Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.42 (519 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0231144318 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 328 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2018-02-04 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
When did maturity become the ultimate taboo? Men have gone from idolizing Cary Grant to aping Hugh Grant, shunning marriage and responsibility well into their twenties and thirties. Their uncertainty gave birth to the Beats and men who indulged in childhood hobbies and boyish sports. Without mature role models to emulate or rebel against, Generation X turned to cynicism and sensual intensity, and the media fed on this longing, transforming a life stage into a highly desirable lifestyle. He would rather prolong the hedonistic pleasures of youth than embrace the self-sacrificing demands of adulthood. Gary Cross, renowned cultural historian, identifies the boy-man and his habits, examining the attitudes and practices of three generations to make sense of this gradual but profound shift in American masculinity. Cross matches the rise of the American boy-man to trends
"Put not away childish things" according to Andrew S. Rogers. This book is both more and less than I was expecting. "Less," in that I was hoping for a stronger critique -- not to say denunciation -- of today's "boy-men," as author Gary Cross calls them. The arrested-development adults-but-not-grown-ups like the suit-wearing, video game-playing guy in the cover art or, even more appropriate, the men in their forties, or older, who still run around in the same oversized T-shirts, baggy shorts, and huge sneakers as their 12-year-old sons. I wa. "not an easy read and a little dense of history" according to photondn. Gary Cross' Men To Boys shows how men have changed in behavior and thinking over generations starting from the mid-1850's to present.Even though the title is Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity, I am not sure if the book had a distinct answer as to why men are acting like boys. It is like pointing the answer to a body of history and saying that the answer is over there in that direction.The book is quite dense of media history. I had a difficult time appreciating some of. Marc Safran said Disappointing. Basic thesis of the book was clear but examples where so entrenched in personal recollections and media memories that it lost any scientific believability.
Feminism, extended adolescence and an aggressive media culture promoting conflicting signals about maleness and fatherhood only add to this immaturity trend. . All rights reserved. Not only does Cross outline the dilemma, but he cites a cure: We must recognize that as adults, and equally as men, we have responsibilities to our partners, families, and communities beyond our own need for experience and pleasure. In this perceptive, eloquent book, Cross concludes that growing-up has never been more difficult in this complicated time. From Publishers Weekly Cross, a professor of history at Penn State University, seeks the contemporary social puzzle of why men are refusing to grow up and commit to marriage and family. He cites the example of Hugh Hefner's popular concept of childish male wish fulfillment, an empire built on sexually available