Guyland Michael Kimmel Summary

Guyland, written by Michael Kimmel, “lies between the dependency and lack of autonomy of boyhood and the sacrifice and responsibility of manhood (Kimmel, 2008).” Kimmel investigates the social, mental, and physical norms of males starting from their teenage years towards adulthood. Topics such as sports, pornography, alcohol, sex, brotherhood, and of course girls, are what Kimmel recognizes to be the most iconic factors in Guyland. According to Kimmel, “Many young men today have a shockingly strong sense of male superiority and a diminished capacity for empathy. They believe that the capacity for empathy and compassion has to be suppressed, early on, in the name of achieving masculinity (Kimmel, 2008).” This pales in comparison with “Guy Code”; the name Kimmel has given to the ideology of manhood. He believes that, “Guys do what they do in part because they can get away with it, that other guys won’t say anything, and that the …show more content…
He believes that he has conversed with nearly 400 young men over the past several years and with the knowledge that he has gained through those conversations via online, on college campuses, sporting evens, and even bars, he has created the ego of the average male in Guyland. Kimmel properly conducted his research considering he was able to write a well informed book about the transformation of boy to man, but the evidence that he chose to use in most circumstances could be a little bit to extreme. Kimmel’s research goal has been met considering he has a plethora amount of information he has gathered over the years. A reoccurring theme throughout Guyland, is the sense of masculinity. Masculinity coheirs with the collection of attitudes, values, and traits that together composes what it means to be a man; in other words, “Guy