cover image Unlocking the Iron Cage: The Men's Movement, Gender Politics, and American Culture

Unlocking the Iron Cage: The Men's Movement, Gender Politics, and American Culture

Michael Schwalbe. Oxford University Press, USA, $35 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-19-509229-5

The title of this succinct analysis is drawn from a metaphor by sociologist Max Weber, who wrote of men ``trying to break out of the iron cage of rationality and re-enchant the world.'' Schwalbe, associate professor of sociology at North Carolina State, finds echoes of this in the contemporary men's movement inspired by the poet Robert Bly. Finding its philosophical/psychological roots in Jungian theory, he classifies it as mythopoetic essentialism. Having attended many meetings of men's groups and interviewed participants, he points out that almost all of those involved are white, middle-class and well educated. He shows that the movement has value for participants in its gentle pantheism and use of ritual to create a sense of communion with other males. Yet, he demonstrates, it does little to make men uneasy about the continuing masculine hegemony in our society (for instance, so-called feminine traits are termed ``deep masculinity''), and, by stressing the American version of individualism, it relieves them of the necessity of doing anything to confront social and economic problems. (Jan.)