SOURCE: “Opening the Male: A Leading Feminist Turns Her Sympathies to the Betrayed American Man,” in Christian Science Monitor, September 23, 1999, pp. 17-8.

In the following review, Chinni offers unfavorable assessment of Stiffed.

If 1990s America offers one overarching lesson, it is that the cultural labels we once used to define our societal tribes are increasingly worthless. In a world with 500 cable channels, niche marketing, and the Internet, it has become nearly impossible to place large groups of people into neat little boxes.

Lines are blurring. Subcultures are merging across the old boundaries of race and gender. At the close of the 20th century, American society resembles a kaleidoscope, fragmented and constantly shifting.

And therein lies the real problem with Stiffed, Susan Faludi’s new 650-page sociological tract bent on telling us about “the betrayal of the American man.” Lumping half the population under this simple two-word category heading...