Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Men Who Hate Women

Overall a very informative book on incels, PUAs, and the MRM. I knew very little about these communities before listening to this audiobook and, as a woman, it was incredibly enlightening. However, I believe the author does an excellent job at not creating a festering of hatred towards the men that participate in these communities—instead there is psychology offered behind why these communities exist. I hope that none see this book as a means to create a hatred or distrust towards men, instead it shows the way that toxic masculinity hurts everyone in society—including men.

A great book for everyone to be familiar with so that genuine movements toward eradicating misogyny can happen for the benefit of everyone!

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archiedh's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Undeniably disturbing and at times just downright hard to read but SO SO necessary and informative. I urge anyone who’s considering to reading this book to do so and for those who have already read it, I urge you to recommend it to others.

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sunday_evening's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Disturbing but necessary read

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therestisstillunwritten16's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

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alexbalmer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.5

This was a hard read. Not because of the writing style or even the length of the book itself (just shy of 350 pages 🤷‍♀️) but just the topic in general was constantly jarring. I had to just stop and close the book on multiple occasions and rethink many encounters with men in the past…

It’s something I was aware of throughout recent years, terms like “incel” and “manosphere” have popped up in memes/tiktoks but the size of the groups mentioned and the real life examples threw me off. To see how many mass shootings and other heinous crimes can be directly linked back to the ideology of these groups is shocking, saying how little you hear the word misogyny used in a serious, non-mocking way in the media. (Usually paired with jabs at “feminazis” and groups that are trying to HELP MEN😒)

STRONGLY encourage anyone who spends a decent amount of their lives online (and on any form of social media) to read this. Even if you’re a bit older and feel like you have a grasp on how to interpret content/news/facts online.

One thing that I will say (not necessarily a complaint or a mistake) but when checking the Notes at the back of the book for references on certain facts a lot of the time it would be news articles. Nothing really wrong with that except that throughout the book it is said how the media is quick to jump to conclusions when they haven’t done much research. I’m guessing Bates has looked into each sources thoroughly. Maybe it’s my own preconceptions that make me pause before referencing Channel 4 in a debate?

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priesty23's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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notthatcosta's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

2.5

I tend to struggle with books that were written by journalists, because I find that their storytelling skills are lacking when it comes to creating a whole book. Even though Laura Bates is not a journalist, Men Who Hate Women falls foul of similar traps that I've seen previously in non fiction books of this type.

Most of the chapters feel unnecessarily padded out, often with repetition of previous points made that don't serve to create a cohesive narrative thread. Even in more successful chapters like 'Men Who Don't Know They Hate Women', half way through it veers off into a tangent about the 2016 election.

I understand that the topic at hand is very broad, complex and wide reaching, but the lack of focus makes it frustrating to read beyond the frustrating subject matter. With better and tighter editing I think this could have been a great book, but it ends up feeling like an unfocussed and cluttered collection of ideas and case studies with some paraphrased 4Chan posts sprinkled in.

I probably would have preferred it if the book just centred on what Laura Bates heard during her school visits and talks, rather than the need to try and summarise what she read on manosphere forums.

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