Hello comrades, it's time for our third discussion thread for The Will to Change, covering Chapters 6 (Work: What's Love Got To Do With It?) and 7 (Feminist Manhood). Thanks to everyone who participated the last few weeks, I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts again. And if you’re just joining the book club this week, welcome!

Chapter 6 discusses the role of work under patriarchy and how capitalism forces men and women alike to not only work long hours to survive, but to prioritize supporting themselves and their families financially over any sort of healing and growing. Chapter 7 delves into how men can apply feminist thought practically to support the well-being of themselves and the people around them.

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)

As always let me know if you'd like to be added to the ping list!

Our next discussion will be on Chapters 8 (Popular Culture: Media Masculinity) and 9 (Healing Male Spirit), beginning on 12/25. That thread will likely stay up a little longer than usual as I'm sure many people will be busy around the end of the year and I want to give everyone the opportunity to share their thoughts.

  • Barabas [he/him]
    ·
    16 hours ago

    He argues that most men have such a limited sense of self that they are uncertain that they possess “selves we could want to relate to.” He contends, “We only seem to learn that the “self” is something we have to control tightly, since otherwise it might upset our plans.... We never really give ourselves much chance to know ourselves better or develop more contact with ourselves, since...all this threatens the ‘control’ we have been brought up to identify our masculinity with. We feel trapped, though we do not know how we are constantly remaking this trap for ourselves.”

    This is something that struck home with me. I had this realization fairly recently in that I tend to just do whatever is required of me. Currently trying a lot of different things to see what I actually like doing. Seen myself as a cog in the machine whose only worth is what I can provice for others, not as a being myself.

    Overall liked chapter 6. Hits some of the thoughts I've had of myself both as unemployed and employed. Chapter 7 is overall pretty cisnormative, but it is nice to have some kind of wholistic view of feminism here, given that I was brought up in a fairly separatist feminist culture. I tend to not trust separatist mens groups as far as I can throw them, it just fills me with self loathing.

    Anyway, pretty short and very late post here as I've been very busy this week.