Julie Ehlers's Reviews > The Descent of Man

As Philadelphia writer R. Eric Thomas is fond of saying, "masculinity is a prison." By now it should come as no surprise to anyone that rigid gender roles limit everyone, and while women have made some advances in areas previously seen as "male," men generally seem more reluctant to embrace their so-called feminine side, despite the obvious drawbacks to having to be seen as hypermasculine all the time. It's not clear how much farther the project of gender equality can go without men being fully on board, though, which makes books like The Descent of Man especially valuable.

This book definitely makes some fascinating points, particularly in its first half. Chief among these points is the idea that men's traditional advantage—brute strength—has become less of an advantage in a world that's become more and more geared toward emotional intelligence. "The brain, the very organ that has given the human race its success, may have long ago set in train a process—modernity and democracy—that may be incompatible with traditional masculinity," Grayson Perry notes. Men's traditional conditioning to feel superior is at odds with the notion of a world where everyone is truly equal, which explains why some men "feel feminism is an attack on their core identity rather than a call for equality."

Perry then goes on to discuss the idea of gender performance and how being forced to limit themselves to the most narrow idea of masculinity can have a disastrous effect on the lives of men and boys, leading to widespread unhappiness and discontent, not to mention violence among men and between men and women. The "men's rights" movement and generally appalling internet behavior of a certain segment of the male population are touched upon. For me, this second half of the book contained fewer new insights than the first half did, but the fact that these points have been made before doesn't make them any less important. In fact, repetition of these ideas may be one of the only things that will eventually make them stick, so their inclusion here is a no-brainer, both as a logical aspect of the book's argument and as a vital element of the larger ongoing project of equality the author seeks to foster.

I was less enthused by Perry's conviction that the only way to get men on board with feminism is to show them how it will help them (i.e., men). Shouldn't decent people recognize that equality is important regardless of what side of the divide they're currently standing on? And, practically speaking, will men genuinely learn to embrace feminist ideas if they're allowed to believe it's still all about them? The whole notion is depressing to me, but it's admittedly still worth thinking about.

Grayson Perry is apparently well-known in the UK but, as far as I am aware, not at all known in the U.S., so it's something of a mystery why this book was released here. I wish a different, less "who's this guy?" cover design had been used for U.S. audiences who won't recognize the author photo. Still, there's no doubt that the messages in this book deserve to be heard, and if Americans don't embrace this particular book, perhaps it'll open the door for others that have a better shot at getting noticed here.

I won this book in a giveaway here on Goodreads. Thank you to the publisher.