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Title: Studs, Tools, and the Family Jewels: Metaphors Men Live by by Peter F. Murphy ISBN: 0-299-17134-5 Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press Pub. Date: 07 April, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Murphy's Challenge
Comment: Peter F. Murphy's Studs, Tools, and the Family Jewels: Metaphors Men Live By, is a readable, provocative, and courageous book assessing one critical aspect of male discourse, the metaphors of masculinity which shape the way many men live their lives. What makes Murphy's book exceptional is that he goes beyond mere documentation of the widely-recognized fact that men's discourse involves many sexist and homophobic metaphors and commendably probes the influence these metaphors have in shaping the prevailing, albeit limited, view of manhood. In doing so, he addresses the usual suspects and includes discussions of metaphors such as "hard-on," "pecker," "family jewels," "jock," "blue balls," "faggot," and "pussy." This engaging book also features chapters on the use of these metaphors in most aspects of men's lives, including work, play, war, sports, humor and even in some males' revealing defensive defense of exclusive heterosexuality.
Murphy maintains these metaphors are often employed politically to distinguish privileged masculinity from its alleged inferiors, femininity and non-heterosexuality. He provocatively concludes that these metaphors while revealing much about men's relationships with women and non-heterosexual men, tell, ever so sadly, still more about the detachment, fear, distrust, and anxiety reflected in the desperate lives of many men. Murphy admirably seeks to mitigate the negative consequences of this phenomenon by offering an alternative version of the meaning of manhood, an alternative boldly calling, in part, for new metaphors by which men can be encouraged and influenced, by the language they use, to lead more humane, sensitive, fulfilled and fulfilling lives.
Not all readers will agree that dramatic changes in gender and male-to-male relationships will be fostered by Murphy's proffered revision of the many metaphors in male discourse. As Murphy is aware (see p. 5), he is likely dealing with a symptom of dysfunctional masculinity and not its primary or major cause. And yet, his response to that criticism is well- reasoned as he maintains that while language does not "determine" men's objectification of women (and homophobia, for that matter) "it describes it in a way that gives it legitimacy. How we talk about ourselves as men can alter the way we live as men."
Finally, some readers might find this book disturbing. Murphy throws down a dual challenge to males to both question their privileged status sustained by the continued use of traditional metaphors and to adopt a more "non-hard," tender and embracing discourse. Meeting the latter challenge must involve men willing to champion the use of new metaphors which might, in turn, make these non-traditional males easy preys, vulnerable and open to ridicule by those traditional males still trapped by the old metaphors underlying male dominance. Murphy boldly asks us to join him in meeting this challenge, noting:
"[I]n proposing alternative metaphors that are "unhard,' I open myself up to mockery. Men need to take these kinds of risks, however, risks that women in the feminist movement have been taking for decades (even centuries) as a way to confront what is touted as natural and normal. If men are to participate authentically in the struggle to change the way we think about masculinity and femininity, to move the discourse beyond the oppressive and the demeaning, we too must take some risks."
In the quest for saner and richer relationships between and among men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, all challenges calling us to that noble end are to be commended and that is decisively so regarding Murphy's challenge.
John Massaro
Professor of Politics, SUNY Postdam
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1996
Rating: 1
Summary: Ho Hum, Another ... bash of straight men.
Comment: "The real purpose of this book, then, is to reveal the insidiousness of language used by men to speak of manhood and heterosexuality, and in this way to begin to undermine the discourse of male bonding," Peter F. Murphy in the introduction. As the author admits in the introduction the purpose is to undermine heterosexual men and the bonding of men. The author continually uses loaded male-bashing language to describe men and male bodies. Straight men talk about "men," not "heterosexual men." He quotes feminist women as experts on how men feel about being soldiers, as if a woman who has never been a man or a soldier or in a war has any clue what she's talking about. He cites all the usual radical feminist male bashers as authorities on men's behavior, feelings, and language. It's openly an attempt to undermine straight men and, the author hopes, to begin to prevent male bonding. Its a negative bash of men from cover to cover. His purpose is to undermine men. The book ought to be burned as a prejudicial hate piece.
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent book for your son
Comment: Studs, Tools and the Family Jewels is a fascinating read. It is accessible to a wide audience, though it is deep and thoughtful as well. A book which talks about how men use language to bond with each other tells us a great deal about the construction of male heterosexuality, and is long overdue. Peter Murphy does not shrink from some of the difficult aspects of being a man, he wants to better understand the conditioning in order to imagine a world where masculinity might be different, a less sexist and heterosexist world, and a more tolerant one. Men can learn from this book, about themselves and their options to use language differently. Women will read this book with interest as well for its insights into how heterosexual men define themselves against their perceived "others": gay men and women.
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Title: Men's Lives (5th Edition) by Michael S. Kimmel, Michael A. Messner ISBN: 0205321054 Publisher: Pearson Allyn & Bacon Pub. Date: 21 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $55.20 |
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Title: Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities Changing Men by Lynne Segal ISBN: 081351620X Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: October, 1990 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Nine Lives: Adolescent Masculinities, the Body, and Violence by James W. Messerschmidt ISBN: 0813366674 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: December, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School by Barrie Thorne ISBN: 0813519233 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: April, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Real Boys : Rescuing Our Sons From The Myths of Boyhood by William Pollack ISBN: 0805061835 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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