How to Raise Sons in ‘the Age of Impossible Masculinity’

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ruth Whippman is a feminist writer. She’s also the mother of three sons. Her new book, “Boymom,” reflects on the difficulties facing parents tasked with raising good men in an age where people on the right weaponize male concerns and people on the left dismiss them. She asks: What does it mean to raise men who feel validated in their gender identity but not entitled to more because of it? Whippman advocates for an empathetic version of feminism, one where men are held to a high standard but where the loneliness and suicide epidemics plaguing young American men are meaningfully addressed. We’ll hear about her reporting, cultural analysis and own experiences as a “boymom.” Guests: Ruth Whippman, essayist, cultural critic and author of "BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:36.0	Thank you. from KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco. I'm Leslie McClurg in today for Mina Kim.
0:57.5	Coming up on forum, Ruth Whitman is the mother of three boys.
1:01.5	And when she was pregnant with her third son, she was, quote, frightened both for and of the tiny piece of patriarchy growing inside me, worried sick over what he and his brothers might become,
1:12.1	the potential for darkness that I might be powerless to stop.
1:15.6	She wrestles with that fear in her new book, Boy Mom, interviewing psychologists, social
1:20.1	workers, even trying to understand what's driving sexual predators.
1:24.0	We hear what she learned about her power to raise good men in which she calls an impossible age of masculinity.
1:30.2	That's next after this news.
1:37.9	This is Forum. I'm Leslie McClurg. I'm in today for Mina Kim.
1:42.1	And when Ruth Whitman was pregnant, and she's in studio with me right now,
1:45.8	and she was pregnant with her third son, it was the height of the Me Too movement. And she feared for
	...

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