Manspressions: Decoding Men's Behavior

by Joe Biel, Elly Blue

You've heard of mansplaining, but what about manstitutions? From manologues to manversations, mantrums to manger, the behavior of men is decoded at last for your enlightenment and entertainment. It's a new wave of feminism, and that wave requires a new language. Manspressions creates a common language for societal forces that hold everyone back, but that have been difficult to talk about until now--because we lacked the words.

Genres: Humor

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 22, 2015

About the author

Joe Biel is a writer, activist, journalist, filmmaker, and publisher. He is the founder and co-owner of Microcosm Publishing and co-founder of the Portland Zine Symposium. He often tours the U.S. with his books and films. He has been featured in the Utne Reader, Portland Mercury, Oregonian, Broken Pencil, Readymade, and Bicycle Times.

Reviews

[Eli Poteet · Rating 2 out of 5]

i got this book as a bonus from a microcosm publishing package, so i gave it a quick read. it was full of generally innoculous man puns. the book is short but the motiff grows long in the fang very quickly. its like a team hella expanded on the socially common reference of "man splaining"- and then someone uber doodled to pair up the phrases with images. the humor in the book is stable and presents a silly atmosphere on several topics that are actually examples of pateiarchial oppression or toxic gender binary pitfalls or trite troupey stereotypes.

i cant help but wonder if men would think this book funny or apt, i wonder what fellow nonbinary identifying humans think. the commentary within the covers doesnt really seem geared towards a very wide audience and maybe thats intentional what with so many books and publishing companies gendered practices. but regardless, beyond a snicker, im not sure i resonated with this title.

i will acknowledge this book has prompted a several paragraph response and ill hand this book forward to others to attempt to find its worthy home. the best part, to me, is at the end- the authors explain that this book can be a tool of using laughter to disfuse standard power dynamics and to help in the identidying and interuption of some common bullshit stuff "men" do and say.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snarkily pretty darn good.