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Feminist Author Explores Brewing Masculinity Crisis Posted October 6, 1999 Susan Faludi Susan Faludi, best-selling author of "Backlash" and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, comes to campus Thursday, Oct. 14, to discuss her latest book, "Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man." In her newest tome, Faludi examines the crisis in masculinity -- men being swept away by broad social and cultural forces that are destroying their very sense of what it means to be a man, she said. Focusing on the men of the baby-boom generation, she reveals how the once-esteemed virtues of craft, loyalty and social usefulness are no longer valued or rewarded. Instead, our culture now prizes an empty, "ornamental" masculinity that celebrates actors, athletes and killers alike. "Men don't want to live in a world run on retail values anymore than women do," said Faludi. "Like women, they want to be needed and useful participants in society." This new form of masculinity, she says, has much in common with the "ornamental" femininity that oppressed women before the rise of modern feminism in the 1960s. "Being a feminist opens your eyes to the ways men, like women, are imprisoned in cultural stereotypes," said Faludi. Faludi's lecture begins at 7 p.m. in MLK, Jr. Student Union's Pauley Ballroom. Admission is $10 for students and $15 for the general public. To purchase tickets, call 800-847-7730. The event is co-sponsored by the Goldman School of Public Policy and the Commonwealth Club.   [HOME]   [SEARCH]   [ARCHIVE] October 6 - 12, 1999 (Volume 28, Number 9) Copyright 1999, The Regents of the University of California. Produced and maintained by the Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley. Comments? E-mail berkeleyan@pa.urel.berkeley.edu.