Not Guilty: The Case in Defense of Men - Hardcover

Thomas, David

3.5

10 ratings by Goodreads

9780688110246: Not Guilty: The Case in Defense of Men

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068811024X ISBN 13: 9780688110246

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 1993

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A rebuttal of feminist charges against men discusses such issues as child sexual abuse, the sexual harassment of males, husband battering, and the presupposition of men's guilt

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From Kirkus Reviews:

If Warren Farrell's The Myth of Male Power (p. 763) was a broadside barrage against perceived political excesses of feminism, then Thomas's first book--urbane, witty (as befits the work of a former Punch editor), low-key--continues the battle on the diplomatic front. Where Farrell aimed to demonstrate that men, not women, are the less powerful sex, Thomas, who's British, wants to redress what he sees as society's ``double standard'' toward men--a double standard he exemplifies in numerous ways, e.g., by repeating the words of the female administrator of a counseling service for violent men who ironically told him that when ``I argue with my fianc‚, I've slapped him round the face...But I'm five foot five and he's six foot three''; or by declaring that ``when a woman wants an abortion, reproduction is entirely her own affair. When she wants child support, it suddenly becomes the man's responsibility.'' Thomas begins his gentle polemic on a biological note, pointing out neurological differences between the sexes but comparing the male and female brains to ``two different types of computers--an IBM and a MacIntosh, for example'' that perform the same functions but with different strengths and weaknesses (``nor can they read one another's software''). He touches upon the concerns of the mythopoetic men's movement by looking at the price men pay for their particular societal powers (a man ``lacks one vital freedom. He cannot be himself''), and, like Farrell, he rebuts--though more persuasively and with fewer statistics--what he sees as imbalanced treatment toward men regarding issues of sexual harassment, domestic violence, and parenting. Finally, Thomas calls on men to organize, lobby, and, above all, to ``stand up'' for themselves. Less sensational than the Farrell and unlikely to equal its readership; still, Thomas's reasonable voice adds weight and credibility to what looks to be a growing political awareness in the men's movement--with similar books probably not far behind. -- Copyright �1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

Thomas tries to promote equality and set the record straight for the now much-maligned male. Many of his comments and topics may not be politically correct, but he uses facts, figures, and logic to make his points. Some of the topics Thomas considers are battered husbands, date rape, aggression, the female abuser, the nonassertive male, inequalities in death rates and divorce laws, and male stereotypes. He questions the duplicity in considering the discussion of the positive qualities of males and masculinity sexist when the discussion of the positive qualities of females and femininity is not. He concludes that neither sex has a monopoly on aggression, brains, harmful behavior, or any other attribute. Appropriate for libraries with men's movement collections, but only after having acquired Robert Bly's Iron John ( LJ 11/15/90), Michael Gurian's The Prince and the King ( LJ 7/92), Sam Keen's Fire in the Belly ( LJ 2/15/91), and Warren Farrell's The Myth of Male Power ( LJ 7/93).
- Scott Johnson, Meridian Community Coll. Lib., Miss.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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