The Choices of Men
A Novel of Male Power and Sexuality in a Feminist Age
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
"I know exactly the action I would like to take. I would like to throw Jill down on the bed and have my way with her. It absolutely makes my blood boil when we haven't had sex for a couple of months that she will walk around the bedroom stark naked, even bend over right in front of me to straighten the bed, and wave it right in my face as if I don't exist! And what can I do about it? Absolutely nothing! If I come on to her she brushes me off adding one more humiliation to the jillion I've already raked up. And do you know why I can't do anything about it?" Guy’s tone was a controlled shriek. "I can guess, but why don't you tell me why," Jackson said warily, not wanting to throw gasoline on the surprising conflagration he was witnessing. "Because somehow," Guy shook his head in exasperation, "despite the fact that the bench and legislature are still largely male dominated, we have allowed the law to be interpreted so that a husband who pushes himself on his wife can be charged with marital rape! Ten thousand years of male programming wiped out in less than a generation!" Guy was now really getting worked up. Jackson hadn't ever seen him quite like this. "Listen closely Jackson. I am not talking about wife beating. I am not condoning violence. I have given this a lot of thought. I am talking about evolutionary programming that rigs males to have a powerful urge about every 48 hours to insert their seed carrying appendage into a vaginal canal that usually has eggs at the other end of it. To manage the chaos this caused, human evolution in virtually every culture on earth produced the institution of marriage, to channel this absolutely irrepressible behavior. And we could just about live with that when we had the right to insert our penises into our wives vaginas more or less when we pleased. As society got more refined about these things, if we were clever we made it pleasurable for our wives, too. If we weren't, we still had a legitimate, if unwilling outlet. And if we got tired of the legitimate outlet and could afford it, we went to an illegitimate outlet." "You are rambling." Jackson interrupted, trying to bring Guy’s harangue down a notch. "Oh no I'm not!" Guy sputtered. "I am just getting to the point! Somehow, for all the talk of male domination, we have allowed the one legitimate, and the primary illegitimate outlet to both be criminalized! Do you read the papers? If I go to a hooker, fool that I'd be anyway with AIDS raging, and get caught, the vogue these days is to impound the Lexus I use to commit the heinous crime, and to publicly humiliate me by publishing my name in the papers for my kids, neighbors, clients, and adversaries all to see! If I stay home and let my hormones loose on my disinterested wife, at her whim with a simple 911 call, I can be charged with marital rape and carted off to jail where the odds are greatly in the other guy's favor that I will be the one who actually gets raped while my wife gabs to her friends all night on the cordless about my despicable behavior! How did we get to such a state?" He seemed to be asking the question of the universe. "How did we guys lose all our leverage and rights?"
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The Choices of Men
Guy Scheels traded the free-love '70s for a wife, career and home. Now he finds he relinquished too much power over his lifestyle, career, and the custody of his child by a former marriage. Worse, he has relinquished his sexual power. He is maddeningly frustrated by his wife’s sexual disinterest and by the culture’s disapproval of extra-marital sex in any form - - in fact, its virtual war on male sexuality.
Guy has choices to make. His decisions and actions will stimulate men to think about their own choices. Women will be drawn into the plot out of curiosity, then ponder what choices the men in their lives are preparing to make. The story culminates in an explosive series of events that propel Guy to declare new rules by which he will live. Far from being misogynist, he ceases blaming women and assumes responsibility for his own action - - and inaction.
The Choices of Men is intended to provoke a gender dialogue. For too long, we’ve been hearing a monologue and women have been doing the talking. Choices gives men a voice, too.
www.choicesofmen.com