It’s the motivating and empowering antithesis to “toxic masculinity.” I’ve previously explored a few different ways of saying this––”new masculinity,” “positive masculinity,” and “humanist masculinity”––but “prosocial masculinity” is absolutely the right label. My favorite term from this book is “prosocial masculinity,” which Reeves says we need in order to “help men adapt to the dramatic changes of recent decades without asking them to stop being men” (xiii).Part Five presents Reeves’s ideas for structural reform, which include “redshirting the boys” (delaying school enrollment for an extra year), a massive recruitment effort to get men into HEAL (health, education, administration, and literary) professions, and new policies to support fatherhood as an “independent social institution.” Of Boys and Men a tour de force of scientific analysis, social commentary, and passionate argumentation––a brilliant and much-needed book about one of America’s most widespread and urgent problems. Part Four covers the dysfunctional nature of our nation’s “political stalemate,” in which progressives are overly dismissive of male failures and misattribute them to a culture of “toxic masculinity,” and conservatives are sympathetic to male hardship but think the answer is to return both sexes to a regressive model of “traditional” gender roles. He points out that these qualities are the combined products of biology and culture, and asserts that they must be properly understood and accepted if we are to provide effective aid to boys and men. In Part Three, Reeves lays out the abundant evidence for significant sex differences between men and women, primarily that men tend to be more aggressive, have higher sex drives, and take risks more readily.

He also includes a chapter on the mysterious inability (or refusal) of men to take advantage of programs and policies that might help them.

In Part Two, he argues that particular boys and men are at a “double disadvantage,” especially if they are Black and/or poor. Reeves’s Of Boys and Mentakes a hard look at the challenges faced by the modern American male and advocates for structural changes that can help boys and men overcome them. In Part One, Reeves describes what he calls “the male malaise,” how boys and men have fallen behind and become disengaged from school, work, and family life.

A Force of Nature by Richard Reeves