A review by rclairel
The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Own Making by Jared Yates Sexton

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

I expected, for some reason, for this book to be an analysis and dismantling of toxic masculinity in American culture. However, what it actually was was more of a personal contemplation of how toxic masculinity works in and through the life of the author, shaping him in its image, despite his natural tendencies to not conform to its ideals. Sexton does illustrate well how and why toxic masculinity is present in much of American society and how difficult it is to escape or avoid such thinking. However, his is mostly a personal and anecdotal analysis with occasional footnoted references to research, rather than some sort of analysis. He offers a warning, though not much in the way of solutions.