Richard Reeves

And I think what the book helped some people to do at least was to say, you know what?

You're not alone.

And it's okay to care about both.

This is a time of considerable concern about gender equality and what some people fear is a backlash against the rise of women and so on.

It's been a very contested and difficult time in our culture.

I don't think that's a controversial thing to say.

And really a sort of pick your side sort of moment.

And one of the reasons I was motivated to write the book is we actually see a lot of men being attracted to more authoritarian impulses.

And that's not necessarily a right-left conversation.

comment.

So actually now's the perfect time to do it.

We have to engage with this because if sensible, authoritative institutions aren't dealing with and noticing these issues, what that does is it gives ammunition to the reactionaries who are saying, you don't care about this stuff.

I wanted to find a way to say, you know what?

We actually do have a lot of work still to do for women and girls, but we can't do that in a way that makes the boys and men feel like it's somehow at their expense or vice versa.

And so ignoring a problem in the hopes it'll go away, it won't go away.

All that will happen is it will turn into a grievance and then that grievance will get exploited.

And so this is a necessarily uncomfortable conversation, but it is also a necessary conversation.

Thank you for calling me boring.

I mean this sincerely.

That is an incredibly important compliment to me.