Voice Male: The Untold Story of the Profeminist Men’s Movement

While this collection of articles from Voice Male magazine does not provide a substantial history of the profeminist men’s movement, it does show glimpses of a way for men to live that is centered not on their masculinity, but on their humanity. Editor Okun now publishes Voice Male independently, but it began as the newsletter of the Men’s Resource Center of Amherst, Mass., where he served as executive director, and that geographic focus remains in many of the articles. Readers unfamiliar with the movement may not know many of the authors, but a few, such as Jane Fonda, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and Eve Ensler will be widely recognized. Chapters run the gamut of issues related to men’s identity, some of them dealing directly with men’s relationships with women or support of the women’s movement, while others address health, recovery from abuse, fatherhood, race, and GBTQ matters. Individual articles are generally strong, and vary from quite general discussions of men’s responsibility to stop violence against women, to very specific anecdotes. By uniting these diverse topics into a single work, Okun shows that the stereotypical tough, uncaring masculine ideal is unhealthy for society. Readers interested in gender issues will appreciate the strength of the individual articles and the book’s powerful message. (Jan.)