The war against boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men PDF
Preview The war against boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men
"Provocative and controversial .. . Sominers's voice is impassioned and articulate.' —Marilyn (Jarclner. 77*<'r7//7.s7iVfH >V7VH<7'J/«H/7«r The War Against B O YS HOW M I S G U I D ED MINISM IS H A R M I NG OUR Y O U NG MEN Christina Hoff Sommers Author of Who Stole Feminism? SOCIAL S C 1 K N C E "Hie biinlt^n ol Itliis] tliouglitlul, provocativt? book is that it is American boys who are in trouble, not girls. Ms. Sommers ... makes these arguments persuasively and unflinchingly, with plenty of data to support them." -Rirhard Bernxtein, Thp New York rimes )espite popular belief, American boys lag behind girls in reading and writing ability, and they are less likely to go to college. Our young men are greatly at risk, yet the best-known studies and experts insist that it's girls who are in need of our attention. The highly publicized "girl crisis" has led to many changes in American schools, politics, and parenting ... but at what cost? In this provocative book, Christina Hoff Sommers argues that our society has continued to overemphasize the troubles of girls while our boys suffer from the same self-esteem and academic problems. Boys need help, but not the sort of help they've been getting. ^ A New York Times Notable Book of the Year "This book promises to launch and influence an enduring national debate.... The author trains her empirical and polemical skills on an issue of demonstrable and often poignant urgency." —Mary Eber«tadt, The Washington Times "In Christina Hoff Sommers's splendid new book ... she shows the damage that is being done to our sons by adults determined to stop them from being, well, boys." -Danielle Crittenden, New York Post CHRISTINA HOI'F SOMMERS is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Brandeis University and was formerly a professor of philosophy at (lark I Iniversity. Sommers has written for numerous publications and is the author of U ho Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women. She is married with two sons and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland. A T O U C H S T O NE B O OK Pubhshed by Simon & Schuster New York Cover design by Robin Locke- UllillllllllllllllllllllKIIIIIIIIN X000HD3N8H I Visit us online at www.simonsays.c The WAR AGAIN ... Our Young Men UsedGood • t D l l B DD Praise for The War Against Boys "One may agree with Ms. Sommers or one may disagree, but it is hard not to credit her with a moral urgency that comes both from the head and from the heart." —Richard Bernstein, The New York Times "A stinging indictment of an anti-male movement that has had a pervasive influence on the nation's schools.... Sommers, an expert at debunking shoddy (and trendy) re search, exposes the ballyhooed 'crisis of young girls' as the creation of feminists armed with dubious studies and savvy PR skills.... an indispensable book." —Richard Lowry, National Review "Provocative ..." —Richard Morin, The Washington Post "Perhaps the most informed study yet in this area, this engrossing book sheds light on a controversial subject. It deserves close reading by parents, educators, and anyone interested in raising healthy, successful children of both sexes." —Publishers Weekly "A brazen attack against leading child researchers.. .. Sommers's book has sparked a furious debate." —Claudia Kalb, Newsweek "Like a number of other social scientists who have called attention to alarming trends only to be ridiculed and dismissed, and then eventually proved right, Christina Hoff Sommers appears to be well ahead of her time." —Chester E. Finn, Jr, Commentary "[An] important new book." —John Leo, U.S. News &f World Report "Christina Hoff Sommers, in her refreshing, alarming, convincing book . . . exposes the fallacies behind the campaign for so-called 'gender neutrality.'" —Frank Wooten, The Charleston Post and Courier "[Sommers] has a keen intellect, a sense of fairness, and a deep respect for facts. . . . Ms. Sommers is at her best in calling liberal genderists to account for their lack of au thenticated research." —Robert Holland, The Richmond Times-Dispatch "Parents nationwide owe a debt of gratitude to Christina Hoff Sommers for her new, hotly debated book." —The Indianapolis Star "Like the clear-eyed child of the fairy tale, Sommers ... makes a compelling case that schools today are primarily failing boys." —Clyde Frazier, The Raleigh News and Observer "Sommers makes a powerful case for treating boys with more concern and compas sion, while calling for a moratorium on the depiction of girls (and boys) as psycho logically crippled victims of an oppressive society.... Sommers ably and convincingly rebuts the claims of a 'girl crisis.'" —Cathy Young, Salon.com "Superb . . . Sommers makes mincemeat of educators and academics who insist that girls are suffering in school because of sexism and discrimination." —Danielle Crittenden, Slate "Sommers skewers the widely-accepted belief that young girls are American soci ety's foremost victims and offers concrete proof that our culture is actually biased against boys." —Monterey County Post "Sommers's argument is a welcome ally to any parent of an active boy who cringes when a well-meaning teacher hints 'medication' might calm him down, or who tries in vain to stop her son from fashioning a gun from a finger or a stick." —Peggy O'Crowley, The Star-Ledger "Sommers produces convincing, even devastating evidence of the academic dishon esty practiced by those who support the opposite thesis—the so-called 'girl-crisis' writers A sharp study that raises troubling questions." —Kirkus Reviews, starred "An interesting and thought-provoking book." —Library Journal "A brilliant expose of the falsehoods used to justify pro-feminist education a nec essary piece of corrective research." —Mark Cochrane, The Vancouver Sun "Girls are well-adjusted, happy, and thriving. Can we say the same about boys? Not according to Christina Hod Sommers, author of a new book in which she answers the question in profound and certain terms." —Kathleen Parker, Carribhean Watch Also by Christina Hoff Sommers Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Wonien T HE W AR A G A I N ST O h i r i s - t i n et B O VS S o m m o rs How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men A TOUCHSTONE BOOK PUBLISHED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER New York, London Toronto Sydney Singapore AO K N O W l_ E D GIVIEINJ T S nnnniin TOUCHSTONE ^H^H Rockefeller Center ^^M^^M 12^0 Avenue of the Americas • UH New York, NY 10020 Copyright © 2000 by Christina Hoff Sommers All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or pari in any form. First Touchstone Edition 2001 TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Designed by Edith Fowler Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 The Library of Congress has cataloged the Simon & Schuster editi( as follows: Sommers, Christina Hoff i THIS BOOK could not have been written without the support of the W. H. Brady The war against boys: how misguided feminism is harming our young men / Christina Hoff Sommers. Foundation. As a Brady Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, I was able p. cm. to devote all my time and efforts to this project. Elizabeth Lurie, Brady Founda Includes bibliographical references and index. tion president, helped me with commonsense advice. She suggested, for exam 1. Teenage boys—United States. 2. Teenageboys— ple, that I avoid the overused and infelicitous word 'gender' " 'Sex,' she United States—Psychology. 3. Feminism—United States. I. Title. correctly pointed out, is better than 'gender' " HQ797.S6 2000 The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) is an ideal scholarly environment. 305.235—dc21 00-028517 ISBN 0-684-84956-9 There are all the stimulating colleagues. There is the exemplary support staff 0-684-84957-7 (Pbk) And there is its president, Christopher DeMuth, the best dean I ever had. He graciously read through the entire manuscript and made many acute comments. 1 am greatly indebted to Elizabeth Bowen, my brilliant research assistant at AEI. I have relied heavily on her counsel. She was indispensable in getting at the facts. Elizabeth made a lot of awkward phone calls to ferret out information I could never have obtained. On one occasion, she traveled through a blinding "nowstorm to attend a seminar on boys. She designed several of the charts and raphs. Her judiciousness, her tireless efforts, and her uncanny ability to find al- nost anything on the Internet markedly enhanced the book. Several interns at AEI contributed substantively to the research: Christina Bishop, David Houston, and Hugh Liebert. Hugh continued to help me when he returned to Harvard. He, too, carefully read drafts of the manuscript, offering insightful commentary on every chapter Bob Bender, my editor at Simon & Schuster, kept an eagle eye on my argu- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ment, always monitoring its cogency and constantly insisting that I adequately document its more controversial claims. His tactful, responsible oversight has made this a much stronger book than it would otherwise have been. Johanna Li, Toni Rachiele, George Turianski, and Edith Fowler ably shepherded the book through the production process. My friends, old and newly made, were not spared. In one way or another, MY MOTHER AND FATHER they were subjected to the ideas and themes of the book and forced into the roles of sounding board and critic. Chief among these are Evelyn Rich, Suzanne Cadisch, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Claudia Winkler, and Erika Kors. I discussed the manuscript at length with Cathy Young. She often disagrees with me, but she is unfailingly helpful, full of apt and reliable information that she gener ously shares. Several scholars strongly influenced me: Diane Ravitch, research fellow at the Brookings Institution; Wilham Damon, director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence; Michael Gurian, author of The Wonder of Boys; and E. D. Hirsch, the famed English professor at the University of Virginia. I owe special thanks to American University professor Leon Clark and to his former graduate stu dent Chris Garran for alerting me to the plight of the nation's boys in the early nineties. When the fashion of male-bashing reached a new high in the early nineties, Camille Paglia alone had the courage to remind the male-averse femi nists that masculinity is the "the most creative cultural force in history." I ben efit as much from her dazzling example as a brave, incisive, funny, and outspoken intellectual as from her scintillating ideas. My life has changed a lot since 1997 when I left Clark University and moved from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C, and not least because Sally Satel and Barbara Ledeen have become such dear friends. Sally and I share a pas sion for clear thinking and tough-mindedness and an aversion to pseudo-science and advocacy research. With good humor Sally has traveled with me to confer ences where we were both unwelcome. Her perspective as a psychiatrist helped shape and strengthen my argument. Barbara Ledeen inspired me with her en ergy, her courage, and her integrity. I thank her for believing in this book and for organizing a number of forums for me to try out my ideas. There is no adequate way to thank my husband, Fred Sommers, for all he has done helping me with this project. He is more interested in formal logic and metaphysics, but he patiently discussed every page with me. If he is tired of hearing about the plight of American boys, he has yet to let on. My sons, David and Tamler, were always on the forefront of my conscious ness, throughout the writing of The War Against Boys. They are the paradig matic boys whose cause the book defends. ooiM-TEivj-rs Preface 13 ONE Where the Boys Are 17 TWO Reeducating the Nation's Boys 45 THREE Guys and Dolls 73 FOUR Carol Gilligan and the Incredible Shrinking Girl 100 FIVE Gilligan's Island 124 SIX Save the Males 138 SEVEN Why Johnny Can't, Like, Read and Write 158 EIGHT The Moral Life of Boys 179 NINE War and Peace 207 Nofes 215 Index 239 F » RE R AO E IT'S A BAD TIME to be a boy in America. As the new millennium begins, the triumphant victory of our women's soccer team has come to symbol ize the spirit of American girls. The defining event for boys is the shoot ing at Columbine High. "The carnage committed by two boys in Littleton, Colorado," de clares the Congressional Quarterly Researcher, "has forced the nation to reexamine the nature of boyhood in America."^ William Pollack, director of the Center for Men at McLean Hospital and author of the best-selling Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood, tells audi ences around the country, "The boys in Littleton are the tip of the ice berg. And the iceberg is all boys."^ Hundreds of boys attend Littleton's Columbine High. Some of them behaved heroically during the shooting there. Seth Houy threw his body over a terrified girl to shield her from the bullets; fifteen-year-old Daniel Rohrbough paid with his life when, at mortal risk to himself, he held a door open so others could escape. Later, heartbroken boys attended the memorial services. At one service, two brothers performed a song they had written for their lost friends. Other young men read poems. To take two morbid killers as being representative of "the nature of boy-
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