Helen Smith writing in Pajamasmedia.
From the piece:
I read Kay Hymowitz's new book, Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys, recently. First, the good points: Hymowitz does acknowledge that women have made great strides in our society mainly due to advances in technology and the knowledge economy that gives better jobs to those with degrees, degrees that "take years." Hymowitz has a good chapter titled "The New Girl Order" in which she admits that Americans now like girls better than boys. She does a fair job of describing some of the biases against boys, though she does little to rectify them. Now a couple of bad points: Hymowitz talks to very few actual men for this book. If males are included, it is through a book or blog written by a woman or a chivalrous man. Or Hymowitz invokes a blog written by a male blogger such as "Roissy" to prove how "misogynist" these male bloggers are. However, her definition of "misogynist" seems to be any male who dares complain about a female. The book would have been better if Hymowitz had included more actual male voices, and if she had demonstrated a bit more psychological understanding of the male perspective. (But then, maybe that is a book I should write). I do believe Hymowitz tried to be sensitive to the plight of today's men, but the book presents as being more concerned about how men fit into the world of women rather than how men actually feel themselves.