In The Descent of Man, (2017) Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry creates an insightful argument on the ways that outdated masculinity can damage men’s lives.
He defines masculinity as the way that men behave at present in a male-orientated society. The current model of masculinity can be disastrous as he claims that:
‘All over the globe, crimes are committed, wars are started, women are being held back, and economics are disastrously distorted by men, because of their outdated version of masculinity.’ (2)
Is masculinity working to make a world a better place? Perhaps not. He dissects the effects of masculinity by dividing his book into four parts:
power
performance
violence
emotion
Within these parts, he looks at an impressive range of topics, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, economics, sociology and psychology.
Perry is an ideal man to set out this exploration with his personal approach. He is aware of his status as a ‘white man, a rather tarnished badge to wear these days, weighted with guilt and shame at the behaviour of one’s fellows.’ (6) The subject of masculinity is one of great interest to him, with his television programs, ‘All Man,’ and ‘Why Men Wear Frocks.’
As he explores the traits of toxic masculinity, he is able to match some of the traits to his own experiences, whilst also being a man who enjoys wearing women’s clothes. He argues that this puts him in a place where he can question the codes of masculinity that are easily followed unthinkingly.
He acknowledges that men struggle to process their emotions in a healthy way due to the damaging masculine values placed on men. You have only to look at the soaring figures for male suicides to realise this.
His solution? to reconstruct our idea of masculinity by creating a more tender and flexible model:
‘An emergent masculinity may be one that prizes tolerance, flexibility, plurality and emotional literacy in the same way that strength, certainty and stoicism have been celebrated in the past.’ (137)
To achieve this, he ends his book with a manifesto for ‘Men’s Rights’ and he stresses the importance of being tolerant towards change.
Engaging, concise and empathetic, Perry creates a conversation for men that will benefit them well to take part in. They may become better men for it.