How Not to Be a Boy

How Not To Be a Boy by Robert Webb
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As an American, I only really knew of Webb from the shows Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look. If you haven't ever seen any of him and his comedy partner David Mitchell, do yourself a favor and run out and do so. But you are probably only interested in this book if you already know who he is.

Apparently in the UK he is known to be a prominent online political activist, and this book is pretty full of his ideological beliefs (atheism, left Labour and ardent feminism) and how that has helped him deal with the problems that he faced growing up. Which is fine for me, I actually enjoy hearing about how and why people think the way they do, especially those who have different opinions than me. But in the marketing for the book, there is no warning that you are going to get all that dumped on you, so some might find that off-putting. And, if for example, he was an MRA or a Christian, I think that you would have gotten a bit more a sense that that was coming in the description.

The parts about feminism are not really interesting, especially not if you have done any reading in this area already. If you really want to read about feminist theory, there are better places than this. Webb's philosophy boils down to "If it is bad, that is the patriarchy" (or 'The Trick', as he calls it). Logically it would seem to me that something that is responsible for everything is meaningless, but your mileage may vary. He quotes approvingly from scholars like Cordelia Fine, but doesn't really seem to have done much research or seriously anyone who disagrees with him.

The parts about his life, the struggles to deal with his parents' stormy marriage and divorce, his father's abuse, his mother's death and his learning to be a man and not a boy are by far the best part of the book. Webb reads the material himself and does a very good job.

Overall I enjoyed the book and felt like I learned about Webb's life, which would be the point of an autobiography. So three stars overall

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