The Boys' Club

Acclaimed Québec feminist writer Martine Delvaux turns her sharp eye and sharper pen on the brazen misogyny of men in power in every field, including Hollywood, politics, tech, law enforcement, architecture, religion, and the military. In this piercing study of patriarchy, Delvaux points out the deleterious effects of the tunnel vision that results from only seeing and reflecting the male experience. A study of the social impacts of visual media, The Boys' Club looks at the history of gentlemen's clubs and male fraternity on a global scale. Examining popular media produced about men by men, Delvaux seeks to challenge the positioning of women as 'object' and men as 'subject'. The Boys' Club exposes a culture of consumption which profits off the female experience while disregarding the female voice.

This activist text is also a work of cultural scholarship: The Boys' Club is deeply informed by Delvaux's long engagement with the work of feminist scholars, film critics, historians, writers, and journalists. Beyond the gender disparities portrayed in film and television, Delvaux speaks to a pattern of contempt, exclusion, and patriarchal violence. But it is not enough to keep pointing out inequities; by naming misogyny's circular, self-propagating systems, Delvaux undermines the mechanisms of social, cultural, economic, and political machines in order to break up the boys' club.