Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65888 in Books
• Published on: 1990-12-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 411 pages

Synopsis
Considers aspects of male-female relationships in America today to determine the motivations behind male behavior.

Customer Reviews

Simply fantastic
This refers to the audio version, but who cares?

This is simply a stunning piece, and, in the words of Ken Wilber, one wonders why this stuff is not mainstream.

Really, it should be bog standard material, instead of the feminist dross that we get fed at school (not that I'm against it for the most part but it's extremely partial).

Moreover, Farrell discusses the themes in a very mature manner. He doesn't get angry at women and the focus is on what one can DO to get out of the morass we have gotten ourselves into.

Highly recommendable and a truly worthwhile read.

Why Men are the Way they Are
Being a woman I wanted to understand my man more than just the Men are from Mars books and so purchased this book. Warren Farrell has explained men a little more, but this book, it feels to me, is not objective to women and blames women for how powerless men feel today.

He whines on about the jokes that are made in womens magazines that he says puts men down demonstrating over and over how men are misjudged, but these are only jokes. I am always hearing jokes that are unfavourable to women, so what!!

He indicates that women are able to do things that men are not permitted to do, what I say is welcome to the real world that goes ditto for each sex.

He says that men are abused as well as women, nobody disputes that, but for someone who has held many workshops for both women and men, he is not being objective or honest, he is defending men and giving a very biased opinion.

I stuck with the book all the way through and learned a lot about men from Warren Farrell's perspective, which was my aim after all... they really are jealous of women.That is my opinion of this book, no doubt others will have other opinions.

Surely time for a reprint?
I read this book after "The Myth of Male Power" and I wish some publisher would pick it up and reprint it. Of all Farrell's books on men's issues, this remains the most sympathetic to both sexes without ever fudging the issue that is in the title.

The chapter on advertising and spending patterns that unravel just how interested men are in women, and how women are more interested in "Homes & Gardens" than men, is still one of the most compelling bits of social science I have ever read (I speak as an academic working in this field).

I give this book 5 stars for its sympathy to both sexes, but more recent work casts some doubt on Farrell's assumption that men prioritise women's looks in their partner selection, while women have multiple criteria. Aronson (The Social Animal) finds it has primary importance for both sexes, while John Molloy (Why Men Marry Some Women But Not Others) shows the variety of criteria men use to select wives is as broad as women's in selecting men. This challenges Farrell's view. The differences, however, may be one of the impacts of the feminism that Farrell helped to develop. His was written 15 years before and may have helped men appreciated women much more.

Please someone - reprint and promote this book. For me, it deserves a place on the 'Gender Studies' shelf next to The Feminine Mystique. Anyone who reads both these books would appreciate how men's/women's lives interlock and mirror each others.