October 1, 2013
A study of what Kimmel (Sociology and Gender Studies/Stony Brook Univ.; Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, 2008, etc.) calls "aggrieved entitlement" and how it leads to the angry rhetoric and violence endemic to the United States today. The author is no stranger to thinking and writing about men in their cultural climate; in his latest book, he turns his gaze to the pervasive anger specifically white men experience. White men, he claims, have held the upper hand for so long that equalizing the playing field results in explosive rage over their situation rather than the quieter despair, anxiety and frustration that other men feel. "Theirs is the anger of the entitled: we are entitled to those jobs, those positions of unchallenged dominance," writes Kimmel. "And when we are told we are not going to get them, we get angry." From there, the author moves through manifestations of this rage, such as domestic violence, mass murder and involvement in white-supremacy activities. Kimmel's writing is open and engaging, reminiscent of a conversation with friends in a bar. This makes some of the disturbing content easier to digest and his arguments palatable even to those inclined to disagree with him. Though he admits his left-leaning bias, he writes, "I try to look into the hearts and minds of the American men with whom I most disagree politically....I do so not with contempt or pity, but with empathy and compassion." For the most part, the author succeeds, but he does himself a disservice by alienating readers, with an overwhelmingly liberal introduction and first chapter, who might otherwise see merit in his conclusion that these "angry white men have some justified grievances--even though they often aim their arrows at the wrong targets." Another worthwhile examination of important issues affecting men and, by extension, everyone else, from an author known for his insight into the subject.
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October 1, 2013
Kimmel believes it comes down to aggrieved entitlement: the school shootings perpetrated by middle-class white male students, the men's-rights movement, white supremacists, the fathers'-rights groups, etc. There is, he elaborates, a strong (and getting dangerously stronger) feeling, among some white male Americans, that they are losing their place in society. The era of entitlement, when the good jobs and the best stuff was the white male American's due, has passed, replaced by a society in whichat least in the skewed view of the people about whom Kimmel is writingwhite males are being systematically marginalized, passed over in favor of minorities and women. (For example, the men's-rights movement, the author says, is based on the belief that the oppression of men is a feminist conspiracy.) The angry white man, says Kimmel, isn't able, or perhaps willing, to face the simple truth: the era of entitlement is over. The book offers no real solution to the problem, delivering instead a lively, frequently scary look at a group of people who are trying, ever more desperately, to hang onto a world that no longer exists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)