A Washington Post journalist and the mother of a young son explores the nation's complex culture of toxic masculinity and searches for solutions that parents can implement to better nurture their male children so that they become loving and ethical men.
In this empathetic account, Washington Post reporter Brown exposes the pressures society exerts on boys ... This authoritative and accessible consideration offers insights, solutions, and hope.
Brown is at her best in her chapter on consent, as she engages intellectually with thorny issues involving language, school culture and the more troublesome aspects of today’s parent universe. She is considerably less strong, however, when it comes to doling out parenting advice—which she does in passages so jarringly wooden and oddly pedestrian that they sound almost as if they were shoehorned in, under editorial duress ... For parents of older kids, Brown’s suggestions may serve as quaint reminders of the cozy bubble of early motherhood, when problems seem solvable and the outside world has not yet broken in. But they’re ill-suited for kids in middle and high school, who need the lessons this book wants to share the very most.
Brown's reporting on a variety of such initiatives tempers the gut-punch of stories documenting the ubiquity and ugliness of sexual harassment and the harm of sexual violence to people of all genders. A groundbreaking exploration with clear recommendations on how to better raise and support boys.
