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| Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 17 reviews)
Sales Rank: 8994
Category: Book
Author: Michael Kimmel
Publisher: Harper
Studio: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Label: Harper
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 10 x 9.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0060831340
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.310973
EAN: 9780060831349
ASIN: 0060831340
Publication Date: September 1, 2008
Release Date: August 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Why do so many guys seem stuck between adolescence and adulthood? Why do so many of them fail to launch? Just what is going on with America's young men? The passage from adolescence to adulthood was once clear, coherent, and relatively secure: in their late teenage years and early twenties, guys "put away childish things" and entered their futures as responsible adults. Today growing up has become more complex and confusing as young men drift casually through college and beyond?hanging out, partying, playing with tech toys, watching sports. But beneath the appearance of a simple extended boyhood, a more dangerous social world has developed, far away from the traditional signposts and cultural signals that once helped boys navigate their way to manhood. The average young American man today is moving through a new stage of development, a buddy culture unfazed by the demands of parents, girlfriends, jobs, kids, and other nuisances of adult life. Sociologist and gender studies authority Michael Kimmel has identified this territory as "Guyland," a place that is both a stage of life and a new social arena. Guyland is the locker room writ large: the world where young men both test and prove themselves as men and develop the defining attitudes and self-images they will carry into adulthood. Kimmel has interviewed hundreds of young men ages sixteen to twenty-six in high schools and college fraternity houses, military academies and sports bars, to better understand Guyland's rules and restrictions, its layers of peer pressure and gender policing, its features and artifacts?from the ordinary (video games, sports, and music) to the extreme (violent fraternity initiations, sexual predation). In mapping the social world where tomorrow's men are made, Kimmel offers a view into the minds and times of America's sons, brothers, and boyfriends, and works toward redefining what it means to be a man today?and tomorrow. Only by understanding this world and this life stage can we enable young men to chart their own paths, to stay true to themselves, and to travel safely through Guyland, emerging as responsible and fully formed men of integrity and honor.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 Boys Become Men November 12, 2008
After I came across the book Guyland by Michael Kimmel, I could not stop reading it. This book is about male teenagers around the age of 16 to 26 transferring to adulthood and how the guys handle the changes. The author explains that "Guyland", is a stage in life where guys put away immature things and try to take up responsibilities. Becoming older and more mature has made it very complex for college students to focus on there work, and to concentrate on what will benefit there future. The author states that the average college guy can be found "hanging out, partying, playing with tech toys, or watching sports".
What I enjoy about this book is that, the author can really relate to college students and typical guys in general. The author knows that guys are more interested in partying, watching sports, and hanging out with their friends. Studying usually happens after that in my perspective.
The author is very concerned on why guys seem to be stuck between adolescence and adulthood, and why guys can't take school serious and pass all there courses and get a legit job with good money, but that isn't always easy for most guys. The author has interviewed hundreds of young men and most of them find themselves living with there parents after they graduate college, because finding a job is very difficult in the world today, guys also seem to be stuck in there own little world the author calls "Guyland". The author states that "the average young American man today is moving through a new stage of development, a buddy culture unfazed by the demands of parents, girlfriends, jobs, kids, and other nuisances of adult life".
Guyland is a good book for women who have a hard time understanding men and what goes through there head, this book will answer a lot of questions that women are looking for. This book is also a good read for men in college or high school, the author interviews many students and the interviews will give people a laugh.
More compassion please November 11, 2008
As a 39 year old guy who quite consciously side-stepped "guyland" throughout my life I appreciated the thorough outline of what a lot of white middle-class guys go through in high school, college and beyond. I always walked by certain bars with the young binge drinkers Kimmel talks of and wondered what they hell they were up to.
What I don't appreciate is the shaming tone of the writing and the antiquated definition of a grown man. Marriage and children are not the only barometers for maturity. And as much as the bullies need to be held responsible for the violence they cause, "guys" including said bullies also need more real-life, healthy role-models and real compassion. The violence that erupts in boys most likely has very long roots. Think about it. Most boys are steered clear out of their feeling at about age 5 with the classic statement, "big boys don't cry!" and goes on from there. Factor in that boys receive less quality attention in general than their girl counterparts and the messages in popular culture and it's no surprise they're acting out.
I was also very disappointed that a little less than one-fifth of the book towards the end was dedicated to solutions. I've also got to believe that there are more stories of kids, like myself, who have led great alternative lives to "guyland" and who've never set foot on a sports team or a fraternity. I tried a number of times to enter these social groups in high school and college and simply found that their company was just not very entertaining.
My one small solution for helping guys in guyland and mankind in general is attending Men's Groups in the style of Robert Bly. I discovered my Men's Group in college in 1991 and have been attending them ever since. It's amazing what kind of support, learning, and healing can happen when few men meet twice a month to just talk about what's going on in their lives. In these groups I've met men who became the role models I'd longed for in my youth. In these groups I exorcised the many fears I had about wether I was "man" enough.
Principal among them was the desire to have more platonic affection with men, ie hugs. It took me a few years of groups to really let go of both the shame of desiring the warm embraces and fully letting in the pleasure it brought me. (For the record I am heterosexual)
As a full grown adult I hope to bring this compassionate awareness to other young men and let them know that being a man is a whole lot more than being successful with money and women and avoiding acting "gay." Hopefully someone can write that book.
 GUYLAND is a necessity! November 11, 2008
I had heard about this book, and it is everything I had hoped for. Finally a little clarity in the world of the man-boy. Ladies, read this. Instead of excusing guys behavior, we can learn to sympathize with them and help them get better. End "Bromance" and watch them grow up!
 Man Bad! Woman Good! November 9, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RTDM146S3QUM4 I was greatly disappointed with this book. Sociology has nothing to say about humanity as it ignores human nature entirely. This author does not recognize that due to the destructive influence of the state, marriage is no longer a symbol of growing up but instead of one's being a dupe.
 Guyland or Kimmel land? October 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
What this book offers is a fascinating mix of interviews, observations, and the author's seemingly omniscient opinion. What it lacks is science, statistics, rigor, and everything us dullards who work in psychology like to see.
I am not really interested in the condescending pontifications of Kimmel. If I wanted that, I would talk to any number of my friends. All of them think they are absolutely on target, and all of them lack any semblance of objectivity. What is most dreadfully lacking in this book is a rich theoretical perspective that can EXPLAIN the behavior. Sadly, Kimmel eschews the one perspective capable of shedding positive (not normative) light on the issue that he is discussing, viz. evolutionary psychology. Not only can this persepective shed light, it can be used to create original hypotheses that are testable.
Statements such as "men act they way they do because deep down inside they feel empty and hollow," do not count as falsifiable scientific statements! My favorite: "guys sleep around because they fear their own impotence." Really? How would anyone know this?
You can't subject the above to rigorous testing, therefore, while acceptable as cocktail party opinion, they are not explanations. It is doubly ironic, then, that Kimmel should so lambast evolutionary theory as post hoc chicanery when that is exactly what this book is from front to back.
Sans the lack of rigor, the book is very well written, contains illuminating vignettes, and provides qualitative data which could be used by others in a more scientific way.
Really, if you want to understand Guyland, read David C. Geary's Male/Female. It is science at its best.
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