Heroes of the Blue Sky Rebellion – a book review

When you’ve got a boy of your own, you notice this more, of course, but for at least three decades that I know of it has been somehow “not good enough” to be a boy in modern society.

My own son was born in 1978, at a time when I considered myself a feminist, was a charter subscriber to MS magazine, and was bound and determined to give my kid the benefit of the best gender-blind upbringing he could possibly have. It was my son himself who first planted the seeds of doubt in my mind regarding feminism. He simply would not play the game, and balked at my clumsy efforts to make him into something he was not. He had no interest in the girlish toys I tried to give him, preferring instead trucks and cars – anything that had moving parts, actually.

I knew early on he’d rather spend an afternoon with his dad in the garage, working on stuff, than in the kitchen with his mom turning out pastries. I could not bring myself to fault my own little boy for his obvious masculine tendencies. Whether it was instinct or what, I don’t know, but instead I chose to love him for what he was; feminist ideals be damned.

By the time he was in elementary school I’d realized a lot of parents were bringing up their boys the same way we were, allowing them to be themselves. There was also something else at work, as I noticed boys with sisters frequently got the short end of the stick when it came to things like parental attention; and the schools sometimes seemed to forget they had boys in attendance at all.

I just could never understand why it was some people thought there was something wrong with boys.

Once our son grew up and we knew grandchildren were about to appear, I was prepared to become Warrior Grandma if I had to, and fight for the rights of a new generation of boys to be boys, instead of some weird configuration of not-girls. As things turned out, the grandchildren were all girls, so their potential schools and etcetera were spared dealing with Warrior Grandma.

As someone who has spent almost a decade combating the creeping disorder of radical feminism in our society, I’ve got a fairly good idea of where the battle lines are drawn. Not everybody has the benefit of my experience of course, but might still be wondering if there is anything they can do to help improve things for their sons or grandsons.

There is. What’s more, the boys themselves can take an active part in their own defense.

Jack Kammer has written a book called, Heroes of the Blue Sky Rebellion, subtitled, How You and Other Young Men Can Claim All the Happiness in the World. While it says on the cover the book is for young men aged 13 to 23, I disagree. I think it’s for anybody who has a son or grandson, nephew or brother as well.

You might be familiar with Jack Kammer’s  style from a previous book, Good Will Toward Men. Like the earlier book, Heroes of the Blue Sky Rebellion is written in an easy-to-get-along-with, yet informative style that gets the point across while avoiding being overbearing. It is also blessedly short — under 100 pages, and easily read in bits and pieces. It not only explains how things got this way, but also gives some ideas on what can be done to transform the current bad deal boys get today into something a bit more equal, more genuine.

As the book says, “the most sexist idea of all is the belief that only one sex is harmed by sexism.” That’s definitely something to think about.

If you want to know more, the website is here.

Note to the FTC: the book was provided by the author for review, and subsequently donated to the Station Library at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, AZ.  Semper Fi, bureaucrats!