The Will to Change by Bell Hooks

Bell Hooks writes about the impact of imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriachism on men. How they long for love and how they learn to shut off all feelings apart from anger. How they have to prove themselves to their peers, “man up” and not show any vulnerability. And how there are women who live by these patriachist standards and don’t want a man who shows weakness.

The reality is that men are hurting and that the whole culture responds to them by saying, ‘Please do not tell us what you feel.’ … If we cannot heal what we cannot feel, by supporting patriarchal culture that socializes men to deny feelings, we doom them to live in states of emotional numbness. We construct a culture where male pain can have no voice, where male hurt cannot be named or healed.

Great book, cannot recommend enough!