Posted on 06/20/2007 2:54:58 PM PDT by 68skylark
A British import called The Dangerous Book for Boys has soared on American bestseller lists. Is it a new beacon for real boyhood—or a throwback to 1950s-style ideas of sex roles, "dangerous" in a different way than its title suggests?
The book, by English brothers Conn and Hal Iggulden—already a big hit in England and Australia—revels in retro, conjuring up a pre-computer, pre-videogame idyll of hunting, skipping stones, making paper airplanes and bows and arrows, and stories of battlefield heroics. Unlike some works in the "boys will be boys" genre, such as The Big Book of Boy Stuff which treats rude gags as the essence of boyness, The Dangerous Book... expects its readers to be gentlemen; it endorses good manners, cleanliness, and knowledge of Shakespeare, Latin phrases, and history. (The U.S. edition replaces culture-specific British material from royalty to cricket with American equivalents, but otherwise keeps the spirit of the book intact.) Many see it as a welcome antidote not only to the narrow and sedentary interests of the digital age but to the safety-obsessed, anti-competitive mindset of "politically correct" schooling and to feminist scorn for all things male.
But are initiative and adventure "male"? Some people who like the call to initiative, adventure, and outdoor fun have asked why the same fare could not have been packaged as "The Dangerous Book for Kids." Yet the gender-specific nature of the message, which includes a chapter on how to deal with the alien creatures known as girls, is quite deliberate. Indeed, The Dangerous Book... is being treated as something of a political manifesto—a repudiation of the idea that boys and girls are basically alike.
Thus, Rush Limbaugh has praised The Dangerous Book... in an rambling rant against "feminazis" ("How to make the best paper airplane in the world, just things that boys do ... for the last ten, 15 years, feminists have tried to wipe 'em out") and liberals intent on denying differences between the sexes: "Nobody can be better than anybody else, nobody can be different than anyone else." The Dangerous Book, Limbaugh suggested, was an answer to this madness.
Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of The War Against Boys, offered a similar if far more coherent take in a New York Post column. Sommers praised the book as a "delightfully instructive anachronism" that "valorizes risk, adventure and manliness," a challenge to modern educators steeped in gender neutrality and a rediscovery of common sense about innate differences between boys and girls, supported by "neuroscientific evidence."
Interestingly, despite this portrayal of The Dangerous Book... as a culture-wars battlefield, it has not been the subject of any significant backlash. What feminist critiques of the book have appeared—including a cogent, balanced, and largely sympathetic review on the Feministe blog—have not disparaged the "boy" activities the book promotes but argued that girls should be included in the fun as well.
On blogs and Internet forums, readers complaining about the book's exclusionary message have been dismissed as angry feminist whiners; a standard rejoinder is that no one is stopping girls from reading it if they want. Yet my friend Dana, a graduate student who holds no brief for angry feminism or political correctness, shares the concerns about the gender-specific focus of The Dangerous Book. "I would have loved this book as a kid, and it really bugs me how people are saying 'this is such a great book for boys, and it's so wonderful that it's aimed at boys,'" she says. "Where is the book for girls who did stuff like make their own chain mail as kids, or cracked rocks with sledgehammers in the driveway both to see what was inside them and to see if you could get sparks?" Dana is not convinced by the argument that girls can read the book too, given that it is geared so explicitly to boys. Indeed, the message to girls seems to be either "This stuff is not for you" or "You can enjoy this cool stuff if you want to be like the boys."
Less attention has been paid to the boys who are not particularly into "boy things," who may be more interested in reading than in catching snails and may prefer art to stories of battles. The fact is that for both girls and boys, biologically based gender differences—which some feminists have been far too dogmatic in denying—are considerably attenuated by individual differences. Moreover, gender-neutral educators notwithstanding, social pressure to conform to "appropriate" norms and interests remains a reality.
Is The Dangerous Book... sexist? While it encourages respect for girls, it does seem to treat them more as "the weaker sex" than as equals. In one grating passage, boys are encouraged to carry a handkerchief, among other things, for "offering one to a girl when she cries." Boys are reminded not to make a girl feel stupid if she needs help, but nothing is said about the possibility of accepting help from a girl, or losing gracefully if bested by a girl at some "boy" activity.
Partly in response to queries about a companion volume for girls, HarperCollins is now bringing The Daring Book for Girls, scheduled for publication in November. There's nothing wrong with having separate books aimed at girls and boys, each with a somewhat different focus. The trouble with The Dangerous Book for Boys is not that it seeks to restore the old-fashioned charms of adventurous boyhood but that it's being treated as a restoration of old-fashioned wisdom about boys and girls. The "free to be you and me" message of 1970s feminism was often naïve in its assumption that all differences between the sexes were the result of social conditioning. But it also had a liberating message of celebrating individuality. And it would be a shame to throw out that baby with the bathwater, at a time when girls and boys have more options open to them than ever.
Cathy Young is a contributing editor of reason.
At college, I reunited with a boyhood chum, whom I discovered was going to Hampshire College, just down the road from my school. It was, and is, an intensely Lefty, granola institution, subject to every single Marxist, feminist, ecological, and racial fad on the planet. There, my normal friend stuck out like a sore thumb, and had an eye for truth. There were no male intercollegiate athletic teams, he told me, not even the Ultimate Frisbee team.
"Everything at Hampshire is co-ed," he explained, "except what's for women."
The really cool thing is that boys all over the country invented some of these things on their own. Or inherited them from the older wise guys in the neighborhood. Or heard them from the dads when they had a few beers in them.
If it makes her feel better she can go buy The American Girl’s Handbook. I don’t remember if that’s the exact title. My daughter owns it. It’s a copy of a book written in the 19th century.
Chapter Twenty Four: Making large explosives out of common household items.
Chapter Twenty Five: Making a large dangerous fort in your living room without mom finding out.
Twenty Five: Ways to really climb the walls like Spiderman.
Twenty Six: Being Superman while keeping your teeth in your mouth.
Cherry bombs, M80's and incinerators.
Yeah, a kid in my neighborhood did, too. I forgot a chapter on, "Building snow forts that won't collapse and suffocate you."
How did I skip that one? Sections include tin cans, glass bottles and jars, and depth charges in galvanized garbage cans. Buckeyes in incinerators are good in incinerators. As are glass bottles with rubbing alcohol in them.
And the high point of the Scouting experience is summer camp. At shooting sports we know how to motivate them we make the shooting sports team state champion girls the instructors. Talk about throwing down the gauntlet!
Ride my bike across the street
Cut myself and see my blood
I wanna come home all covered in mud..."
"I'm a boy - I'm a boy,
But my ma won't admit it,
I'm a boy - I'm a boy,
But if I say I am I get it...
They are long out of print and kinda pricey now, but this latest book isn’t anything new, but dare I say it “reactionary” - “The Boys Book of Electronics” or Radio or Chemistry were first printed in the 1930s, they are really great reads for young and old. Every school library had those and similar books. eBay probably has them, but with this latest tome I bet they have had an uptick in price.
One of my seven year-old’s favorite toys is an electronics kit, complete with schematics, to create various projects. He really gets into it. And then, when he’s done, he goes outside and digs in the dirt. After that, he wrestles with his little brother. ;-)
Thanks for the info!
Ah....finally....another Who fan...
Chapter 23: House cats and homemade, bedsheet parachutes, an afternoon of bliss for one of you
Bought two, intending to give one to my nephew and his Daddy.
A grey-headed gent who happened to notice my selection leaned in with a conspiratorial smile and made a quip about that book not being for me.
I grinned back and said, “Hey, we didn’t get to do fun stuff like this in Girl Scouts!”
Excellent comment -- I agree.
It’s a good book, I think. Your grandson will likely enjoy it.
Yep! I’d love to go to Barnes & Noble to buy it because that would tick THEM off, too.
:)
Make SURE you buy ALL of your political books there...it’s amazing the horrified looks the cashiers give you. ;)
Thanks for a good comment. I put "semi-barf" in the headline because I'm not really opposed to the author's point -- only semi-opposed. She makes a good point that we shouldn't overlook the differences in individuals, whether it's boys who like stories about relationships or girls who are somewhat "Tom-boysish."
I'm glad that boys have a book that really tries to speak to their individuality, but I realize that humans (both boys and girls) are more complex than easy stereotypes.
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