Gender stereotypes in “He’s Just Not That Into You” by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo
The literature addressing the gender relations, sexuality and relationship development is considered to be helping people to address their issues and to succeed in their personal life. However, the majority of them contain stereotypes associated with men and women, and predetermined gender expectations or sexual scripts. In this essay I will reflect on one of such books, a recent bestseller “He’s Just Not That Into You” by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, which the authors define as a self-improvement book aimed to assist the single women.
In the first part of this essay, I will present an overview of the book, present the topics and main points discussed. In the second part, a critical analysis of the stereotypes and other settings will be conducted, utilizing the practical and theoretical knowledge and sources. Finally, I would conclude about the book as the source of self-improvement and state if I would recommend the target audience to refer to it.The book is addressing the emotional dependence of women on their romantic interests. Its main idea is that if the man doesn’t show interest in women and is not pursuing her, he is not interested in the relationship.
Structurally the book consists of two introductions, a number of chapters addressing different issues (calling, dating, sex, marriage, disappearing and breaking up), and the concluding remarks of both authors. The structure of the book as for me has a coherency issue, i.e. it is sometimes repeating the same idea again and again. The main topics discussed in the book are relationship, adultery, the initiative in the relationship, sex, and marriage. Some issues addressed may seem obvious and related rather to common sense than to relationship psychology (e.g. if the man is cheating on you, he is not worth your attention), yet we should note that for some women who experience crisis in relationship such notions may be necessary, as sometimes there is no one near to point them out.The style of the book is very easy-going and humorous, language is simple and persuasive, which is a feature of popular-oriented books.
Indeed, the style makes the book digestible to any kind of reader, and the text doesn’t contain the reference to anything more specific than life stories and cases of personal experience. The authors provide numerous examples, which could allow anyone to recognize herself or some of the friends. Still, it is important to consider in critical assessment of the book content that the authors are not relationship psychologist or consultants, they are comedian writers. Thus, the pieces of advice given in the book have only empirical justification.Another strong point is that the book provides perspectives of the authors of the different gender. Such innovation may seem valuable, as the existence of two opinions would deprive the book of stereotypes and prejudice.
However, as it is further demonstrated, the presence of two authors hasn’t prevented …
