Of Boys and Men

By: Richard V. Reeves

Narrated by: Richard V. Reeves

Boys are 50% more likely than girls to fail at all three key school subjects: maths, reading and science.

In the US, the wages of most men are lower today than they were in 1979, while women's wages have risen across the board.

In the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45.

Boys are falling behind at school and college because the educational system is structed in ways that put them at a disadvantage. Men are struggling in the labour market because of an economic shift away from traditionally male jobs. And fathers are dislocated because the cultural role of family provider has been hollowed out. The male malaise is not the result of a mass psychological breakdown, but of deep structural challenges.

Structural challenges require structural solutions, and this is what Richard V. Reeves proposes in Of Boys and Men - starting boys at school a year later than girls; getting more men into caring professions; rethinking the role of fatherhood outside of a nuclear family context.

Feminism has done a huge amount of good in the world. We now need its corollary - a positive vision of masculinity that is compatible with gender equality.

©2022 Richard V. Reeves (P)2022 Swift Press Audio

Real and growing problem

A great book about the issues facing boys and men in a post feminist society.

Important balanses book

He write balanced and good about men and boys challenges. Clear in his views but still acknowledging women’s problems

All men and D&I professionals should read this

Mind blowing what is going on and how we risk losing generations of boys and men if we don’t begin marching, preaching, lobbying about the crisis young men and especially black and underprivileged youths.

Great book with lots of facts.

Necessary book for all

This book comes to address the challange of avoiding your boys to become “red pill” and to avoid your girls to develop a fear/hate towards men. Excellent book.

Worthwhile But Read with Three Eyes Open

Of Boys and Men is a somewhat refreshing attempt by Richard Reeves (a conventional white middle-class academic, a man, a father, and a husband) to chart a middle ground between the polarized progressive and conservative gender ideologies at work in contemporary American culture. The focus of the discussion is on poor male educational outcomes and the male gender inequality (especially for poor and colored men) this produces in the postindustrial economy we inhabit. The academic frameworks employed by Reeves are highly diverse, ranging from sociology, to gender studies, psychology, educational philosophy, economics, modern statistical analysis, to intersectionality studies. Reeves also possesses a strong biological deterministic bent with respect to genetics and gender, which he argues progressive social constructionists have failed to acknowledge.

But Reeves' central thesis is worth considering. It concerns a desire to see affirmative action taken in schools to encourage more men into what he calls HEAL careers, that is Healthcare, Education, Administration, and Literacy, because statistics and cultural movements show that many men are giving up on themselves and retreating down grotesque social media misogynospheres. Much of Reeves' ideology could be said to align with what was once the central tenant of feminism, namely that feminism is not exclusively about women's rights but about human rights and the ideal of social equality.

Having said this, Reeves does occasionally vomit up some poorly considered rhetorical thrusts. His critique of what he thinks is the misuse and overuse of the term "toxic masculinity" coincides with an attempt to reclaim the notion of "victim blaming" for boys and men. This is a term associated with the patriarchal logic of rape culture, and Reeves' attempt to describe boys labelled toxic as objects of "victim blaming" comparable to a rape victim who is blamed (for the clothes she had on, how late she stayed out, or how many drinks she had) appeared distasteful.

Nevertheless, this short book will inform you about some of main problems effecting boys and men today, and it will also introduce you to a whole smattering of writers active in the study of masculinity.