THE IRISH BULL GOD: Image of Multiform and Integral Masculinity by Sylvia Brinton Perera – Title 107

Contemporary Western culture is seeking a new paradigm of manliness relevant to both men and women, at all stages of life. More and more we question the models provided by our personal and collective fathers. We have been trapped in too narrow a definition of the masculine. We are ready for a new one, one that does not diminish the essence of maleness, but is also broader than the too-pervasive limits of toughness, defensiveness, rigidity, rationality and aggression.

Our very survival may depend on growing into a broader sense of the masculine: one that welcomes equal partnership with women, lifting from them the burden of hiding their own fullness of character so as not to intimidate the men around them or be the targets of their aggression; one that encourages the growth of the new generation, the new idea, the new crop, the new art, with the confidence of understanding that none of them can emerge without receptive fathering. An enlarged concept of masculinity is the promise of this most engaging book.