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The Decline of Men: How the American Male Is Tuning Out, Giving Up, and Flipping Off His Future
In an eye-opening exploration of contemporary American manhood, Guy Garcia’s The Decline of Men shows how men are struggling to redefine what being a man means in today’s world. Packed with startling statistics, informed by pop culture, and narrated in the entertaining style for which Guy Garcia is known, The Decline of Men sheds light on a problem that has wreaked havoc on the American family and urges men and women to look past the gender wars to address this national emergency together.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2008
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129 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 4, 2010
I learned that men are becoming less than men, and that it's okay because feminists aren't all bad? Feminists good? Now thats where I stopped paying attention and gave up on this book. 3 stars because the evidence is well supported, but minus two stars because the authors solution is weak.
November 27, 2022
Guy Garcia’s ‘The Decline of Men’ should be essential reading for everyone, not just men. If you’ve ever been pissed off at the way ads depict men as bumbling idiot bank machines, this book is for you. Being a feminist is something I’m very proud of, but believing in and fighting for equality doesn’t mean ignoring the needs of half the population (the exact reason we had to take up the fight in the first place). In fact, what I think I loved most about this book is that it’s not anti-woman, or even pro-men, it’s pro-PEOPLE. Society cannot flourish and progress unless we’ve all got each other's backs, regardless of gender. It’s high time we stopped punishing each other for doing exactly what was asked of us (a strong woman? What a bitch! A sensitive man? What a sissy!) and realize that these rigid rules and expectations hurt everyone and only move the mission backwards.
I take my hat off to Guy Garcia for helping me to better understand my father, my brother, my husband, my friends. We no longer live in a world where we stand idly by while our daughters are told they are less than, so let’s not allow that for our sons, either. Man’s fight is woman’s fight, and vice versa.
I take my hat off to Guy Garcia for helping me to better understand my father, my brother, my husband, my friends. We no longer live in a world where we stand idly by while our daughters are told they are less than, so let’s not allow that for our sons, either. Man’s fight is woman’s fight, and vice versa.
March 19, 2019
The Decline of Men: How Blah Blah Blah Excessively Long Subtitle is a tiresome procession of doom & gloom, anecdotes, cherry picking, sneering generalizations of men as a group, apples to oranges comparisons, dime store philosophizing, quotes so long and space-eating you'd think the book was an undergraduate paper trying to hit a page count, unsourced claims, statements intended to be taken as gospel sourced from out of touch weirdos who the author probably just overheard raving like a lunatic on a park bench and decided to include in the book for kicks, rhetorical questions, a complete misunderstanding of the spiritual beliefs of prehistoric people, a deranged obsession with trivial pop culture nonsense, long diatribes about how all men supposedly behave or view themselves that do not have the slightest resemblance to any man I have ever met, endless blather about "trends" that only a effete urbanite would think were widespread outside of his social group, some sort of weird fixation with Ken dolls that takes up the bulk of a chapter despite not having anything to do with anything, plus a litany of other problems that make this book borderline unreadable and necessitating a massive dose of skepticism if someone actually did want to repeat my mistake of reading the whole thing.
(I will admit that after the author deliberately misrepresented beloved national treasure Camille Paglia in order to make one of his stupid points I kind of switched to hate-reading this, but it was going really badly even before that.)
(I will admit that after the author deliberately misrepresented beloved national treasure Camille Paglia in order to make one of his stupid points I kind of switched to hate-reading this, but it was going really badly even before that.)
May 7, 2017
As a card carrying third wave feminist, I was worried that this book would be somehow offensive to my ideals and beliefs. In almost all respects, however, this book was a clarion call to all people who just want a better world for both sexes. Unlike many reviewers, I found Garcia's arguments and analysis to be spot on and more than ever timely. Balanced, impassioned and convincing. Solutions may be imperfect, but with out sound discussion or any discussion at all, how can we move forward to better relationship between men and women? Our natural fear of losing the advances it has been so hard for women to gain should not stand in the way of our ability to hear valid arguments about the nature and impact of contemporary change on a large part of the population.
June 13, 2023
By far my favorite sections of this book are 3. There's something terribly wrong with me, and 4. Mechanical bulls. I love how the author uses statistics, history and analysis to explain how men and women have gotten to our current point in social change and where it looks to be going. It's both somewhat depressing and hopeful. A great read if you want a bit of a laugh while learning things about both genders.
November 30, 2015
Review by BookLove Staff Member Jason Lush
In his study of the American male Guy Garcia exposes the ugly truth that all men want to hide but desperately need shown, our weakness in today’s age of networking and social strong arming. The author adequately displays how the feminist movement empowered women but in essence castrated an entire nation of men.
We live in an age where all the strengths that helped us make it out of the caves has made us all but useless in the world we created. Guy Garcia points to a lot of statistics making the work informative but a little dry, then blind sides you with two chapters about Mattel’s Ken and Superman, referring to them as both real men and symbols of what we are and what we used to be, respectively a useless metrosexual and an idealized figure of manhood. The fact that he spoke of both characters as if they were true flesh and blood men seemed a little silly and out of place in this particular work.
In the end we see that our Pop Icons are mirrors of what we think a “Man” should be but can never live up to ourselves. In short the implication is that instead of living up to our traditional ideas of manhood we should just redefine what it is to be a man.
Seems a bit lazy to me, but hell what ever makes you sleep better at night.
In his study of the American male Guy Garcia exposes the ugly truth that all men want to hide but desperately need shown, our weakness in today’s age of networking and social strong arming. The author adequately displays how the feminist movement empowered women but in essence castrated an entire nation of men.
We live in an age where all the strengths that helped us make it out of the caves has made us all but useless in the world we created. Guy Garcia points to a lot of statistics making the work informative but a little dry, then blind sides you with two chapters about Mattel’s Ken and Superman, referring to them as both real men and symbols of what we are and what we used to be, respectively a useless metrosexual and an idealized figure of manhood. The fact that he spoke of both characters as if they were true flesh and blood men seemed a little silly and out of place in this particular work.
In the end we see that our Pop Icons are mirrors of what we think a “Man” should be but can never live up to ourselves. In short the implication is that instead of living up to our traditional ideas of manhood we should just redefine what it is to be a man.
Seems a bit lazy to me, but hell what ever makes you sleep better at night.
August 26, 2011
I have seen an astonishing number of articles & books about this very topic. Without exception, they have all blamed feminism to some degree. But Garcia’s book took pains to point out that it’s not feminism’s fault, and that it would be unmanly to lay the blame on anyone else.
So, as the mother of a young man, I was interested to see this Guy’s take on the situation. And the situation is not good: over 80 percent of suicides are committed by men, men account for the vast majority of those behind bars, etc., etc.
I will admit now that I only got halfway through this book. It started out admirably enough: it seemed to me that Garcia seems to blame both the media (which actively promotes self-indulgence to men at the same time they offer no truly mature role models) as well as what he perceives as a cultural neglect of boys. I can agree with him on the first point; it is nearly impossible to find a man on the television that isn’t immature, stupid, or just plain idiotic.
Want to read the rest of my review? Check out my blog: http://scryberwitch.wordpress.com/200...
So, as the mother of a young man, I was interested to see this Guy’s take on the situation. And the situation is not good: over 80 percent of suicides are committed by men, men account for the vast majority of those behind bars, etc., etc.
I will admit now that I only got halfway through this book. It started out admirably enough: it seemed to me that Garcia seems to blame both the media (which actively promotes self-indulgence to men at the same time they offer no truly mature role models) as well as what he perceives as a cultural neglect of boys. I can agree with him on the first point; it is nearly impossible to find a man on the television that isn’t immature, stupid, or just plain idiotic.
Want to read the rest of my review? Check out my blog: http://scryberwitch.wordpress.com/200...
August 2, 2011
I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. The core argument -- that society is changing in ways that are potentially to the disadvantage of men (or, at least, a particular subset of men) -- is fairly solid and something that I've found to be interesting lately. The way that the supporting evidence is presented in The Decline of Men is weak and, at times, frustratingly gimmicky.
I almost didn't bother to finish this book. The thesis was one that I was interested in, which is why I read it through, but the argument was presented as a series of seemingly unrelated essays (even the content within single chapter was often stuck together in a haphazard fashion) that became increasingly frustrating to read as the book carried on.
I almost didn't bother to finish this book. The thesis was one that I was interested in, which is why I read it through, but the argument was presented as a series of seemingly unrelated essays (even the content within single chapter was often stuck together in a haphazard fashion) that became increasingly frustrating to read as the book carried on.
Read
March 9, 2009I picked up this book from the New Book Shelf Display at my public library partially because of the provocative title and cover (shame on me). But I was pleasantly surprised to read a thoughtful argument (barring the sensationalist publisher flap on the inside jacket) about why men need to rethink and reclaim their identity and place in contemporary American society, and how that will benefit both men and women. Garcia cites the work of Geoffrey Canada (Harlem Children's Zone) and Joe Loya and many others, and looks both at and beyond race, socioeconomic status, age, etc. There is much to discuss.
July 15, 2009
This book opened my eyes to an entire side of Gender Studies and Sociology that we all need to study and examine. The extended adolescence (known as pre-adulthood) is affecting not only single women but the parents who take care of these men who choose to never grow up. I don't believe feminism is to blame for this phenomenon (and neither does the author) but the blame is placed squarely on our patriarchy society. I recommend this book to everyone of every age and gender.
March 3, 2011
Started off great - facinsating first chapters. The talk about the women's liberation and impact was cathartic. The use of the word postfeminist thrilled me. But shortly after writing Ken's bio, things started to go down hill. The argument was no longer coherent. The last three chapters were bizarre, and dramatically had a different tone then the rest of the book. I'm not sure what the real point was. However, still create enjoyable and has merit due to the early chapters.
November 16, 2008
An interesting survey of different ideas regarding men's place in society today. However, the book was sort of all over the place and in the end, I wasn't really sure I agreed with the conclusions made.
October 24, 2012
There is a ton of information in this book. It's a must read for all of us. It can be an overwhelming book, but the world is changing and I think we need this information as we raise the next generation of young men and seek to love the men in our lives more deeply.
November 18, 2009
Interesting thoughts and concepts and probably a good read for folks with young boys; however, about twice as long as it needed to be to convey the message.
March 11, 2009
All doom and gloom and vague statistics. Phbbtt.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews