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Antony Shugaar, Raphaƫl Liogier: Heart of Maleness (Paperback, 2020, Other Press) 4 stars

Extended essay on men's view of women

4 stars

This is a very interesting essay and brings together a lot of different ideas and within it. It's definitely a challenge to modern masculinity and men's view of women, but perhaps because of the length of it feels like there's more missing from it. Yes, men's attitudes towards women are terrible and are rooted in a terrible history, yes, women need to be freed from the constraints patriarchy places upon them but in concentrating on these issues he doesn't reach the "heart of maleness" of the title, or only uncovers one aspect of it. What it does is mostly very good, but I wanted more on how maleness is a trap in and of itself, a ridiculous idea that traps men into toxic behaviours beyond misogyny, but I'll need to look elsewhere for that.