The War Against Boys
"Christina Hoff Sommers analyzes the work of the leading academic experts, Carol Gilligan and William Pollack, and finds it lacking in scientific rigor. There is no girl crisis, says Sommers. Girls are outperforming boys academically, and girls' self-esteem is no different from boys'. Boys lag behind girls in reading and writing ability, and they are less likely to go to college.". "The "girl crisis" has been seized upon by some feminists and has been suffused with sexual politics. Under the guise of helping girls, many schools have adopted policies that penalize boys, often for simply being masculine. Sommers says that boys do need help, but not the sort they've been getting. They need help catching up with girls academically. They need love, discipline, respect, and moral guidance. They desperately need understanding. They do not need to be rescued from masculinity."--BOOK JACKET.
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- I dunno. I seem to see a lot of the same titles for different searches. Non-fiction books are also more difficult to read than fiction; so these types of books tend to be a big time investment (a lot of them feel like extended essays).
There are a couple of books I've read in the past few years that I actually didn't fully agree with. Sometimes they were badly sourced or made some arguments I didn't think were sound, but there was also a ton of interesting and good material in them; which I think made some good points. Based on that, I guess my recommendations for breaking bubbles would be:
"The Strange Death of Europe" (Murray, Davies, et al.)
"The War Against Boys" (Sommers)
"The Fountainhead" (Ryand)
- Bingo.
The beta males did not invent monogamy; it evolved as a system whereby more productive abled bodies were invested in the success of a society. These societies proliferated.
> Whether this remains true now is an interesting question.
I believe that when the benefits do not outweigh the cons, a lot of males start checking out of society altogether. See Japan [1] as an example. E.g. I'm going to have to work my ass off throughout life jumping through hoops and then work 80 hour weeks at BigCompanyJapan and then maybe find a woman who I won't have time to spend with? Fuck it, video games, porn, and basement sound better.
For a more US-centric view, check out [2].
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori
[2] - http://www.amazon.ca/The-War-Against-Boys-Misguided/dp/06848...
- I wouldn't be so quick to write this off as the isolated concerns of a single parent. None of what you said addresses the authors claim that boys are statistically falling behind girls in every academic measure.
There are more substantive sources that have made similar claims, for example this book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-WAR-AGAINST-BOYS-Misguided/dp/0684...
- It's actually the increasing feminization of society that I believe creates a huge problem for young boys.
Being unable to sit still, wanting to run around - now treated as an illness Roughhousing - a normal male activity, is now a crime in schools.
Here is a good article making my point - http://ideas.time.com/2013/08/19/school-has-become-too-hosti...
http://www.amazon.com/The-WAR-AGAINST-BOYS-Misguided/dp/0684...
- I definitely recommend clicking on the "related story" link to "The War Against Boys", written by Christina Sommers in 2000. American education has been failing boys for quite some time now. All parents have a responsibility to educate themselves on this topic.
- Read The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers. She wrote that bock over 10 years ago and has tons of examples and references.
