Mask Off

What is masculinity? Dominating the world around us, from Trump's twitter outbursts to deadly gun violence, from male suicide rates to incels on Reddit and 4chan, masculinity is perceived to be 'toxic', 'fragile' and 'in crisis'. In Mask Off, JJ Bola exposes masculinity as a performance that men are socially conditioned into. Using examples of non-Western cultural traditions, music and sport, he shines light on historical narratives around manhood, debunking popular myths along the way. He explores how LGBTQ men, men of colour, and male refugees experience masculinity in diverse ways, revealing its fluidity, how it's strengthened and weakened by different political contexts, such as the patriarchy or the far-right, and perceived differently by those around them. At the heart of love and sex, the political stage, competitive sports, gang culture, and mental health issues, lies masculinity: Mask Off is an urgent call to unravel masculinity and redefine it.

Cortland Pfeffer spent years as a patient in psychiatric hospitals, treatment centers, and jails before becoming a registered nurse and working in the same facilities. This is a story about recovery that goes inside the mental health and addiction field, revealing the problems and providing a spiritual solution.

This story is to give all readers another set of eyes to see from, and theyre my eyes. We all wear masks and dont even know it. Lets enjoy the journey together.

Are you ready? Can you handle the truth? Today is the day that you have been patiently waiting for. Today is your day to take off your mask. One layer at a time, we will uncover the true person that you were created to be. Sit back, relax, and fall in love with the person beneath the mask. Fall in love with who you truly are. Inside this book is thirty chapters designed to help you transform yourself to who you know you truly are. The Bible tells us not to be afraid but to believe. You must believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Believe that you are more than a conqueror, the head and not the tail, believe that you shall live and not die. Believe in yourself. Take off the mask!

Christian Living/autobiography

‘This is one of the most important topics today that seemingly no one is talking about: how men can take care of their emotional health in a 21st century that demands it. Crucial reading for any young or struggling man.’ - Mark Manson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck At 30 years old, Lewis Howes was outwardly thriving but unfulfilled inside. He was a successful athlete and businessman, achieving goals beyond his wildest dreams, but he felt empty, angry, frustrated, and always chasing something that was never enough. His whole identity had been built on misguided beliefs about what "masculinity" was. Howes began a personal journey to find inner peace and to uncover the many masks that men – young and old – wear. In The Mask of Masculinity, Howes exposes: · The ultimate emptiness of the Material Mask, the man who chases wealth above all things; · The cowering vulnerability that hides behind the Joker and Stoic Masks of men who never show real emotion; and · The destructiveness of the Invincible and Aggressive Masks worn by men who take insane risks or can never back down from a fight. He teaches men how to break through the walls that hold them back and shows women how they can better understand the men in their lives. It's not easy, but if you want to love, be loved and live a great life, then it's an odyssey of self-discovery that all modern men must make. This book is a must-read for every man – and for every woman who loves a man.

A tale of love, loss, identity, and belonging, No Place to Call Home tells the story of a family who fled to the United Kingdom from their native Congo to escape the political violence under the dictator, Le Maréchal. The young son Jean starts at a new school and struggles to fit in. An unlikely friendship gets him into a string of sticky situations, eventually leading to a suspension. At home, his parents pressure him to focus on school and get his act together, to behave more like his star-student little sister. As the family tries to integrate in and navigate modern British society while holding on to their roots and culture, they meet Tonton, a womanizer who loves alcohol and parties. Much to Jean's father's dismay, after losing his job, Tonton moves in with them. He introduces the family—via his church where colorful characters congregate—to a familiar community of fellow country-people, making them feel slightly less alone. The family begins to settle, but their current situation unravels and a threat to their future appears, while the fear of uncertainty remains.

"Dave King and Richard Ekins are the leading world sociologists in this field. The book brings together a brilliant synthesis of history, case studies, ideas and positions as they have emerged over the past thirty years, and brings together a rich but always grounded account of this field, providing a state of the art of critical concepts and ideas to take this field further during the twenty first century." - Ken Plummer, University of Essex "An outstanding survey of the evolution of trans phenomena, splendidly written, highly informative, scholarly at its best, yet easy to read even for those neither trans nor sociologist. Ekins and King, experts in the field, unroll the panoramas of sex, gender, and transgendering that have evloved during the last decades. For everyone wanting to understand the interaction of women and men and of those who cannot or will not identify with either of these two cataegories, reading this book is a must, and a real pleasure." - Friedmann Pfaefflin, University of ULM This groundbreaking study sets out a framework for exploring transgender diversity for the new millennium. It sets forth an original and comprehensive research and provides a wealth of vivid illustrative material. Based on two decades of fieldwork, life history work, qualitative analysis, archival work and contact with several thousand cross-dressers and sex-changers around the world, the authors distinguish a number of contemporary transgendering ′stories′ to illustrate: The binary male/female divide The interrelations betwen sex, sexuality and gender The interrelations between the main sub-processes of transgendering. Wonderfully insightful, The Transgender Phenomenon develops an original and innovative conceptual framkework for understanding the full range of the transgender experience.