Patriarchy Blues: Reflections on Manhood

Concepts of privilege, power, race, and gender are put on trial in this scorching treatise on toxic masculinity. When Joseph (The Black Friend) was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 24, he took stock of his life and saw he’d been navigating the world “through a misogynistic” perspective. In addressing that, he delivers a series of stringent essays aiming to “uproot” a contemporary cultural landscape that has “conditioned us to uphold not only homophobia, misogyny, and transphobia—but white supremacy as well.” In “The Shore,” he uses the film The Matrix to examine the ways society’s racist and sexist power dynamics act like a “computer-generated world” designed to oppress its people (Christianity, he argues, “gaslight[s] believers” to perpetuate a similar hierarchical system). He also takes searing aim, in “The Rot in the Garden,” at social media—which “open[s] a world of possibility” while reinforcing harmful prejudices—and wonders whether, rather than “canceling,” people should be “asking each other to evolve.” Joseph’s critiques of “the patriarchy... both overt and ingrained” are razor-sharp, but it’s the clear-eyed reckoning of his own place within it that tethers the soul of his book: “As a Black man I should not be above reproach... simply because I also face oppression.” This potent work makes a systemic issue immensely personal. (May)