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BoyMum is about boys and young men – how we are raising them, and what it means to be a man-in-the-making in an era when #MeToo has challenged our tolerance for toxic masculinity, yet the pressure on young men to be ‘masculine’ has never been more intense.
It is also a mother’s perspective. Ruth Whippman is the proud/overwhelmed, feminist mother of three boys and her family life can be a daily confrontation with the triumph of nature over nurture. All too aware that her parenting today will shape the men her sons become tomorrow, she explores the expectations placed on boys – must boys be boys?; the messages we send girls but not boys (but they really need to hear too); boys in the classroom and boys online; incels; entitlement, sexual harassment and “cancel culture” and what radicalizes young men.
Blending memoir with cultural analysis, and approaching her subject with wit, honesty and open-mindedness, this is a sympathetic investigation into where we are going wrong with raising boys, and how trying to change those patterns must be one of society’s most urgent cultural projects.
Praise for Ruth Whippman and The Pursuit of Happiness
– “A whip-sharp British Bill Bryson” The Sunday Times
– “Ruth Whippman is whip-smart, her writing nothing short of genius” Huffington Post
– The Pursuit of Happiness was a New York Post Best Book of 2016, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Paperback Row pick, one of Newsweek‘s ‘Nine Books to Change the Way You Think in 2016’, a Sunday Times top summer read and a Daily Mail ‘Must Read’.
– Ruth Whippman manages the trick of being funny about what is, deep down, a serious problem: the American quest for happiness isn’t working” Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks
– “I LOVED this book. I found it SO WELL WRITTEN, so witty and funny and reading it I was often envious of Ruth Whippman’s facility with language. It was a hugely engaging read, accessible and so relevant… I’ve been quite evangelical about it.” Marian Keyes, best-selling author of Grown Ups
It is also a mother’s perspective. Ruth Whippman is the proud/overwhelmed, feminist mother of three boys and her family life can be a daily confrontation with the triumph of nature over nurture. All too aware that her parenting today will shape the men her sons become tomorrow, she explores the expectations placed on boys – must boys be boys?; the messages we send girls but not boys (but they really need to hear too); boys in the classroom and boys online; incels; entitlement, sexual harassment and “cancel culture” and what radicalizes young men.
Blending memoir with cultural analysis, and approaching her subject with wit, honesty and open-mindedness, this is a sympathetic investigation into where we are going wrong with raising boys, and how trying to change those patterns must be one of society’s most urgent cultural projects.
Praise for Ruth Whippman and The Pursuit of Happiness
– “A whip-sharp British Bill Bryson” The Sunday Times
– “Ruth Whippman is whip-smart, her writing nothing short of genius” Huffington Post
– The Pursuit of Happiness was a New York Post Best Book of 2016, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Paperback Row pick, one of Newsweek‘s ‘Nine Books to Change the Way You Think in 2016’, a Sunday Times top summer read and a Daily Mail ‘Must Read’.
– Ruth Whippman manages the trick of being funny about what is, deep down, a serious problem: the American quest for happiness isn’t working” Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks
– “I LOVED this book. I found it SO WELL WRITTEN, so witty and funny and reading it I was often envious of Ruth Whippman’s facility with language. It was a hugely engaging read, accessible and so relevant… I’ve been quite evangelical about it.” Marian Keyes, best-selling author of Grown Ups
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