About this item
The author of The People Are Going to Rise Upon Your Shore turns his keen eye to our current crisis of masculinity using his upbringing in rural Indiana to examine the personal and societal dangers of the patriarchy Based on his provocative and popular New York Times op-ed, The Man They Wanted Me to Be is both memoir and cultural analysis. Jared Yates Sexton alternates between an examination of his working class upbringing and historical, psychological, and sociological sources that examine the genesis of toxic masculinity and its consequences for society. As progressivism changes American society, and globalism shifts labor away from traditional manufacturing, the roles that have been prescribed to men since the Industrial Revolution have been rendered as obsolete. Donald Trump's campaign successfully leveraged male resentment and entitlement, and now, with Trump as president and the rise of the #MeToo movement, it's clear that our current definitions of masculinity are outdated and even dangerous. Deeply personal and thoroughly researched, The Man They Wanted Me to Be examines how we teach boys what's expected of men in America, and the long-term effects of that socialization -- which include depression, shorter lives, misogyny, and suicide. Sexton turns his keen eye to the establishment of the racist patriarchal structure which has favored white men, and investigates the personal and societal dangers of such outdated definitions of manhood.
About the Author
Jared Yates Sexton is an author and political analyst whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Newsweek, Politico, and elsewhere. He is the author of three books of short fiction, a novel, The People Are Going To Rise Like The Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage, an examination of the 2016 Presidential Election, The Man They Wanted Me To Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making, a dissection of American masculinity, and, most recently, American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, published by Dutton/Penguin-Random House.Currently he serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast.
