Christina Hoff Sommers / Writer Says Feminists Put Boys at Risk

THE WAR AGAINST BOYS: How Misguid ed Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men, by Christina Hoff Sommers; Si mon & Schuster, $25.

Reviewed by ROBERT HOLLAND

W

ere Christina Hoff Sommers blessed with two daughters instead of two sons, would she still be the voice in the academic wilderness crying out that boys, not girls, are the victims of the zeitgeist?

Almost certainly she would, because this one-time philosophy professor has a keen intellect, a sense of fairness, and a deep respect for facts. And the facts are overwhelming: American boys lag far behind girls in reading and writing (while girls are closing their much-lamented math gap). Girls get better grades and have higher aspirations. Boys are far more likely than girls to drop out or be booted from school. They are four times more likely to be diagnosed with "attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder"

and prescribed Ritalin, a dangerous stimulant. They are also more likely to be into illegal drugs, alcohol, or crime. Males are a fast-declining minority of college students.

Save the males, indeed.

Facts are important, but it also has been fortuitous that Ms. Sommers, as the Chevy Chase mother of two boys, has been able to see for herself the impact of progressive schooling's efforts to feminize boys. Typically, this comes via federally funded "gender equity" programs that stress group projects and emotional sharing over structured classes and anything resembling competition -- sometimes to the silly extreme of promoting a game of tag in which nobody is ever "out."

IN THE War Against Boys, Ms. Sommers does not rely on anecdotes -- she prefers objective research -- but she tells with good effect the problem her 14-year-old son David had with

his self-esteem homework. After reading a short story in which a character constantly compared himself with another, David was supposed to vent his own emotions. "Do you compare to make yourself feel better?" the workbook asked. "No, I do not," was David's terse reply. His mother was amused. His teacher probably wasn't.

That kind of male stoicism is something radical feminists want to strip from boys. They view masculinity as a defect, if not a pathological condition, in need of a cure. That's wrong, and contrary to Nature, in Ms. Sommers' view. Boys as well as girls need moral guidance and character education. But male qualities of reserve and inner-directedness have their positive side. Education's androgynizers and social healers have no mandate to play God on behalf of a unisex universe.

In her book, Ms. Sommers is at her best in calling liberal genderists to account for their lack of authenticated research. Among many other dubious operations is the Women's Educational Equity Act Publishing Center, which the U.S. Department of Education bankrolls as its primary tool for pushing gender equity. The center's director, Katherine Hanson, uses this base to make

such startling pronouncements as this: "Every year nearly 4 million women are beaten to death." And this: "The leading cause of injury among women is being beaten by a man at home."

LAW enforcement and public health data show such assertions to be nutty. The leading annual cause of death among females is heart disease (370,000 deaths), then cancer (250,000 deaths), with female deaths from homicide (3,600) way down the list, behind suicide (6,000). And a study of emergency-room admissions shows only 1 percent of female injuries are inflicted by male partners. Yet the U.S. Department of Education continues to fund this center's poisoning of civil discourse via the big lie that American men are killing women by the millions every year.

Ms. Sommers is a courageous woman to take on this bunch. The August issue of The Atlantic Monthly fairly bristles with letters from the subjects of her criticism. She doesn't back down one inch. Her book contributes powerfully to restoring balance in the war over the sexes.

Robert Holland is a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute in Arlington.