Real Boys

1st edition hard cover.

Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the Myths of Boyhood is a book of child psychology by William Pollack which focuses on males. Its message is that boys are pushed too often and too early to become stoic and independent according to an out-dated sexist "boy-code" which causes deep-seated emotional issues resulting in bad behavior, as well as how we can correct this problem.

Review

Good

• I found myself nodding in agreement to nearly everything the author wrote about boys becoming emotionally scarred from always being told to man-up and tough it out, not to display emotions (especially sadness and fear), and from mothers being told to distance themselves from their boys and not to coddle them.
• While I found a lot of what the author said to be common sense, there were plenty of interesting pieces of advice that I hadn't considered.
• The book covers a wide range of topics including divorce, puberty, drugs, homosexuality, bullying, abuse, and provides constructive methods for dealing with them.

Bad

• Although the book provides a long list of sources, it doesn't cite them as you read along, which makes it very difficult to look anything up for yourself.
• The author uses the phrase "I believe" too often for my taste. While I appreciate the honesty, and I'm okay with a person giving me their interpretation, I prefer the sentences which read, "double-blind scientific studies show..."

Ugly

• Nothing.

Links

• williampollack.com/real_boys.html - Official page.
• goodreads.com/book/show/2745.Real_Boys - Good Reads.