3.5
The Hearts of Men
ByPublisher Description
From the bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed, an explanation of recent sexual culture and the loosening of marriage bonds in recent history.
"Finally someone is offering a new, utterly plausible explanation...of loosening marriage bonds. According to Barbara Ehrenreich...it is men who started walking off, in search of freedom from their stifling role of breadwinner/success-machine. The shock—and exhilaration—of this book comes from the recognition that here is a woman who has dared to look beyond the everyday assumptions about love and commitment to examine which bonds between men and women can endure and which may last forever.”--Vogue
"Finally someone is offering a new, utterly plausible explanation...of loosening marriage bonds. According to Barbara Ehrenreich...it is men who started walking off, in search of freedom from their stifling role of breadwinner/success-machine. The shock—and exhilaration—of this book comes from the recognition that here is a woman who has dared to look beyond the everyday assumptions about love and commitment to examine which bonds between men and women can endure and which may last forever.”--Vogue
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Hearts of Men Reviews
3.5
“I had a great time. Parts definitely get academic but if you’re into it it doesn’t drag. Basically how hegemonic masculinity in the US evolved from the 1950s-1980s
I wanna read all her other books!”
“I have enjoyed and admired Barbara Ehrenreich’s books for many years, so I thought I would read one of hers from 1983. Ehrenreich begins Hearts of Men by examining how in the 1950’s most men lived by the “breadwinner ethic” and moves to an exploration of how that ethic collapsed, which may have been good for men but it was terrible for women.
In the first chapter, Breadwinners and Losers, Ehrenreich skillfully uses newspaper and popular magazine articles to articulate cultural expectations for men. Her main point is that just as women felt trapped in the housewife role, men felt just as trapped in the role of family provider.
Her next two chapters focus on ways men in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s began to rebel against the provider trap. I agreed with her that the “playboy” rebel role was an adolescent fantasy, but I didn’t agree with her that the “Beats” were a marginal group with little cultural influence.
One of the best chapters that follow explores how the male escape from the provider role was accelerated by research into male heart attacks (including, type A personality research). Another great chapter - the best in the book - is a feminist critique of Fritz Perls and the Human Potential movement. Ehrenreich insightfully points out that while it was very important for men to move from conformity to growth, women were overlooked in the movement. Succinctly, she explains that while it is great if men decide to “do their own thing,” such freedom is not allowed for women, who have responsibility for the children.
I thought that in the next chapters Ehrenreich took this point too far and was unfair in evaluating the men’s movement in the 1970’s. She belittled men’s new interests in physical fitness and living a less competitive life by comparing it to “liberation is a hot tub.”
The book ends with insightful chapters exploring more valid impediments to equal freedoms and economic opportunities for women - the right wing, religious conservative movement in America.”
About Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich is an American feminist, democratic socialist, sociologist and political activist. She is a widely read columnist and essayist, and the author of nearly 20 books ncluding the bestselling Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch.She lives in Virginia, USA.
Other books by Barbara Ehrenreich
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