An urgent exploration of menβs entitlement and how it serves to police and punish women, from the acclaimed author ofΒ Down Girl
βKate Manne is a thrilling and provocative feminist thinker. Her work is indispensable.ββRebecca TraisterΒ
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ATLANTIC
In this bold and stylish critique, Cornell philosopher Kate Manne offers a radical new framework for understanding misogyny. Ranging widely across the culture, from Harvey Weinstein and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings to βCat Personβ and the political misfortunes of Elizabeth Warren, Manneβs book shows how privileged menβs sense of entitlementβto sex, yes, but more insidiously to admiration, care, bodily autonomy, knowledge, and powerβis a pervasive social problem with often devastating consequences.
In clear, lucid prose, Manne argues that male entitlement can explain a wide array of phenomena, from mansplaining and the undertreatment of womenβs pain to mass shootings by incels and the seemingly intractable notion that women are βunelectable.β Moreover, Manne implicates each of us in toxic masculinity: Itβs not just a product of a few bad actors; itβs something we all perpetuate, conditioned as we are by the social and cultural mores of our time. The only way to combat it, she says, is to expose the flaws in our default modes of thought while enabling women to take up space, say their piece, and muster resistance to the entitled attitudes of the men around them.
With wit and intellectual fierceness, Manne sheds new light on gender and power and offers a vision of a world in which women are just as entitled as men to our collective care and concern.