Hello comrades, it's time for our FINAL discussion thread for The Will to Change, covering Chapters 10 (Reclaiming Male Integrity), 11 (Loving Men) and the book as a whole. Thanks to everyone who's participated over the last couple months, I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts again. And if you haven't started the book yet but would like to, this thread will stay pinned for a while so you can share your thoughts as you read!
As we reflect on the book as a whole, there are a few questions I'm curious to hear everyone's answers for:
-
What was your biggest takeaway from reading The Will to Change?
-
How has the book's material and hooks' insights affected your everyday life?
-
How can we apply hooks' lessons on healthy, non-patriarchal masculinity to improve the site culture of Hexbear?
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)
After this I would like to host another book club, probably here on /c/menby but it depends on what exactly we read. Please share any suggestions you have for books below!
Going to be posting some thoughts once I finish the last two chapters today. But I just wanted to say thanks for this. Its really made me think a lot about what masculinity is within our patriarchal society.
One of the biggest things to realize about patriarchy is that it affects everyone. And if everyone isn't liberated from patriarchy's grips then liberation will not happen. I think it just speaks to a lot of what is discussed in so far as being better intersectional comrades. We can't leave anyone behind because the system consumes everything in order to survive. Obviously not everyone will be open to it, but we can't always take the stubbornness of individuals to be the refusal of an entire group of people to change.
I've really been thinking a lot about being more in tune and expressive about my emotions. I get that longing for love in particular. As I said in an earlier chapter discussion, my relationship with my dad wasn't always the best, but talking about it with my mom recently kind of put me on the path of really looking into what my relationship with him and other people in my life was/is lacking. I'm taking baby steps to open up to people more and reading this book has solidified my desire to do just that. And I want not just to change my self, but hopefully help others see a world that isn't about adhering to patriarchal notions of relationships.
Its kind of tough to say. Maybe having a space where we can continue to discuss and think of ways to apply these lessons could be helpful. I just feel like there's only so much you can do on an online space.