Home
Mission
Previous issues
Subscribe
Contact Us

Spring 2000 cover

National Observer Home > No. 46 - Spring 2000 > Book Reviews

Men Engaging Feminisms : Pro-Feminism, Backlashes and Schooling

by Bob Lingard and Peter Douglas

Buckinham: Open University Press (and in Australia, Allen & Unwin), 1999, pp. 185 and index.

This book was written from a pro-feminist perspective by Associate Professor Bob Lingard and Peter Douglas, a Ph.D. student. It is interesting from a sociological viewpoint as raising questions about the attitudes and viewpoints of pro-feminist men.

The book is written from a somewhat partisan position, and sets out to minimise the detriment that is suffered by male students when feminist policies prefer female students. But in fact it is now generally accepted that the slower development of boys requires that they be given at least as much attention as girls in school environments.

General experience is that the only common trait to be observed amongst feminists is hostility, often pathological, towards the male sex. Perhaps there are some feminists who do not share this attitude, but the psychology of the matter suggests they must be very few. Doubtless in some cases feminists have had encounters with fathers, husbands, boyfriends and so on which they consider unsatisfactory (just as men often have similar experiences with women), whereas in other cases they may be motivated by lesbian inclinations. But with few exceptions feminists require counselling or psychological treatment, to help them restore balance to their attitudes and overcome their apparent personal inadequacies.

The motivation of male pro-feminists is somewhat more puzzling. Given the irrationality and psychopathic hostility of feminists, the origins of which are found in their personal histories, why would individual men wish to support them? Unfortunately a solution to thiproblem is not presented by the authors. What would be more useful and instructive than this book would be a work analysing comprehensively the various motivations and attitudes of pro-feminist men.

I.C.F. Spry

 

National Observer No. 46 - Spring 2000