Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture [Paperback]

One weak spot I noticed was the tendency to analyze works from the early 90's rather than more recent offerings. I got the impression much of the material had sat on the shelf for a long time and it made me wonder why this was, so it would have been nice to have had some explanation of this, perhaps in the preface. Because of the ephemeral nature of "hits", I wasn't sure that I'd even heard of some of the films they go into great depths on. This was only a minor drawback, but I did wonder why, if they were going back in time some, they ignored, for example, the mid-80's (`85?) Best (sic) Picture "Out of Africa", which seemed a prime example of many of their themes (which also touch on race), while perhaps trying too hard to make their case on one or two other films. No matter, I'm being picky. No book as impassioned as this could be absolutely perfect. They successfully make it impossible for anyone who reads this book -- even someone already somewhat sensitive to the central idea -- to ever look at popular media quite the same way again, which is exactly what they intended. Even if their exact theory as to *why* all this is going on might be subject to some more debate IMO, the overwhelming evidence they present is more than reason enough to read the book. I know I'll be re-reading sections of my copy for a long time to come in order to fully absorb all the important ideas here.

In truth this work could be considered two and a half books inside one cover. One book presents the authors view of the popular culture of Misandry, and another the Nature of what is presented as "Ideology Feminism" (which some may recognize as being quite similar to 'Gender Feminism' / 'Superiority Feminism' / 'Feminazism' used by others). There are also well documented appendices dealing with everything from daytime talk shows to deconstructing the so called 'Deconstructionist' movement.

(...)I would recommend this book to anyone interested in modern gender relations, as they lay bare so much that is currently obfuscated by propaganda and media spin, and put it all out for public inspection. In fact it kind of reminds me of the movie 'The Wizard of Oz', where toto the dog pulls back the curtain and shows the mighty Oz at work making a big show out of smoke and mirrors. I am sure that the response from academia will be much the same as the exposed 'Wizard' - "Pay No Attention to the Womyn Behind the Curtain."

The authors also examine that highly elusive creature known as "Popular Culture", primarily through its most common carrier of Misandry - the movies and television. (...) This book is as good as it gets when it comes to exposing such type professional scapegoat artiste, and paradoxically all the more depressing for the fine job it does.

You will certainly get your money's worth from reading "Spreading Misandry", but with strong medicine there may be an unpleasant aftertaste. Don't blame the authors though, like a competent doctor they have conducted a professional examination and rendered a valid diagnosis, even if nobody is overly fond of the disease discovered.

Ohso

"Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense." -- George Orwell, 1984