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What makes a man?
The answer used to be easy. You chopped wood, you wrestled bears, and never showed an ounce of emotion.
Today, thankfully, we’ve started leaving some of those ill-fitting gender stereotypes behind. But what replaces them? How do you make sense of masculinity in a world of mixed messages?
If you’re a young man growing up in this world, then you’re invited on an adventure (well, more of a ramble). We’ll explore the issues that confront us as guys – from conducting relationships and processing emotions, to handling money and behaving online. There may be footnotes.
Drawing on personal stories – mainly about the sorts of mistakes you don’t have to make – and pointing at a role model who provides a much better blueprint for growing up well as a man, this is an entertaining, easy-to-read way to ask the biggest questions: who am I, and why on earth am I here?
Martin Saunders has been a man for over 40 years. He’s a youth specialist and serial creator of resources and events for both youth leaders and young people. He’s Deputy CEO of Youthscape, a national charity working for the positive transformation of all young people. His previous books include Youth Work from Scratch, The Beautiful Disciplines and a football-based novel which FourFourTwo magazine called “Christian claptrap (one star)”. Martin is married to Jo and they have four children. They live in Surrey, where Martin is currently Youth Team Leader at St Mary’s Church, Reigate.
