The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

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Simon and Schuster, 2004 M01 6 - 208 pages
From the New York Times bestselling author of All About Love, a brave and astonishing work that challenges patriarchal culture and encourages men to reclaim the best part of themselves.

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. But toxic masculinity punishes those fundamental emotions, and it’s so deeply ingrained in our society that it’s hard for men to not comply—but hooks wants to help change that.

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 the exclusive province of women.
 

Contents

Men Who Love
1
2 Understanding Patriarchy
17
3 Being a Boy
35
4 Stopping Male Violence
55
5 Male Sexual Being
75
Whats Love Got to Do with It?
91
7 Feminist Manhood
107
Media Masculinity
125
9 Healing Male Spirit
135
10 Reclaiming Male Integrity
153
11 Loving Men
169
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Page ix - Paula from her own responsibilities, participated in the "grand trio," the rescue-victim-persecutor triangle. CHANGING DYSFUNCTIONAL PATTERNS OF LIVING Lemer (1989) states that you can count on only two things that will never change. What will never change is the will to change and the fear of change. It is the will to change that motivates us to seek help. It is the fear of change that motivates us to resist the very help we seek.
Page iv - Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics...

About the author (2004)

bell hooks was a cultural critic, a feminist icon, and the renowned author of more than twenty books, including the enduring classic New York Times bestseller All About Love, Rock My Soul, The Will to Change, Sisters of the Yam, and When Angels Speak of Love. A charismatic speaker, she divided her time between teaching, writing, and lecturing around the world. She passed away in 2021.

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