`Real' Boys? Manufacturing Masculinity and Erasing Privilege in Popular Books on Raising Boys

Abstract

In recent years an analysis of gender that includes understanding the condition of men and boys in society has garnered considerable attention. We examine four highly promoted pop-psychology books about raising boys. Although such an endeavor could help critically inspect false universalities about gender and examine the ways in which boys and men both benefit from and are constrained by gender polarization and male privilege, we find that these books suffer from three limitations. First, they subscribe to essentializing and universalizing assumptions about gender and parenting that make for a faulty foundation from which to examine gender. Next, these books build their arguments on the unsubstantiated assertion that boys are disadvantaged. Finally, these arguments rest on a fundamental failure to address the institutions and social arenas in which gender is acquired and expressed. These authors fail to examine the forces of privilege and power informing gender identity.