Kling/Hymowitz/Caplan Webinar Tomorrow: Of Boys and Men

My former co-blogger Arnold Kling is a fan of Richard Reeves’ new Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What To Do About It. Arnold’s words:

Of Boys and Men is an excellent book for stimulating a conversation about the plight of less-educated males. Reeves makes every effort to ensure that this conversation need not threaten the progress of well-educated females. I hope that feminists can appreciate that.

Tomorrow at 1 PM ET, Arnold is running a webinar on the book featuring himself, the Manhattan Institute’s Kay Hymowitz, and me. Free, but you have to register here.

To preview, I’m not a huge fan of this book. While Reeves makes many reasonable points, the book’s ratio of common sense to woke boilerplate is about 1:3. Reeves never even entertains the possibility that feminist antipathy and self-pity are notable causes of any of the male problems he discusses. Probably because - like almost anyone who makes common-sense claims about gender relations - he’s afraid of making feminists angry.

Furthermore, the Social Desirability Bias in Of Boys and Men is horribly high. Reeves keeps assuring us that taking male suffering seriously will do nothing to undermine the feminist cause. Since you can’t have two top priorities, the opposite is obviously true. Wealth is not zero-sum, but rest assured that priority is.

To repeat, if you’d like to hear more tomorrow, register now.