Guyland Kimmel Summary

In Guyland, Kimmel discusses the cultures of entitlement, silence, and protection. Today, many young men have a “shockingly strong sense of male superiority and a diminished capacity for empathy.” (59) When guys subscribe to what Kimmel calls “Guy Code,” they are rewarded with this newfound sense of entitlement. Kimmel gives the example of white men in their late twenties and early thirties who participated in a show called “A Black Women Stole My Job.” Even though all of the candidates for the job were evaluated on the same platform and the black women was picked for the position, the men thought it was “their” job for the taking, even though they had never worked in that job to begin with. This sense of entitlement is one of the reasons that

Traditional forms of dating are very rare on college campuses, but now, “hooking up has become the alpha and omega of young adult romance.” (191) This culture has become so prevalent on college campuses that many young adults have difficulty making the change to serious, committed relationships in their post-college lives. Not only are men “delaying adulthood,” they are “entering it misinformed and ill prepared.” (192) In this culture, young men and women are constantly rating each other. Men need to belong to the cool fraternity, dress well, and be smooth, while women have to have “effortless perfection.” Although hooking up may seem equally desirable for both sexes, it “enhances his reputation whereas it damages hers” (197). Kimmel references an interview he had with one young man who said that as he was having sex with a girl, all his could think about was how excited he was to brag about it to his friends. He didn’t care at all about her preference to keep it between them. This is a classic example of how “girls live in Guyland, not the other way around. Whereas guys are permanent citizens, girls are legal aliens at best. As second class inhabitants, they are relegated to being party buddies, sex objects, or a means of access to other girls.” (245) In Guyland, a girl can either be a bitch, a babe, or a bro. Women are never equals, they are merely “prizes to be collected and conquered”