What a brilliant, biting, and wildly original book. What Is Wrong With Men is part cultural critique, part cinematic deep-dive, and part feminist therapy session—for all of us. Jessa Crispin delivers a sharp, funny, and unsettling exploration of masculinity in crisis, using the most unexpected (and perfect) vehicle: the filmography of Michael Douglas.

This book is as smart as it is entertaining. Crispin uses Douglas’s roles—from the unhinged executive in Falling Down to the morally bankrupt tycoon in Wall Street—as cultural case studies to unpack how masculinity was reshaped in the late 20th century. What emerges is a vivid, provocative argument: that the men Douglas portrayed weren’t just characters, they were harbingers of a fractured society—men unraveling under the weight of a collapsing patriarchal ideal.

Crispin’s voice is razor-sharp, witty, and unapologetically bold. Whether you’re a fan of feminist lit, pop culture analysis, or simply someone trying to make sense of the world we’re living in, this is required reading. I never thought I’d see Disclosure or The Game in this kind of intellectual light, but here we are—and I’m better for it.

I picked this up because I am often wondering the same thing. What is wrong with men? However, I have a little critique here. It was the Maury show that said "You are not the father!" Jerry Springer had the people who threw chairs. I would probably start watching TV again for those guys.
This book really has me thinking about why I want my son to be married and my daughters to stay single. There is a quote about 20% in about men living longer at the expense of their loved one.
I love the ending chapters too. This was really interesting. I think any of my sociologist friends would love it.

Thank you NetGalley for an ebook ARC of What is Wrong with Men by Jessa Crispin. This book was surprisingly entertaining and informative. I found myself highlighting about half of the book because Jessa’s commentary was so insightful.

I’ll admit when I requested this book I didn’t even know who Michael Douglas was. When I googled him I found I had only seen him in two movies: Antman (a marvel movie) and The American President. I don’t think being familiar with Michael Douglas or his movies was a prerequisite for this book. Jessa’s main thesis is that almost every character that Michael Douglas portrayed in the 80’s and 90’s featured a patriarch struggling to evolve and adapt in a post-patriarchal society. She makes a very compelling narrative around why that is, how men in general didn’t have the social structures to help them adjust to feminism, and why so many young men today are so easily sucked into the manosphere as a result.

This book was exceptionally nuanced. Jessa calls out both political parties (and capitalism) as responsible for what is wrong with men today. Society has failed men and neither party has seemed to care about the crisis. Her facts and research on the patriarchy was fascinating. Like how men are more likely to divorce their wives if they have daughters than if they have sons (fascinating right?). And how she was able to tie it all together by providing detailed and in depth analyses of over a dozen Michael Douglas movies was nothing short of impressive!

She explains the plot of each Michael Douglas movie and why the movie was relevant and even revolutionary to the culture of the time when it was released. Then she explains aspects of the characters that Douglas portrays and why they never adjusted to the new shift in culture that feminism initiated. This was such an in depth book on the patriarchy and Jessa was such an excellent writer that I will likely come back to some of her quotes and insights over the next few months just to reread and ponder.

A weird byproduct of reading this book was that I now want to watch a handful of the movies she mentioned just to analyze and get better insight into what was happening to men in the 80’s and 90’s.

I highly recommend this book on masculinity, Michael Douglas movies, and the patriarchy. It was such an in depth look at how feminism and the culture in the 80’s and 90’s contributed to the current crisis of men. What is wrong with men? A lot. And it’s something we should know and address as a society!

This is brutal, sharp, just a hair shy of being scathing, and I loved every page of it. Via the films of Michael Douglas in the 1980s and early 1990s, we get treated to an explanation of the breakdown of the patriarchy and masculinity, and the uncertainty and questions that arose within that time and how all of those things influenced the situation we find ourselves in today.

What I love is that there's accountability with sympathy - men have been separated from the patriarchy but still see themselves as individuals rather than members of communities, and don't realize their isolation isn't necessary if they can build and join. It reminded me of many good men and many terrible men in my life.

Despite the fact that this book feels sad and depressing at times, especially when you care about the well-being of men, the note that it left on feels truly hopeful, and helped realign my perspective. It's about solidarity versus inclusion, building communities without gatekeeping, and recognizing that "merit" is not the barometer we think it is.

The hook of the Michael Douglas angle will get people reading, but it's the message of the author that will get them working.

I received this book from NetGalley for a review. I was thrilled to read this. I studied the differences between how men and women communicate in college, and this is right up my alley. I enjoyed it! The book examines how the second wave of feminism transformed society for women, as women worked to create change. And generally, men did not. The world was different, there were and are different expectations for men, and it’s no longer acceptable to simply go to work, come home, and do nothing. The book examines this through the lens of Michael Douglas’ movies from the 80s and 90s.

I hadn’t seen most of these movies, so I watched a few to prepare. It was really interesting how Michael Douglas portrays the troubled man in this time period. The author discusses the ways he is portraying the classic “hysterical woman” of the past in his movies.

Before reading this, I hadn’t considered how much the world changed for men at this time. Unlike women, who were making community organizations, helping each other, and making spaces to be heard and seen, men did nothing to help themselves. Suddenly, men were no longer kings of the world, and many of them didn’t know what to do or how to live in a modern society. Instead of looking around themselves and trying to help each other, they’re now incels who host podcasts and hate women.

Crispin also does a deep dive into capitalism, how it hurts everyone, and drives the patriarchy. She explores the political climate of the 80s and 90s and how it fueled the economic crisis the United States is experiencing right now. And how it led to fascism and the cult of Trump.

This book is fascinating. I haven’t read much nonfiction lately, but I’m so glad I got the chance to read What is Wrong With Men. It was truly interesting, entertaining, and answered questions I didn’t even know I was asking.

Get your copy June 3, 2025.

A really good reflection on masculinity as it was presented in the past, in today’s society, and of course, in Michael Douglas films. Now, I have never seen a Michael Douglas film a day in my life (but full disclosure I listen to the Podcast Ruined and they’ve done two of his movies) so don’t feel like you need to be familiar with his work to understand the book. Really his films are used as jumping off points to discuss topics like war or consumerism or no fault divorce. I don’t know if I learned anything new in terms of feminism as it comes up in the book, but I did feel like I learned more on how the patriarchy fails men, which, embarrassingly, I had never considered before beyond the superficial talking points. All in all an interesting book that I’m glad I picked up.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Crispin introduces an interesting premise by examining the patriarchy through Michael Douglas films. Always with a feminist lens and a touch of humor, each chapter explores a pivot film in Michael Douglas's career while also examining what his character's actions, reactions, thoughts, etc reveal about the male mind at that point in time. A mix of pop culture and feminist leaning essays, this was an interesting read that is worthwhile to those who are exploring how to use pop culture films to examine what the movie says about society.

Jessa Crispin has written a deep dive into the "crisis" of modern masculinity through the lens of the movies of Michael Douglas, particularly the movies of the 80s and 90s. Her exploration of the main topic, masculinity, is fascinating, well reasoned and pretty excellently well argued. She doesn't provide a whole lot in the way of recommendations, but she does point where things have gone wrong. Where her argument breaks down is pushing this through her chosen lense of the movies of Michael Douglas. Quite apart from my disagreements on her takes of some of these movies, the larger issue is that this is a long-form essay that is pushed well past the breaking point. An essay on this would have been interesting, but Crispin ignores some (perhaps) better movies to explore her themes (which, again, I think she sells quite well) in favor of pushing some square pegs through round holes. In the end, it started to drag early and by the end I'd started to tune some things out.

This isn't a bad exploration of the topic. I think it might have been better if it had focused one chapter on Michael Douglas, another on, say, Tom Hanks. Another on Michael Keaton. Etc. There were opportunities there. But for what it is...it's fine. 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pantheon/Knopf for a chance to read an advance copy in exchange for a fair review. All opinions are my own and are uncompensated.

I thought I would like this more. Alas, I don't know that I am the target audience... I don't love Michael Douglas films so I have seen maybe one that Jessa Crispin is referring to. The analysis makes sense, but overall it just wasn't my jam.

I always love reading Jessa Crispin's writing and especially when it pertains to feminism and gender. I thought this book made a lot of good points and was thought provoking even though at times I felt that centering it around Michael Douglas movies was a bit of a swing.

I’ve never read from this author before, but she knows how to get message across in such a creative and compelling way. Jessa Crispin had me at Michael Douglas. I grew up watching his films as a precocious child. I was always captivated by his raspy voice and cool demeanor. I love his acting style and his reserved chilliness. My favorite performance of his is Falling Down even though the film hasn’t aged well. Crispin does an excellent job finding a correlation comparing the actor’s filmography to the real world conflicts of toxic masculinity, etc. Even though I had little gripe’s here and there with some of the essays, I still would highly recommend this fascinating book. Romancing the Stone, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, and so many more films are discussed throughout this book. Each character Douglas has inhabited throughout his career is examined. Every archetype he has taken on are good and bad parts of the male psyche, including cheating husband, greedy businessman, a mass shooter, and so much more. A very insightful book that is full of wit and extensive knowledge.

Again and again this woman goes above and beyond my expectations. The title here is kind of a bait and switch - must like an earlier Jessa Crispin book, "Why I Am Not A Feminist". Crispin is able to drop into these shared contemporary cultural feelings - "what is wrong with feminism?" and "what is wrong with men?" and handle them with grace and complexity. Perhaps what gives Crispin such a leg up over many other writers who attempt to cover these issues is that she has a complicated historical understanding of them. For example in this book, she is able to reach back to a bunch of great and not so great Michael Douglas movies from the eighties (both not that long ago and somehow... so long ago!) and give us a complete political history of marriage leading up to that point. Her analysis of masculinity, femininity, and their pairing, is anchored by a sincere interest in the social/financial/political history of this country. A true radical in her thinking, Crispin gives us an essential wolf in sheep's clothing. There's almost nothing more seductive to me than the thought of taking what seems silly deadly serious. Thank you NetGalley for the ebook advanced copy.

*What Is Wrong with Men* by Jessa Crispin is a sharp, provocative, and insightful critique of modern masculinity and its cultural implications. With her signature wit and fearless intellect, Crispin challenges readers to rethink gender dynamics in a way that is both compelling and deeply thought-provoking.

This was a good book! It was a good callout for all the things wrong with men, and it was a good perspective. i think the author did a good job writing, and it kept me entertained throughout the whole book!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!