A mixture of narrative nonfiction, big ideas, and current affairs.
The rise of alt-right commentators like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate have shone a light on a dangerous wave of toxic masculinity, but many boys and men feel that they are the only ones listening and giving voice to how they feel. The result is a lack of nuanced debate on the reality of society’s demands on men - which are increasingly contradictory and impossible, driving them to nastier, more brutish, and shorter lives.
What a Man is Not - is the antidote to that increasingly dangerous rhetoric (which was a key element of the recent electoral coalition that saw Trump return to the White House). Written from a male perspective, it addresses the trends leading young men into cynicism, loneliness and isolation. The book takes lessons from the history of feminism to set out a vision of masculinity which eschews the bleak outlook of the MAGA movement and instead puts young men on the front foot and provides them with a rallying cry and a path forward through dialogue which has otherwise broken down, to find a solution that offers men other options.
Drawing from the evidence of women’s experience over the last fifty years, it directs the reader to clear their mind of the ‘bullshit expectations and values society dictates’ to both genders, with the aim that outcomes for men (life expectancy, suicide rates, educational outcomes, willingness to see a doctor) can see a similar uplift to that feminism has made happen for women - to the benefit of men, women and feminism alike.
Harry Carr is a data journalist and pollster, who works for the American think tank, The Burning Glass Institute, looking at the factors that impact career success (often through the lens of gender). Before this he was an editor at The Wall Street Journal, won a Royal Television Society award as Head of Sky Data at Sky News, and he led a suite of influential policy research programs as Director of Research and Innovation at the cross-party think tank Demos.
Harry lives in the UK with his wife and two boys, who he hopes will become happy, healthy, confident, feminist men.