081

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5 stars (3 reviews)

Everyone needs to love and be loved -- even men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving. In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are -- whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. She believes men can find the way to spiritual unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of themselves -- and lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that have historically been …

4 editions

reviewed The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks

I am a better man after reading this book

5 stars

For most of my life, I learned and was taught about feminism. The only masculinity I ever knew about was toxic masculinity. It was refreshing to read a book about masculinity. This book is a journey that emphasizes the need to love masculinity and men. The book is fairly simple to read and understand. In fact, I had a lot of people ask me what book I’m reading and as I talked about why I’m reading it, other males were intrigued. This was my first bell hooks book that I have ever read and I’m happy it was my first. The content I read is going to help me further reach full freedom. I would recommend it to any male but also any females who are trapped under patriarchy. There’s no bibliography.

reviewed The Will to Change by bell hooks

Sure, I guess men are people too?

No rating

I was surprised by how little there was for me in this. It doesn't seem like a truly transcendental idea that men are also people who are harmed by patriarchy? I didn't feel like hooks had much to say about that, and mostly repeated herself: men have feelings and needs they can't express & explore under patriarchy, this paucity of outlets hurts men and others who relate to them, anecdotes illustrating this point and then a few recaps. Maybe I've just already done a fair bit of thinking about men and masculinity, so the core thesis of this document didn't need to inspire much new thought for me?

reviewed The Will to Change by bell hooks

Constructive

4 stars

The book is successfully tailored to a male audience. It invests way more than I expected in explaining why feminism is for men and why misandrist feminism isn't the only feminism that exists. It didn't bother me and I do think it helps setting up for success the most skeptic reader for the rest of the book. Bell Hooks also puts quite a limelight on female-on-male violence/neglect that arises from patriarchy, which was I also didn't expect but I've come to understand.

The later half of the book is increasingly repetitive and raises a few hypothesis that are food for thought but are really not factual (yet, maybe). Still, considering the lofty goal of disinfecting the male brain of dominance masculinity and everything else patriarchy related, I think the book is appropriately repetitive. Each iteration has a slight different seasoning to it anyway, so if the reader has the patience …