Brizendine, L. (2010) THE MALE BRIAN  New York: Three Rivers Press

Brezidine is the one that told us in THE FEMALE BRAIN (2006) that females are a variation of  bi-polar people. Within their moods, they live in a  fantasy world where they are told a male will make them live happily ever after. They much prefer children than sex and each new child puts the father further away from the mother. Her message sold tons of books.

If she was a tad bit heavy handed on women, the males are just fine. Boys will be boys. She reminds one of the traditional mother who works the daughter to exhaustion and enables the son. He can do no wrong.

Her presentation in and among the pages fits the meta-narrative of the greater society. Boys masturbate and rough house. They need both moms and dads. They are goal setters and moody when testosterone strikes. They belong to a peer group with a rigid stratification. Females have one too, but it is less pronounced. Males like sex often with lots of variation and oral sex. Females don’t but fake it until the wedding cake is cut.

She takes a generic person and runs him through the stages. At the end, he becomes a lot more like his wife and these can be the best time in the marriage. The words she uses with marriage include “responsibilities” and “caged.” One begins to  see a possible pattern. Little boy grows up in a family in which through serial monogamy he has two or three dads. He likes girls, but can see what happens when you marry one. Little girls see the same thing and thinks that she will get a good job, raise one child, and live out her life without a marriage license.

The main importance of this book is the behavior and the bio-chemicals. She over looks when a male really needs a lot of kids to help run the farm. Further, how mom felt about sex was not important. She did her wifely duty and had kids for the farm. She may curse her husband as she delivers the babies.

Further, she over looks that males are overwhelmingly over represented in most of the human pathologies. Crime is a guy thing.  Not only is crime not mentioned, but rape and a laundry list of other evils are over looked. Although females and males are becoming more alike and can discuss numerous once taboo subjects, a  life time marriage is becoming an oddity. The often quoted 50% divorce rate is just an annual rate. If one takes vows at 20 something, they make take them again and again. The proportion of those who divorce at least once before death is something around 60%. Prostitution and divorce are not mentioned.

She does talk about bullies, but the everyday terror that goes along within a life of a beta male is so very difficult  especially during junior high and high school and is not discussed.  She appears to not quite understand that. Further, some enjoyable(to watch) contact sports can mean life time disabilities later in life including

brain and back problems.  Not marrying to the male means that they get to sleep in later on the weekends,  and  they can do so many  more social activities with other adults.

She does not discuss pornography. Within a minute or so, males can get online and bond with a porn star. They can see sex that most humans never saw throughout their entire lives. Females are urinated on, their faces are smeared with feces, they copulate with animals. How about watching two disabled persons without limbs fornicating?

One can see real killings, animal and human torture, as well as  a number of other sins. She doesn’t say much about recreational drugs or the date rape drug. What planet does she live on?

Well, it is an academic one in which she constructs a life and then attaches the bio-chemicals to them. She indicates that homosexuality is generally genetic, but leaves room for the environment.  What makes the book worthwhile is that bio-chemical descriptions and discussions  help particularly  those without a biological background.

Dr. Brizendine stated that most of her colleagues told her that what she could find about males would fill a pamphlet not a book. Because males are simple, brutish, and aggressive. On the other hand, females are complicated, coy, and devious.  If you look thorugh the book, nearly half is filled with footnotes and commentary, as well as an index.

Males can best be described as “trouble.” They are better suited for more action oriented societies. The non-aggressive find solace in twelve step movements and supportive environments. They are worth marrying in a society  today. However, they can see that like the females that a family means difficulties and complexities that they saw themselves. This book should sell because of the topic and the author is a good writer.

Prof.Joel Snell

Kirkwood College