This is one of those strident discourses on the sex roles that
disqualifies itself immediately from serious consideration by
hopelessly confusing the effects of biology, social and cultural
sex role conditioning, and sex discrimination. German social critic
Bednarik does make some motions of keeping an open mind on the
question of whether sex role differences are biological or
behavioral, but he ends up using the evidence of women's limited
participation in various spheres of life to suggest congenital
incapacity and appropriating the areas of decision-making,
responsibility, authority, assertiveness, activism, and achievement
as eternally male terrains. The male is in crisis today, argues
Bednarik, because increasing technological development,
bureaucratization, and conglomeration is moving the twentieth
century world toward a "superpatriarchy" in which a few "Big
Brothers" make the vital decisions for everyone (that women have
always had Big Brothers is, of course, well beneath the scope of
concern). The effect of this increasing centralization of authority
is "to infantilize or feminize the male population in general"
(feminize being a dirty word for the glorious adult male). Bednarik
discusses the resultant disturbances and frustrations in the erotic
sphere, the sphere of "male activism and aggressiveness," and the
sphere of "male authority." On the subjects of our changing
conceptions of sex, of militarism, and of heroism, he has much to
say that is interesting, but again he is unable to steer a clear
course between changes in the "traditional" notion of masculinity
and affronts to the "natural" superiority of males. Bednarik's
less-than-convincing solution for "restoring male psychological
capacity for action and authority on a maximum scale" is to combat
Big Brotherism through the development of group activity. "Only the
group can compensate for the individual's loss of public authority
to the bureaucratic superstructures." A consistently lively
polemic, this blends acute observations on the changing positions
of men and women with obtuse allegations that biology is destiny.
(Kirkus Reviews)
Karl Bednarik states that the majority of men suffer from central
disturbance in their masculine life in modern industrial society.
He shows that prevailing conditions are introducing radical changes
in masculine behavior and that the emasculation of contemporary man
is due to the increasing overorganization of modern society.
General
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