Book Review: Men on Strike

MEN ON STRIKE
Dr. Helen Smith
Rating: 8 of 10

With the publication of Men on Strike, Dr. Helen Smith fires an important shot in the ongoing cultural war for the soul, and indeed, the survival, of Western Civilization.  It is a shot she fires in defense of the defenders, in defense of the barricades, in defense of the gates, against the lawless barbarians marching under the banner of the Female Imperative.

If the horror stories and red pill realities she chronicles will not be unfamiliar to those who are regular readers of the androsphere, they are nevertheless particularly effective when presented, largely dispassionately, one after another in succession.  Dr. Helen does an competent job of drawing clear links between a legal regime biased towards women and the fearful behavior of men who no longer see sufficient incentive to perform the roles that society has long expected and required of them.

Men on Strike is particularly effective when pointing out the shameless hypocrisy of feminist activism, and how the voices that are quick to appeal to equality when it benefits women are completely silent when it is the male sex that is getting the short side of the stick.  And it raises what is arguably the most important question of all: how can a society which actively disincentivizes men to marry, father children, and produce the economic surplus required to support women and children expect to survive, let alone thrive?

Dr. Helen begins the book with considering the question of why men are increasingly reluctant to marry, as evidenced by both national statistics and personal anecdotes. She continues with a presentation of the hypocrisy of the present legal approach to children and parenting, then moves on to the recent inversion of the male/female ratio of college attendance.  After considering the way marriage has changed in recent decades, she then explains why these changes matter, and devotes the final chapter to considering whether men are best advised to continue simply opting out of society or attempting to fight back.

While much of the evidence is anecdotal, it must be noted that the anecdotal evidence is largely presented in an explanatory sense and is primarily used to support the statistical evidence.  As such, it is much more valid than anecdotal evidence cited in support of hypothetical trends.

Possibly the best thing about Men on Strike is that at no point does Dr. Helen attempt to speak for men or tell men what they should do.  She is quite clearly cognizant of the fact that she is speaking out in support of men, she is attempting to encourage them to speak out themselves rather than to speak for them.

Unlike other books that purport to be concerned about the societal degradation of men, Dr. Helen's book is not driven by the Female Imperative.  She is aware that the degradation of men is not likely to serve women well in the long run, but she also opposes that legal and social degradation in its own right.  In her words: "I propose that men are autonomous beings who are entitled to justice and equality and the pursuit of their own happiness because they are human beings in a supposedly free society."

Dr. Helen's book is both courageous and important because it is written by a woman. It cannot be dismissed as male whining or a parthian shot by the Patriarchy, and it is rhetorically effective because it breaks the Pink Code of Silence and shames those women who, in the name of equality, have pursued an inequality more oppressive and deadly than has been personally experienced by any woman of the West.  It will be a valuable resource for anyone, male or female, who cares about the fate of men or the fate of Western civilization.

Text sample:  Our society, the media, the government, women, white knights and Uncle Tims have regulated and demanded that any incentives men have for acting like men be taken away and decried masculinity as evil. Now they are seeing the result. Men have been listening to what society has been saying about them for more than forty years; they are perverts, wimps, cowards, assholes, jerks, good-for-nothing, bumbling deadbeats and expendable. Men got the message; now they are acting accordingly. As you sow, so shall you reap.

So now people are surprised when men are heading for the exits? They shouldn’t be surprised. Men have been pushed there for some time. We should actually be surprised that it has taken so long.

The Concordia is just a microcosm of what is happening in our greater society. Men are opting out, bailing out and going on strike in response to the attack on their gender; a society can’t spend more than forty years tearing down almost half of the population and expect them to respond with “give me another” forever. Pretty soon, a lot more men will be taking Captain Schettino’s lead and jumping ship—only it will be on a lot larger scale than a boatload of people. The war on men is suicidal for our society in so many ways, and treating men like the enemy is dangerous, both to men and to the society that needs their positive participation as fathers, husbands, role models and leaders.

NB: In the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that in the first chapter of the book, Dr. Helen refers to the socio-sexual hierarchy I developed from Roissy's sexual hierarchy.