Elwood Watson, ETSU professor of history, African American studies and gender studies, published their latest book titled “Talkin to You Bro: Liberate Yourself from the Confusing, Ambiguous messages of Contemporary Masculinity.”
The book is a collection of 35 essays, broken up into 5 different sections, that look at various aspects of masculinity.
These aspects include men and race, men and resilience, men and relationships and men and nonconformity.
“It’s basically saying, ‘Don’t fall into the trap of what society tells you need to be as a man. You need to do what’s best for you.’ That’s pretty much the theme of the book,” said Watson.
Changing views on masculinity has become a major topic of discussion in the past decade.
“We’ve always looked at men as impervious. Men are not supposed to talk about their emotions. You’re not supposed to cry in public. You’re not supposed to talk about your emotions with other men. A lot of men tend to have surface relationships,” said Watson.
Of course, this book is not just targeted towards men. Women are encouraged to read it to gain perspective on the men in their life.
“I hope they take away the message ‘there is no one specific way to be a man.’ There’s nothing wrong with being iconoclastic. By iconoclast, I mean rebel,” said Watson.
The book can be purchased at any major online retailer or bookstore and is available in paperback for $24.99 or on Kindle for $14.99.
If you are interested in any more of their work, you can check out other publications such as “The Oprah Phenomenon,” “Searching the Soul of Ally McBeal: Critical Essays,” “There She Is, Miss America: The Politics of Sex, Beauty, and Race in America’s Most Famous Pageant,” “Generation X Professors Speak: Voices from Academia” or “Performing American Masculinities: The 21st-Century Man in Popular Culture.”
