The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love
Written by bell hooks
Narrated by Janina Edwards
5/5
()
About this audiobook
Everyone needs to love and be loved—even men. But to know love, men must be able to look at the ways that patriarchal culture keeps them from knowing themselves, from being in touch with their feelings, from loving.
In The Will to Change, bell hooks gets to the heart of the matter and shows men how to express the emotions that are a fundamental part of who they are—whatever their age, marital status, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. But toxic masculinity punishes those fundamental emotions, and it’s so deeply ingrained in our society that it’s hard for men to not comply—but hooks wants to help change that.
With trademark candor and fierce intelligence, hooks addresses the most common concerns of men, such as fear of intimacy and loss of their patriarchal place in society, in new and challenging ways. She believes men can find the way to spiritual unity by getting back in touch with the emotionally open part of themselves—and lay claim to the rich and rewarding inner lives that have historically been the exclusive province of women.
bell hooks
bell hooks was an influential cultural critic, feminist theorist, and writer. Celebrated as one of America’s leading public intellectuals, she was a charismatic speaker and writer who taught and lectured around the world. Previously a professor in the English departments at Yale University and Oberlin College, hooks was the author of more than 17 books, including the New York Times bestseller All About Love: New Visions; Salvation: Black People and Love; Communion: the Female Search for Love, as well as the landmark memoir Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood.
More audiobooks from Bell Hooks
Belonging: A Culture of Place Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reel to Real: Race, class and sex at the movies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, 2nd Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Uncut Funk: A Contemplative Dialogue Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Black Looks: Race and Representation 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Will to Change
Related audiobooks
A Burst of Light: and Other Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patriarchy Blues: Reflections on Manhood Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tragedy of Heterosexuality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I Hate Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letters to a Young Feminist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Looks: Race and Representation 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reel to Real: Race, class and sex at the movies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Are Prisons Obsolete? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If They Come in the Morning...: Voices of Resistance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Anthropology For You
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Myth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rethinking Narcissism: The Bad-and Surprising Good-About Feeling Special Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civilized To Death: The Price of Progress Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We Love: The New Science Behind Our Closest Relationships Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Making Memories: How to Create and Remember Happy Moments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neuroplasticity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Will to Change
383 ratings24 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Some interesting feminist theory on encouraging men to be more expressive, affectionate, emotionally available and educated. While also critical of historical and current expressions of dominant male culture and behavior.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you read one book this year, let it be this one!! This book changed me for the better. For a cis woman such as myself this was so important to read, I am recommending this to all the men that are dear to me specifically and to women as well, but i think this book can be so healing and good to read for men.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I feel both validated in the progress I've made and like I have so much more to do after reading this book, and that's exactly how I should feel. Ms. Hooks speaks in a very male positive way while never letting men off the hook for the consequences of their actions. I think every man, and everyone who knows a man, should read this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I wish I had read(listened) to this book 15 years ago. The depth of integrity & wisdom herein, can be a magnificent asset in the evolution of our species from the dead-end of domination to the open sources of cooperation.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5"Ultimately the men who choose against violence, against death, do so because they want to live fully and well, because they want to know love."
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men are so important and just as worthy of love as the rest of us. Love that theres a book addressing them from this loving perspective
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5wow I need therapy lmao can’t wait to reread and annotate
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Have me a lot to think about and address within myself
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Simply Prolific. This book is a blueprint for a more sustainable future.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very insightful. Some excellent points made. I learned a great deal.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The message is clear that change from males of the new generations will shape us to a stronger more egalitarianism society. The narrative of how we all live isn’t fair for any of as a culture and country we don’t come together and learn to coexist. I recommend this for everyone
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing, helped me in so many ways. Challenging and stirring
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bell Hooks is more needed than ever. Each phrase is a fractal of powerful wisdom folding on itself and leading us to greater and better places.
A must read for all people that really want to end patriarchy. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don’t fall for the mask of patriarchal masculinity. A more whole human way is possible. Good luck gentlemen.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As a heterosexual black man this book left me full of hope, everyday I’m dedicating myself to exercise the Will to Change!
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I love the topics explored here. However, I cannot give it a higher rating than 4 as I'm already familiar with most of Hooks' arguments. Great book.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I found this book very challenging. I suppose it was written for the male reader, but it has been deeply impactful for me as a woman. It’s changing the way I view my role as a daughter, sister, future wife and mother.
4 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book changed my life. It was utterly refining, sickening sometimes in truth, but the healing I experienced was spiritual transformative.
4 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At first i was skeptical i usually prefer to read about men and masculinity from a male author. But Bell Hooks has more than wowed me with this one. Learned a ton, highly recommend this book to both men and women looking for collective healing from Patriachy
3 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It has been such a relief to read a book by a feminist author who takes so much time and energy to truly understand what it is to grow from a boy to a man in our patriarchal societies. bell's words resonate within me as I go through the pain and joy of rediscovering myself as a whole masculine and feminine being. To me, this book is a work of love.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The author is very knowledgeable on the strife of men and women and was able to convey the message as soothingly as possible. Some parts could definitely spark anger, but with thorough explanation and the narrator's tone, I appreciated every word.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I don't know if I've ever been brought to tears so much in one book. This has made a huge impact on my life (and I hope it continues to do so). If you're a man that's wanting change in your life, read this.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Willing to revisit several times. Great book to challenge masculinity and your role/identity/thinking/emotion/etc around it. A great guide towards becoming emotionally whole.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Men, please read. Everyone, please read. This is an important gift of scholarship, love, and generosity from Bell Hooks. I’m buying six copies for my family this holiday season.
1 person found this helpful