Product Description

Esther Vilar's classic polemic about the relationship between the sexes caused a sensation on its first publication. In her introduction to this revised edition, Vilar maintains that very little has changed. A man is a human being who works, while a woman chooses to let a man provide for her and her children in return for carefully dispensed praise and sex. Vilar's perceptive, thought-provoking and often very funny look at the battle between the sexes has earned her severe criticism and even death threats. But Vilar's intention is not misogynous: she maintains that only if women and men look at their place in society with honesty, will there be any hope for change.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #243063 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
'A provokative, runaway bestseller.' Newsweek'Extraordinary... a vigorous answer to Women's Lib.' The Times'No one escapes her icy scrutiny.' The New York Times

About the Author
Esther Vilar was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She studied medicine and sociology before becoming a writer. She followed the world-wide success of The Manipulated Man with two more books about the relationship between the sexes, The Polygamous Sex and The End of Manipulation, the novels The Mosquito and The Mathematics of Nina Gluckstein and numerous plays, including The American Popess and Speer. Her latest play is Jealousy.She lives in Barcelona and London.

Excerpted from The Manipulated Man by Esther Vilar. Copyright © 1998. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter 1: The Slave's Happiness

The lemon-coloured MG skids across the road and the woman driver brings it to a somewhat uncertain halt. She gets out and finds her left front tyre flat. Without wasting a moment she prepares to fix it: she looks towards the passing cars as if expecting someone. Recognising this standard international sign of woman in distress ('weak female let down my by male technology'), a station wagon draws up. The driver sees what is wrong at a glance and says comfortingly, "Don't worry. We'll fix that in a jiffy." To prove his determination, he asks for her jack. He does not ask if she is capable of changing the tyre herself because he knows - she is about thirty, smartly dressed and made-up - that she is not. Since she cannot find a jack, he fetches his own, together with his other tools. Five minutes later the job is done and the punctured tyre properly stowed. His hands are covered with grease. She offers him an embroidered handkerchief, which he politely refuses. He has a rag for such occasions in his tool box. The woman thanks him profusely, apologising for her 'typically feminine' helplessness. She might have been there till dusk, she says, had he not stopped. He makes no reply and, as she gets back into the car, gallantly shuts the door for her. Through the wound-down window he advises her to have her tyre patched at once and she promises to get her petrol station attendant to see to it that very evening. Then she drives off.

As the man collects his tools and goes back to his own car, he wishes he could wash his hands. His shoes - he has been standing in the mud while changing the tyre - are not as clean as they should be (he is a salesman). What is more, he will have to hurry to keep his next appointment. As he starts the engine he thinks, "Women! One's more stupid than the next". He wonders what she would have done if he had not been there to help. He puts his foot on the accelerator and drives off - faster than usual. There is the delay to make up. After a while he starts to hum to himself. In a way, he is happy.

Almost any man would have behaved in the same manner - and so would most women. Without thinking, simply because men are men and women so different from them, a woman will make use of a man whenever there is an opportunity. What else could the woman have done when her car broke down? She has been taught to get a man to help. Thanks to his knowledge, he was able to change the tyre quickly and at no cost to herself. True, he ruined his clothes, put his business in jeopardy and endangered his own life by driving too fast afterwards. Had he found something else wrong with her car, however, he would have repaired that, too. That is what his knowledge of cars is for. Why should a woman learn to change a flat when the opposite sex (half the world's population) is able and willing to do it for her?

Women let men work for them, think for them and take on their responsibilities - in fact, they exploit them. Yet, since men are strong, intelligent and imaginative, while women are weak, unimaginative and stupid, why isn't it men who exploit women?

Could it be that strength, intelligence and imagination are not prerequisites for power but merely qualifications for slavery? Could it be that the world is not being ruled by experts but by beings who are not fit for anything else - by women? And if this is so, how do women manage it so that their victims do not feel themselves cheated and humiliated, but rather believe to be themselves what they are least of all - masters of the universe? How do women manage to manage to instil in men this sense of pride and superiority that inspires them to ever greater achievements?

Why are women never unmasked?

Customer Reviews

Hilarious, dangerous, opinionated, but a welcome change
If you read this book, never forget that while Esther Vilar is making a serious point, her tongue never leaves her cheek. If you forget that this is satire (at its best) then you may be tempted to take what she says literally and miss the wonderful humour on offer.

Of course, women are not as stupid or as manipulative as the author makes out, and men are not as philanthropic and intelligent either. She presents stereotypes to make her point that women are prepared to manipulate men to serve their own selfish needs - and the extent to which they do this is substantially underestimated. I imagine that any man in his middle or later years does not need to be taught this lesson, but in her focus on a section of the female population she does not admire, Esther Vilar forgets the many women who genuinely care for their partners and friends (and the many men who don't).

I see many women I have met in the pages of her book. Sometimes I found myself nodding at her wisdom, sometimes laughing out loud at her humour, and at other times sucking through my teeth at the outrageous and dangerous things she says. Men on the rebound from bad relationships could read this and become bitter. Only women will know the true extent of the author's claims about their behaviour. As for her opinion of men, it is refreshing to find a book with the courage to speak of the many positive male characteristics that are so often ignored.

An excellent read - I picked up the book and could not put it down until I had finished it. Entertained? Totally. Persuaded? Much less so. This is a good starter for the man who wants to open his eyes to what is really going on around him in his personal world. But if you want a serious - properly referenced and researched - book on men's issues then get Warren Farrell's "The Myth of Male Power". Farrel's book is just as readable, but backs up opinion with impeccable academic research. Esther - in contrast - appeals only to common sense. There is no substance to back up her views. Interesting and welcome as these are, this is a polemic - just one person's personal opinion.

Probably Unique
This book is probably unique; I have yet to see another of its kind written by either a man or woman, though I am sure only a woman could write about other women with such authority; and what this one writes ain't too flattering! I can see how she got death threats from writing it.

I don't agree with all her observations and generalizations about women. And, I do think that things have changed a little bit since the '70s. Nonetheless, her basic points, that men pay for sex in one way or another from women, and that women use sex as a coin in trade for other things, is consistent with my own experiences and those other men have told me about. I also agree that the only way things will change for the better is if both sexes realize this and move to changed it for real. Otherwise men are left as johns and women as whores for the rest of humanity's tenure on this planet.

BTW, you can't find this book in the US. Apparently it's too hot for American book distributors to touch. So you know it's gotta get into some really juicy stuff. =)

Mans guide to life:Read It
Whilst reading this book, experiences through my life came to the front of my mind (and there were many of them...)

The characterisation of the sexes is fairly spot on - whilst some may hail and denounce it's despcriptions as generalisations, the polemic towers as a overview of the entire race of men and women over many, many years; and by doing so hits a big unspoken nail on the head.

Its what most men have sensed and most women deny. Indeed it offers a new way to look at the world we live in, that is if you hadn't already wised up throught your own observation and thought.

In spite of Vilar's wrath and ice... Many women have warm hearts and many men are not so easily led... Ultimatly the book holds up a mirror to feminism and shatters the generalisation within the women's movement of: man bad, woman good; Man oppresor; woman oppressed.