Boys Will Be Boys: Power, Patriarchy and Toxic Masculinity

by Clementine Ford

Overview

The incendiary new book about toxic masculinity and misogyny from Clementine Ford, author of the bestselling feminist manifesto, Fight Like A Girl.

Boys Will Be Boys answers the question Clementine Ford is most often asked: 'How do I raise my son to respect women?’

With equal parts passion and humour, Ford reveals how patriarchal society is as destructive for men as it is for women, creating a dangerously limited idea of what it is to be a man. She traces the way gender norms creep into the home from early childhood, through popular culture or the division of housework and shines a light on what needs to change for equality to become a reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786076632
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	07/30/2019
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	964,214
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

CLEMENTINE FORD isawriter, broadcaster and troll agitator based in Melbourne, Australia. Regularly described as a 'flamethrower', she is part of the new wave of feminists unapologetically igniting the conversation around gender equality. Clementine is a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, and has written about feminism and equality for The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, The Telegraph, The Sunday Mail, The Big Issue and ABC's The Drum. Her TEDx talk on rape culture ('Your Vagina is Not a Car') has received almost 1,000,000 views. She is the author of Fight Like A Girl.

Table of Contents

Author's note xi

Introduction 1

1 It's a boy 13

2 A woman's place 39

3 Girls on film 70

4 Not all men 101

5 We know what boys are like 123

6 Mass debate 151

7 The manosphere 177

8 Your Honour, I object 204

9 The king of the hill 230

10 It's just a joke 257

11 Asking for it 284

12 Witch hunt 324

Epilogue 352

Acknowledgments 359

Editorial Reviews

05/13/2019

In this fierce, often sharp treatise, activist and author Ford (Fight Like a Girl) considers how patriarchy is harmful to men and reflects on how society can collectively educate boys on resisting the siren songs of male privilege and sexist attitudes. Having recently had a son, Ford has personal insight on how gender roles become prescribed at an early age—“boys are cars and touchdowns and arrows and rifles and guns”—and advises other parents on how to avoid the trap of these prescriptions (rule #1: no gender reveal parties). She notes the need for more female-centered stories in film and television and to teach boys that stories about girls are worth their attention; discusses societal attitudes about sex, which demonize girls for being sexually active and deride boys if they are deemed insufficiently sexually motivated; and carefully outlines exactly how one might have a conversation with a young man about sex, consent, and pornography. About halfway through the book, Ford zooms out to look more broadly at patriarchy and its discontents, including the misdeeds of murderous men’s rights activists, misogynist pickup artists, and Donald Trump. The analyses here may not be novel to readers already familiar with contemporary feminism, but this could serve as a useful entry point for those newer to the topic or contemplating how to parent in light of it. (July)

Publishers Weekly

‘Ferocious, incisive, an effective treatise.’

Australian Book Review

'With pithy jokes and witty commentary, this is an engrossing read, and Ford’s spirited tone evokes passion for change.'

Foreword

‘Clementine Ford’s Boys Will Be Boys is a blazing exploration of the frightening damage the patriarchy does to us all.’

The AU Review

‘Boys Will Be Boys is an impassioned call for societal change from a writer who has become a stand-out voice of her generation (and has the trolls to prove it) and an act of devotion from a mother to her son.’

Readings

‘Clementine Ford reveals the fragility behind ‘toxic masculinity’ in Boys Will Be Boys.’

The Conversation

'Boys Will Be Boys highlights the need to refocus on how we’re raising our boys to be better men. The ingrained toxic masculinity within society does just as much damage to our boys as it does to our girls, and this book highlights how to change that.'

Fernwood Magazine

'Fantastic...a well-crafted blend of passion, anger and humour.'

Right Now

'A damning look at toxic masculinity. It's the most important thing you'll read this year.'

Elle

'An impassioned polemic highlighting the contrasting ways in which how boys and girls are raised harms them both.'

Herald

'A truly vital piece of social commentary from Australia’s fiercest feminist, Boys Will Be Boys should be shoved into the hands of every person you know. Clementine Ford has done her research – despite what her angry detractors would have you believe – and spits truths about toxic masculinity and the dangers of the patriarchy with passion and a wonderfully wry sense of humour. Read it, learn from it, and share it – this book is absolute GOLD!'

16 Best Books of 2018 The AU Review

‘A timely cultural critic... Ford is intelligent, thoughtful, well-researched, and witty, but most importantly, she is hopeful for a future of justice and equality.’

starred review Booklist

'A damning look at toxic masculinity. It's the most important thing you'll read this year.'

Australia Elle

What I liked about Ford’s writing is that she is ready to question herself as well as others. She clearly acknowledges her white-passing and straight-passing privilege, and that she is striving to learn more and better understand how to elevate those even more marginalised than herself. Too many white feminists have excluded women of colour and transwomen in their conversations and compound the issue by refusing to be questioned about their exclusionary role in the movement.... Fight Like A Girl is not a diatribe but a declaration. Ford isn’t simply outlining the wrongs in the world and the men that compound it; she is declaring that these wrongs can and will be righted. The marginalised have been told to keep quiet, to let things slide, to let the people in power fix the problems. Ford is having none of it. She believes that to change the world the marginalised need to speak louder, push harder, be selfish, do what they tell you not to do because that is how you win like a girl.”


—Women Who Write Comics

From the Publisher

2019-05-20
A noted Australian feminist writer, activist, and "troll agitator" offers her take on the culture of toxic masculinity.

In her latest, Ford (Fight Like a Girl, 2018) analyzes patriarchy and, in particular, "how the systems we live in allow men to get away with doing deeply shitty things." She begins by examining the behaviors that "codify male power and dominance…[and] secure protection" from the consequences of those behaviors. She traces the genesis of toxic masculinity to the cultural penchant for forcing young boys to accept the rigid ways of being that disallow them to express emotions or preferences for "girlish" things like dresses and dolls. The more boys see the males and females around them assuming equal roles in both the private and public spheres, the less likely they will feel entitled to tell women their place is at home taking care of men. The fewer stories they see in books, film, and online that "reinforce regressive stereotypes," the less chance boys will develop the inflated sense of social entitlement Ford sees as being at the heart of toxic masculinity. She argues that rather than glorify male violence, society must teach boys the importance of communicating with and respecting the vulnerability in each other and in women. Ford also considers the online "manosphere" backlash against female empowerment, which includes men's rights activism that sees feminism as a "social cancer." The author then delves into the various frightening manifestations of rape culture. Normalized through the sanction of powerful men like Donald Trump, it paints women as provocateurs responsible for all acts of male sexual aggression they might suffer. Ford's book, which draws on current events in Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. as well as her own life as a wife and mother of a son, launches yet another furious and necessary salvo at the gender status quo while offering a blueprint for a more enlightened world.

A witty polemic with significant contemporary value.

Kirkus Reviews

'A truly vital piece of social commentary from Australia’s fiercest feminist, Boys Will Be Boys should be shoved into the hands of every person you know. Clementine Ford has done her research – despite what her angry detractors would have you believe – and spits truths about toxic masculinity and the dangers of the patriarchy with passion and a wonderfully wry sense of humour. Read it, learn from it, and share it – this book is absolute GOLD!'

The AU Review 16 Best Books of 2018

‘A timely cultural critic... Ford is intelligent, thoughtful, well-researched, and witty, but most importantly, she is hopeful for a future of justice and equality.’

Booklist Starred Review

'A damning look at toxic masculinity. It's the most important thing you'll read this year.'

Elle Australia

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