What Is Wrong with Men

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: BookPage, LitHub, The MillionsA New York Post Buzz Book“Crispin’s byline has long made me sit up straighter… . What Is Wrong with Men, which argues that Douglas’s portrayals in the ’80s and ’90s provide a kind of road map for the current masculinity crisis, has reeled me [in]. Like Absolut and cranberry: What a pairing!”—The New York Times“Crispin reveals how huge social and economic shifts, in the wake of new waves of feminism, have impacted the fundamental nature of patriarchy.”—New York Post “Astute and wildly funny… . Not only a thought-provoking read, it’s also a great—timely—time.”—LitHub “A dire assertion of the crisis of white American masculinity and its impact on the world today. Crispin … focuses her analysis in a surprisingly acute and intelligent manner.”—BookPage“A keen, original, and intrepid social critic[, Crispin draws] on astute research, intellectual clarity, and droll wit, [to track] the crumbling of the patriarchy in a bravura performance pegged to Michael Douglas’ ‘blockbuster’ movies of the 1980s and 1990s… . Cogently argued and thought-provoking.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist“Crispin’s adept cultural synthesis is delivered with amusing snark and an undertone of increasing anxiety, pontifical concern, and moral urgency designed to confront the current moment. A fiery synopsis of a formative period for American masculinity.”—Kirkus “Crispin’s expansive cultural analysis is astute and well researched, showing how men, rather than redefining gender dynamics alongside women, saw the ’80s and ’90s as ‘a time of disempowerment’ and turned instead to a winner takes all individualism.”—Publishers Weekly“Using one actor’s filmography as a codex, Jessa Crispin has done what so many sociologists, psychologists, and other experts have not been able to: clearly, shrewdly locate the origins of our ongoing ‘man crisis’ not in feminism but in rampant, extractive capitalism. In Douglas’s leading men, Crispin finds a timeline of the bait-and-switch that hollowed out American masculinity, leaving in place the old ideals, but not the opportunities.”—Andi Zeisler, author of We Were Feminists Once“The most surprising thing about Jessa’s prescient, rigorous, and sneakily hilarious What Is Wrong with Men, is how quickly and easily (and, for me, shamefully) she shifted my ‘Michael Douglas explains the modern man? Really?’ skepticism to ‘Get out of my brain!’ and then to ‘Wait … am I Michael Douglas?’”—Damon Young, author of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker“Jessa Crispin told us what is wrong with contemporary white, bourgeois feminism in Why I Am Not a Feminist. In her new book, she tells us—and not a moment too soon—what is wrong with men, slyly examining the transformations, adaptations, and metamorphoses of masculinity through Michael Douglas’ cinematic roles. What is Wrong with Men is whip smart and hilarious, an unforgettable condemnation of patriarchy, and the cultural, economic, and political institutions that uphold it.”—Tanya Pearson, author of Pretend We’re Dead: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Women in Rock in the 90s

JESSA CRISPIN is the author of several books, including Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto, The Dead Ladies Project, and My Three Dads. She is the editor and founder of The Culture We Deserve as well as host with Nico Rodriguez of TCWD weekly podcast. In 2002, she launched Bookslut.com, one of the first and most treasured literary websites of the era; it ran for fifteen years. She is originally from Lincoln, Kansas, and currently lives in Philadelphia.