Product Description

Tell a woman we need to save the males and she’ll give you the name of her shrink. But cultural provocateur Kathleen Parker, who was raised by her father and who mothered a pack of boys, makes a humorous case for rescuing the allegedly stronger sex from trends that portend man’s cultural demise.

Save the Males is a shrewd, amusing, and sure-to-be-controversial look at how men, maleness, and fatherhood have been under siege in American culture for decades. Kathleen Parker argues that the feminist movement veered off course from its original aim of helping women achieve equality and ended up making enemies of men. With piercing wit, this nationally syndicated columnist shows us how the pendulum has swung from the reasonable middle to a place where men have been ridiculed in the public square and the importance of fatherhood has been diminished–all to the detriment of women, who ultimately suffer most.

The real losers, should we continue on our present course, are not just grown men and women but our children. Young people involuntarily drafted into the squabbles of their parents’ generation and raised in a climate of sexual hostility–also known as the “hookup culture”–may be fluent in porn, but their vocabulary is painfully limited when it comes to relationships.

While Parker gleefully skewers the silly side of the human experiment–like men in dresses and sperm shopping–she offers sobering statistics on the impact of the anti-male culture on the institution of the family and on relationships.

Exploring our burgeoning “slut culture” and the vividly narcissistic prevalence of vagina worship, Save the Males softens no edges. Parker tackles some of the more taboo subjects in today’s sexual politics and culture wars with perceptive analysis and a stinging sense of humor that will have America talking–and chuckling–about saving the males.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #190858 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-10
• Released on: 2008-06-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781400065790
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
According to columnist Parker, men are an endangered species struggling against everything from mere hostility to literal emasculation. Starting in elementary school, where a teacher most likely a feminist will demand that boys sit still and listen and continuing through college, where freshmen must endure rape awareness workshops, men are besieged by disrespect. Belittled by bumbling portrayals in sitcoms, their importance as fathers is so devalued that they are perceived as little more than sperm and a wallet. Parker trots out the usual suspects—mass culture, unspecified feminists, The Vagina Monologues, Murphy Brown, metrosexuals and girlymen—to propose that a feminist campaign is afoot and eager to effeminize, denigrate and destroy American men. Although Parker's deliberate provocations make for lively reading, the majority of her claims are too fanciful and unsubstantiated to be genuinely thought provoking or even interesting (erectile dysfunction is caused by young, sexually aggressive women; women serving in the army put the nation at risk). Parker makes a poor conspiracy theorist, and her statistics and unverifiable theories are unable to make her case, however vehement or entertaining their presentation. (June)
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From Booklist
Although its title makes it sound like a comedy in the vein of Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys (1995), this book by syndicated newspaper columnist Parker is fairly serious, even though it’s written with the author’s customary semi-acidic tongue. Parker wants no part of the conventional gosh-aren’t-men-doofuses position; instead, she asks why men are so frequently portrayed (especially, but not only, on television) as clumsy, inept, slow-witted dolts. She asks other startling and politically incorrect questions, too, including why some elements of the legal system, especially those involving parental rights and child care, favor women; why feminism, which began as the quest for equality between the sexes, now seems to have mutated into a quest for female superiority; and why men are becoming ever more marginalized in American society. Parker’s against-the-grain opinions are sure to provoke criticism, controversy, and condemnation, but she is a lively writer who argues her points with great enthusiasm and often compelling logic. Expect to see Parker on plenty of talk shows. --David Pitt

About the Author
Kathleen Parker is a nationally syndicated columnist whose twice-weekly column runs in more than four hundred newspapers around the country. An H. L. Mencken Writing Award winner, she frequently appears on radio talk shows and is a regular guest on The Chris Matthews Show.