Hello comrades, it's time for our first discussion thread for The Will to Change! Please share your thoughts below on the first two sections of the book. There's quite a lot to talk about between hooks' discussion of masculinity discourse within feminist circles, the ways both men and women uphold patriarchy, and the near universal experience of men being forced to suppress their rich emotional worlds from a young age. I'll be posting my thoughts in a little bit after I'm done with work.
If you haven't read the book yet but would like to, its available free on the Internet Archive in text form, as well as an audiobook on Youtube with content warnings at the start of each chapter, courtesy of the Anarchist Audio Library, and as an audiobook on our very own TankieTube! (note: the YT version is missing the Preface but the Tankietube version has it) Let me know if you'd like to be added to the ping list!
Our next discussion will be on Chapters 2 (Understanding Patriarchy) and 3 (Being a Boy), beginning on 12/4.
Thanks to everyone who is or will be participating, I'm really looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts! 
I hadn't read the preface my first time through and it felt a lot more powerful than I remember the rest of the book being. I think my father did a good job all things considered, he has tons of brain worms but I have trouble casting blame at him. Despite all that one of my youngest memories of him was when he was incredibly angry at me and lashed out at me. When bell hooks talks about that primal moment of heart break and heart ache, I can maybe point to that moment. It was my first memory of being actually afraid of my father.
I don't hold any resentment toward him for it but I feel our relationship was changed after that. I don't remember why he was angry and I don't remember ever talking about it with him again. I just remember that moment of being powerless and fearful of my parent. He's been a good dad but that one moment is going to be in my head for the rest of my life, and maybe his too.