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Sex Roles (2012) 66:571573 DOI 10.1007/s11199-011-0114-2
BOOK REVIEW
Expendable and Disposable? Discussing Cultural Exploitation of Men
Is There Anything Good About Men? How Cultures Flourish By Exploiting Men. By RoyF. Baumeister, New York, Oxford University Press, 2010. 280 pp. $24.95 (hardback). ISBN: 978-0195374100
Elin Weiss
Published online: 8 January 2012# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012
Baumeisters 2010 Is There Anything Good About Men? is, according to the author, an essay containing a number of theories serving the purpose of answering two main questions: Is there anything good about men, and how does culture exploit men?
First, Baumeister opens the discussion by claiming that gender inequalities exist as a result of womens and mens social preferences and social styles. Women prefer close, intimate relationships while men flourish in big and competitive groups. Thereby, most choices each man and woman makes sustain inequalities between the genders. Secondly, Baumeister argues that cultures grew out of mens relationships, not womens, and that men created culture. Baumeister states that culture grew out of mens relationships and abilities to communicate with strangers, their capacities for trade, ability to perform in situations of competitiveness, and propensity to use violence. Womens focus on one-to-one relationships limits them to take advantage of the systems in place in which competition and large groups, (for example at many work places) is preferred. Because of gendered differences in regards to womens and mens social systems, culture has grown from groups of men and not groups of women.
In following the discussion about culture, what does Baumeister state is good about men and how does culture exploit men? As stated above, men are good because they have created culture. Men have also contributed to womens progress when they allowed women to gain the vote, when they took over childbirth and made sure that childbirth was safe for the woman and the child, by carrying out dangerous jobs, and distributing wealth from men to women (to name a
few examples). In regards to how culture exploits men, Baumeisters main argument states that men are expendable in that their lives are less valuable since men are the ones drafted to war. Men also carry out dangerous and dirty jobs and distribute wealth from men to women.
According to Baumeister, two...