Are Young Boys in the Midst of a Crisis?
Written: Jul 28 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good research; Sensible
Cons: Not enough solutions given; Author is too easy on her opponents
The Bottom Line: This is a good book that brings awareness to the plight of young men, but it would be better if it offered more solutions to the problem.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Christina Hoff Sommers - The War Against Boys |
Author Christina Hoff- Sommers is a journalist and occasional author of books who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Brandeis University. Sommers first joined the ranks of the literary guild when she wrote the book “Who Stole Feminism?” in 1995. With this book, “The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming our Young Men”, Sommers continues her critical analysis of the feminist movement, this time illustrating how radical feminist policies are having negative effects on young boys.
Basic Contents of This Book:
This 252- page psychology/sociology book is divided into the following nine chapters:
Preface
1. Where the Boys Are
2. Reeducating the Nation’s Boys
3. Guys and Dolls
4. Carol Gilligan and the Incredible Shrinking Girl
5. Gilligan’s Island
6. Save the Males
7. Why Johnny Can’t, Like, Read and Write
8. The Moral Life of Boys
9. War and Peace
Notes
Index
Sommers opens up her discussion by talking about the conditions as they stand today for young boys and girls and how various feminist groups are responsible for spreading misinformation about the plight of the two sexes. In chapter 1, Sommers includes facts about boys and girls and their levels of achievement and ambition, showing how it’s actually boys, not girls, who are lagging behind in academic achievement. In different high school courses, girls are consistently ahead of the boys in all but a few subjects (like physics). Only on standardized tests (like the SAT, ACT, etc.) are boys ahead in the game.
In chapter 2, Sommers talks about male violence, bullying, and other sociological issues in the nation’s schools. She shows how feminist groups have taken advantage of school- related violence issues in the 1990’s to spread their agenda. In chapter 3, Sommers points out some of the tactics that feminists are actively using to try to get young boys to be more “in touch with their feminine side”, by encouraging teachers and parents to provide dolls for their young boys to play with; taking away toy cars, trucks, and other “masculine” devices from the toy box; encouraging boys to wear skirts; and a whole host of other gender- busting activities.
Activist Carol Gilligan is the subject of much of the rest of the book. Gilligan is a professor of gender studies at Harvard, and she is a radical feminist with an agenda that actually goes far beyond the elementary classroom. Gilligan has spread all sorts of exaggerations about the conditions in society for young girls and she has used these exaggerated claims to lay the groundwork for implementing her radical agenda to “feminize” young boys.
Chapter six, “Save the Males” provides more perspectives on the media’s handling of specific violent events, like the Littleton, Colorado shooting and the absurd response that feminists had when this tragedy took place. Always looking for an excuse to spread their anti- male agenda, feminist groups raced to the scene, pointing out that this shooting was a sign of the excesses of manhood, and then tried to attribute this violent tendency to all young men, not just a few boys who were on the fringe. Sommers points out the stupidity in these claims, and then she jumps into chapter 7, where she discusses the real crisis at hand with young boys- their declining performance academically. Sommers compares some different teaching methods that have been attempted in the U.S and the U.K., showing how certain approaches seem to bring out the best in young boys, and how feminists are actively trying to stop their implementation, despite the proof that they are affective.
Chapters 8 and 9 wrap up the book by discussing the morality of boys and the reforms that need to take place if young men are to be rescued from the throngs of radical feminists. Many of these feminist groups had valid concerns a few decades ago about the disparity and inequality between the two sexes and the favor that was shown on men. Today, though, the tide has turned and now boys are the ones who have fallen behind. Feminists, however, refuse to recognize this fact and they still continue to back the girls, in spite of all the evidence that shows it is boys who need the help.
Final Thoughts:
Christina Sommers has a beef with the current state of affairs in America over the issue of gender and favoritism. She wrote this book not as an insult to her many adversaries in the feminist camp, but rather as a warning of what is going on behind our backs in the ranks of government and the ever- changing strategies of educational leadership.
Sommers has many good points to make in this book, and she criticizes her foes in a respectful way, without any name- calling or over the edge contempt. Some of what she has to say comes as no surprise. I already knew that it is boys, not girls, who need the greatest amount of special care in schools and that boy’s scores in most (but not all) school subjects are lower than girls, on average. I also knew that boys are often given the shaft when it comes to special needs because they don’t have any special interest group to support them. Young girls have all sorts of special groups but boys, since they have been “demonized” by feminists, are not considered worthy of any special help and to give them special help would be considered sexist, by feminists.
Other parts of the feminist agenda against boys, however, will surprise some readers. Sommers points out some of the more unusual tactics by feminists, like a kindergarten teacher who has fun with her young male students and helps them become more feminine by having them dress up in skirts. Another group has successfully managed to get some of the books and nursery rhymes changed around so that they are more favorable to girls. One example that Sommers points out comes from a guide titled “Creating sex- fair Family Day Care”, a book endorsed by feminists. Remember the old “Jack and Jill” rhyme? Well, this guide suggests changing it around to read like this:
Jill and Jack went up the track
To fetch the pail again
They climbed with care, got safely there
And finished the job they began
The reasoning for this proposed change is that the traditional nursery rhyme, according to feminists, is “dangerous”, because it reinforces gender stereotypes. First of all, the old rhyme places Jack’s name first which (supposedly) means he’s more important. Second, the old rhyme depicts Jack falling down and Jill coming to help him, which reinforces the idea that girls are nurturing. The new rhyme is preferred by feminists because it places Jill’s name first and because they work together as an equal team, achieving their common goal. Everything is all nice and happy, in the land of feminism.
Sommers spends a good deal of time criticizing Carol Gilligan and other anti- male “warriors”. I have heard of Gilligan before, in other readings, and I know for a fact that she’s a woman with a radical mission. Gilligan wants to eliminate the human (mostly male) desire to compete, so she has naturally chosen the nation’s schools as an ideal place to brainwash young boys. The reason that Gilligan wants to eliminate competition is because she has a vision of what America should be like, and her vision includes a classless, Marxist society where everyone lives in equal misery. Sommers attacks Gilligan all throughout the book, pointing out that Gilligan doesn’t have any credentials at all in child psychology and she has never submitted a valid piece of research to back up her claims. One criticism that I have of Sommers is that fact that she doesn’t completely expose Gilligan for the fraud that she is. Sommers points out many of Gilligan’s outlandish claims, but she never comes right out and says that Gilligan is a liar with a distinct political and social agenda who will resort to any maneuver to achieve her goals, even if it means outright lying. Sommers is probably just trying to be nice, but I think she should be a little more hard- hitting than she is toward Gilligan. Anyone who deliberately quotes false figures to achieve a social agenda deserves to be attacked directly.
Another criticism that I have of this book is the fact that Sommers fails to provide any real solutions to the problem. She talks about the outrageousness of the feminist’s proposed “solutions” to the world’s social ills, but she doesn’t mention any possible remedy to the problem. Feminists react to all social ills as being the result of excessive testosterone, and the solutions they propose are a little crazy, to say the least. Many of the things the more radical feminists state are completely false, too, like the assertion that anti- social behavior in young men is caused by too little activity with their mothers! The actual truth is that the absence of a male adult figure is more often the cause but feminists cannot admit to this because it would run counter to their pro- female stance. The solution, feminists argue, is for mothers to spend more time with their sons and engage in feminine activities, like cooking food together, playing with dolls, and comparing the latest lipstick and mascara with each other. This incredible silliness orchestrated by feminists- that the world’s social ills can all be solved if men turn into women- is an easy target for a counter- attack. But Sommers doesn’t really get involved in this area. She seems content to just point out the facts and leave the reader on his/her own to decide what to do next.
What will become of the next generation of young boys? It’s difficult to say for certain. It’s a known fact that boys, as a whole, are rapidly falling behind girls in academia but it’s an issue that most people just don’t want to address. Politicians and other public figures are worried that, if they suggest ways to improve the performance of young boys, they will be accused of being sexist. In our society, it seems to be OK to support the welfare of minority and other “oppressed” or “once oppressed” groups. But if you support the welfare exclusively of a group that’s in the majority or that is considered an oppressor, you will be accused of favoritism, racism, sexism, or something else. It’s a frustrating position to be in for public officials, which is why I think the only real solution is to form private activist groups that focus on boy’s rights. Girls already have many of these special interest groups, so why not form similar groups that center exclusively on the interest of boys? It’s no more sexist than having a group that centers exclusively on girls, and these groups already exist. Sommers doesn’t point this out as a solution, but it might be the only hope left for young boys since public officials refuse to deal with these issues.
Overall, this is a pretty good book about the negative consequences of following a feminist agenda and trying to socially re-engineer young boys to think and act like girls. I really don’t see this as the threat that the author does because it goes against the rules of nature. No amount of training, brainwashing, role- reversal education, cross- dressing, or anything else is going to turn men into women. The laws of nature will prevail in the end, and boys will grow up with all those great traits that come with manhood, like competitive tendencies, dominance, protectiveness, and other masculine traits. Until feminists like Gilligan try to pass a law through congress requiring shots of female hormones into young boys, I’m not too worried about all this silliness. Boys will be boys, and girls will be girls. No crazy laws or social engineering projects are going to change this fact.
Recommended:
Yes
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