“If Men Have All
the Power, How Come Women Make the Rules?” (2nd edition) By
Jack Kammer. Halethorpe, MD: Ruly Mob; June 2002.
www.rulymob.com. 224 pages. Download “on honor system” with
agreement to pay author what the book is worth to you or purchase
print version for $14.95 including shipping in North America.
Jack Kammer has done one of the
hardest of all tasks—writing a book that is such a smooth read and so
enjoyable that it provokes the reaction, “Anyone could do that.” Well,
anyone couldn’t do it, but fortunately one man could and did. Kammer,
author of the excellent 1994 work Good Will Toward Men, could
not find a publishing house willing to accept this book. Surely there
is no work of comparable quality, accessibility, and substance in
any other field whatsoever that would not be able to find
publication. Kammer therefore took matters into his own hands, issuing
the work in an attractive format through the Ruly Mob website.
If Men Have All the Power
combines humor, a broad range of quotations, and a number of unique
insights with a highly accessible format. Kammer’s book scatters 122
numbered thought-provoking statements and anecdotes throughout its
pages, judiciously interspersing selected excerpts from authors on
both sides of men’s rights and a number of original pieces by Kammer
himself.
I enjoyed Kammer’s question in
item number 21 asking: “Young men are subject to the military draft in
case of national military emergencies. Why aren’t young women being
drafted now to alleviate the day care crisis? Is one idea sexist and
the other not?” For item 24, the author comes up with a delightful
metaphor: “Women’s power is the opposite of monumental. It’s like
wall-to-wall carpeting, or a snowfall, everywhere and unavoidable, not
concentrated into a few narrow, vertical monuments, like men’s.” This
has the added attraction of summarizing Kammer’s point to his class as
a new seventh-grade teacher in 1974. The new teacher showed his class
that while boys’ and girls’ misbehavior patterns are different, their
total “badness” is about the same. Boys tend to misbehave dramatically
in short bursts, while girls more typically do “little” things like
whispering or giggling, but for a much longer period of time. Kammer
reports, “Naturally enough the boys were happy with this enlightened
standard of justice and discipline. But to my delight, the girls, too,
liked the fact that somebody had called them on their game.”
Calling feminists on their game is
a specialty of Jack Kammer’s. In item number 97 he proposes the
following deal: “We’ll make sure that women are equally represented in
corporate boardrooms when they make sure we are equally represented
among employees who take family leave.” In item number 99, the author
notes,” It is widely reported that men’s standard of living goes up
after divorce. But did any financial advisor ever tell you to get
married, raise kids and then have your wife divorce you so your
standard of living would go up?” Kammer proposes that instead we
“focus on the Standard of Loving, a measure of the affection, caring
and closeness that one feels with one’s children’ it clearly plummets
for most fathers after divorce.” Particularly fascinating is the long
list of items considered at one time to be effeminate that Kammer
builds into a story about a football player. (Examples of historical
symbols of a supposed lack of masculinity: a forward pass in football,
wearing a football helmet, smoking cigarettes, wearing a wristwatch,
using gloves, using an umbrella, undoing the top buttons on one’s
shirt, using hot water, using soap, wearing clean underwear.)
Word-for-word, Jack Kammer has created one of the
most accessible, quickest-reading, enjoyable and comprehensive surveys
of the men’s movement ever written. If Men Have All the Power
would also make an excellent introduction to the issues for an
intelligent, busy newcomer to our movement. I already referred my own
brother to it!
©2000 J. Steven Svoboda
