The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love is a book by bell hooks about men, patriarchy, the relationship between them, and most importantly love. There is no need to pick up a copy, comrade Sen has already uploaded the entire audiobook onto Youtube. Content warnings are generously provided by Sen at the start of each chapter. This time we are doing chapters 2 & 3. Each chapter is only about 30 minutes long, so it's not a long commitment. Let me know if two chapters a week is too much or if I should change the format.

Discuss-

-What stood out to you about this chapter?
-Are there any ideas that bell hooks introduces in this chapter that you've never heard of or wish you had heard earlier in your life?
-Are there any stories in this chapter that resonate with you on a personal level?

Previous Chapter 1 discussion

  • Magician [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    1 year ago

    I consume audiobooks really fast, but I'm appreciating is her inclusion of queer men and their experience of patriarchy. I didn't expect something from this far back would offer so much prescient writing on experiences I've only begun to articulate as a queer man.

    I started this book after seeing your previous thread and wanted to look into my own experience with masculinity. It's been nice to disentangle what I'm attracted to from what society has said I should want or expect. It's nice thinking about my own childhood and how my version of being a boy was valid.

    • YearOfTheCommieDesktop [they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      I didn't expect something from this far back would offer so much prescient writing on experiences I've only begun to articulate as a queer man.

      yeah the more I read the more I have been able to fully internalize the fact that the past was not a dumber less enlightened place really, nor are things as different as we like to think. Some things change for sure but the fundamentals are very similar and in almost every field I find that 30+ year old writing is on more or less the same level as modern scholarship, if not occasionally better