Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Disposable Male
Category: Issue 9Compared with medieval, Victorian, and early-20th-century times, women today enjoy an awesome degree of freedom with work, relationship, and individual life choices. Or is it an awful and undue burdening of the female members of society at the expense of men? In the context of evolutionary biology, Michael Gilbert, of the University of Southern California, presents some seriously challenging questions to modern men and women of urban societies. In his book The Disposable Male: Sex, Love, and Money (The Hunter Press, Atlanta, 2006), he defies the prevailing hard-shelled feminist attitudes that are confusing gender roles and subjecting both sexes, especially the male, to a dysfunctional status in both individual and social lives.
Michael Gilbert is concerned with the imbalance of gender-based responsibilities for which both sexes are biologically and socially yet unprepared: women suffering from multiple duties at work and family while most men having little to do while biologically though equipped for doing a lot. Adding to this is the Second Wave’s feminist aggression that has supported an invasion of the formerly male spheres of activity by women while providing no alternative to positively channelize the masculine energy. Hence the disposable male!
Mr. Gilbert’s writing style is hip and absorbing; making an enjoyable story of the early beginnings of life on our planet and its evolution to the modern human form. At times, while touching on feminist attitudes, the author’s tone does assume a slightly bitter feel. The book also challenges the rooted beliefs of a divine origin of life and the various conventions that attribute existence to supernatural forces. To the author, life and humanity are natural, not divine, and in their naturalness lies their great appeal to respect and conservation.
After a thorough discussion of the gender-based problem, very little of which is uninteresting, the book lists some remedial measures for a more peaceable and stable social life in modern urban settings. This calls for a greater understanding between both sexes, a careful consideration of the existing needs and sources of living, and mutual cooperation of both genders for meeting the inescapable demands of their evolutionary heritage.
The Disposable Male is targeted at any educated reader who likes to appreciate the flip side of gender issues and for all those who are interested in human sociobiology, current events, and relationships at large.
ISBN-10: 0977655237
ISBN-13: 978-0977655236
Availability
http://www.amazon.com/Disposable-Male-Money-Your-Through-Darwins/dp/0977655237
Book Details and Discussion
http://www.thedisposablemale.com/
Ernest has also reviewed Literal Translations, Issue 8 at City Chick Magazine
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