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"The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love" by bell hooks BOOK CLUB - Preface and Chapter 1 Discussion (hexbear.net)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Hello comrades, it's time for our first discussion thread for The Will to Change! Please share your thoughts below on the first two sections of the book. There's quite a lot to talk about between hooks' discussion of masculinity discourse within feminist circles, the ways both men and women uphold patriarchy, and the near universal experience of men being forced to suppress their rich emotional worlds from a young age. I'll be posting my thoughts in a little bit after I'm done with work.

If you haven't read the book yet but would like to, its available free on the Internet Archive in text form, as well as an audiobook on Youtube with content warnings at the start of each chapter, courtesy of the Anarchist Audio Library, and as an audiobook on our very own TankieTube! (note: the YT version is missing the Preface but the Tankietube version has it) Let me know if you'd like to be added to the ping list!

Our next discussion will be on Chapters 2 (Understanding Patriarchy) and 3 (Being a Boy), beginning on 12/4.

Thanks to everyone who is or will be participating, I'm really looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts! feminism

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

the raging, man-hating feminist (though hooks acknowledges those kinds of feminists do exist in a very small minority).

It feels like its gotten bigger in recent times, and I believe based on my interactions with these types is that this is the ideological seed of TERF-ism (since it never takes long to find some transphobic bs on their accounts)

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

In her feminism is for everyone bell hooks mentioned that "the media" put a lot of emphasis on the man-hating feminist since they made a great villain to discredit the whole movement. With social media this is still the case with these voices either being magnified either as rage bait or aftro turfing. Overall its been a success with some many young men hating "feminism" because they care about equality between the genders. So I don't know if its gotten bigger but at least its the most visible

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

In her feminism is for everyone bell hooks mentioned that "the media" put a lot of emphasis on the man-hating feminist since they made a great villain to discredit the whole movement.

Also makes for better drama. Having the stereotypical man-hater going at it with reactionaries creates more bombast than a feminist talking about how we need to let men love.

aftro turfing

Okay I know that was a typo but holy crap we need to make that a term for Astroturfed black liberation NGOs.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Exactly. It creates the drama and is a good distraction from any real discussion.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

aftro turfing

Total typo but a great word for anytime anyone is pretending to be black online....

this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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A space for masculine folks to talk about living under patriarchy.

Detoxing masculinity since 1990!

You don’t get points for feminism, feminism is expected.

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Resources:

*The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by Bell Hooks

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