Book Announcement by Steven Seidman (USA)
Debate over gender and the lives of men is currently at a fever pitch, particularly in the US, leading to new perspectives that capture the complexity of men and the rapidly changing gender landscape critical today. Steven Seidman and Alan Frank’s new book, published by Routledge, challenges narrow stereotyped views of men, arguing that men are as complex and layered as women. In the light of the #MeToo movement, stereotypes of men are being recycled. While aligned with the spirit of this movement, the authors worry that negative stereotypes are being perpetrated at the very time that men are renegotiating their gender experience.
Although the lives of men are changing, the stories that dominate the public sphere often represent them as narrowly phallic – controlling, detached, sexist, and homophobic. Seidman and Frank present a non-heteronormative perspective addressing current gender transformations, reconstructing phallicism by underscoring a self- and world-making desire that involves mutual recognition. The authors also offer a counterpoint: men are also “guardians” driven to be useful and do good, to live valued and purposeful lives.
The authors argue that men are not only driven by a will to power but also by an ethically-minded, relationally-oriented sense of responsibility to care for others, whether partners, children or fellow citizens. Drawing on historical, sociological and psychoanalytic work, this book provides a nuanced, multidimensional construct of American men today. It will be of interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists as well as scholars and students of gender and queer studies.
Steven Seidman has written widely in the areas of gender, sexuality, queer studies, and American culture. His books include Romantic Longings: Love in America 1830–1980, Embattled Eros: Sexual Politics and Ethics in Contemporary America, Difference Troubles: Queering Social Theory and Sexual Politics, and Beyond the Closet: The Transformation of Gay and Lesbian Life. He is currently a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City, USA.
Steven Seidman, LP, PhD
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New York, NY 10023
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