The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love

bell hooks

Simon and Schuster, Jan 6, 2004 - Social Science - 208 pages

With the courage, honesty, and compassion that have made her one of America's most provocative authorities on modern culture, bell hooks takes on the interior lives of men and answers their most intimate questions about love.
Everyone needs to love and be loved -- even men. In this groundbreaking book, 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, ethnicity, or cultural persuasion.
Written in response to the author's in-depth discussions with men who were inspired by her trilogy, All About Love, Salvation, and Communion, bell hooks's The Will to Change addresses maleness and masculinity in new and challenging ways. With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks answers the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society. She believes men can find the way to spiritual unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of themselves. Only through this liberation will they lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that have historically been the exclusive province of women. Men can access these feelings by giving themselves permission to be vulnerable. As they grow more comfortable and start believing that it's okay to feel, to need, and to desire, they will thrive as equal partners in their intimate relationships.
Whether they are straight or gay, black or white, The Will to Change helps men to reclaim the best part of themselves.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - marthaearly - LibraryThing

Whenever you read a book for school there is always the possibility of just skimming, not quite absorbing everything but taking away just enough to use in class discussion. Unfortunately I started ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Aula - LibraryThing

I enjoyed this book. hooks' almost gentle and kind way of looking at how the current social ambience (she uses the term patriarchy; I'm not a fan of the word as it is frequently misused - not so the ...

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

Popular passages

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

bell hooks is a cultural critic, a feminist theorist, and the renowned author of more than twenty books. A charismatic speaker, she divides her time between teaching, writing, and lecturing around the world. She lives in Kentucky and New York City.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
• Author: bell hooks
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2004
• ISBN: 0743480333, 9780743480338
• Length: 208 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / History & Theory; Social Science / Gender Studies; Social Science / Men's Studies; Social Science / Popular Culture