With humor, insight, and honesty, Ruth uses her experience as a mom and a journalist to explore strategies that support boys’ mental health and help them construct a healthy relationship with masculinity.
BOYMOM
Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity
by Ruth Whippman
Harmony, June 2024
Ruth Whippman, a lifelong feminist, was thrilled by the emergence of the #Metoo movement. But as a mother of three boys, she found herself frightened, conflicted, and surprisingly defensive. The sheer volume of evidence of terrible male behavior was impossible to deny, but she looked at her sons and found it hard to believe they could ever cause harm. These complex emotions, shared by so many mothers of boys, led Whippman to ask herself the question: How do we raise boys to be compassionate, responsible men in a world where toxic masculinity is still the norm?
Combining elements of memoir, the latest scientific research, popular culture, and reporting from the frontlines of contemporary American boyhood, BOYMOM is Ruth’s deep-dive answer to that question. It turns out that boys need more parenting than girls, not less. She unpacks surprising and controversial truths about boys’ socialization and the “undercare” of boys that can lead to a lack of relational skills and empathy. She uncovers how even the most well-meaning moms can inadvertently perpetuate damaging stereotypes and provides tools to foster emotional literacy in boys.
Ruth Whippman is a British author, journalist and documentary film maker, who spent ten years in London working at the BBC as a Director and Senior Producer. Her essays, cultural criticism and journalism have appeared in the New York Times, Time magazine, New York Magazine, The Guardian, HuffPost and elsewhere. Fortune described her as one of the « 25 sharpest minds » of the decade. She is a regular speaker at venues including TEDx, Google, The Moth and Somerset House in London. She lives in California with her family.
Diagnosed with ADHD at age twelve, Jessica struggled with a brain that she didn’t understand for most of her life. Determined to figure out why she was struggling, Jessica sought out more information about ADHD. She reached out to experts, read articles and peer-reviewed studies, and shared her discoveries in the one place she would find them again—YouTube, where her channel How to ADHD has since earned a devoted following. And in her first book, Jessica reveals the tools that have changed her life while offering an unflinching look at the realities of living with ADHD. She explains how ADHD affects everyday life and shares ADHD-specific strategies for adapting your environment, routines, and systems. With quotes from Jessica’s online community, chapter summaries, and reading shortcuts designed for the neurodivergent reader, HOW TO ADHD will help you recognize your strengths and challenges, tackle “bad brain days,” and be kinder to yourself in the process.
We live in a world of mixed messages for women: You can be anything you want to be, but don’t expect to be paid equally for it; It’s what is inside that counts, but be sure to wax, bleach, and slim down what’s outside first; You deserve respect and equality, but our laws won’t always protect your rights. Most parents find it easier to tell girls how strong, equal, and powerful they are than to talk about how the world can be particularly difficult or scary for them. But when we don’t address the challenging or disturbing experiences most girls endure, we contribute to the problem.