For Women Only

I didn't know how to rate this when I read it last year, and I still don't know how to rate it now that I've re-read it.

I first read For Women Only on my husband's request. He had picked up For Men Only and found it very helpful during a time when things weren't all roses in our marriage. I obliged, and I found the information in it overall quite helpful in understanding his perspective. I even asked him during several chapters, “is this true?” and he affirmed the things that were true for him. It was interesting overall, and was easy to put some of these ideas into practice and see improvements in how we related to each other.

That said, I can't stand this woman's writing style. Maybe it's because she's just too buddy-buddy, hey-ladies-we're-in-this-together for a research-backed survey about how men think, while also being strictly stuck in traditional gender roles/stereotypes that I think can be pretty damaging. It got worse as the book went on, and I found myself thinking, let's stick to what the survey results said about how men think and what things are important to them, and how we can put those things into action! That would have been a good book on its own; there was no need for her to insert her two cents about how us eating doughnuts makes him want to die inside, and how we need to be hot for our husbands but not in miniskirts lest our slutty bodies be seared into the retinas of all men everywhere aaaaaah.

Which sucks, because if it wasn't for stuff like that here and there, I really do find this to be good information. I just don't need a side of victim-blaming when I read self-help.