Following her hugely successful book of the early 1990s, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, in which she argued that male culture prevented the advancement of American women, Susan Faludi has a new book, Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man, in which she argues that even men are its victims. According to Faludi, a pervasive "masculinity crisis" makes it difficult for men to achieve the sense of victory and control they are made to crave, leading instead to despair and pathology.

To back up her claim, Faludi interviewed literally dozens of men: wife batterers, porn video actors, depressed football fans, men thrown out of work because of corporate downsizing, a group of teenage sex predators known as Spur Posse, Vietnam veterans who witnessed the Mai Lai atrocity, and Sylvester Stallone, who was disappointed by the cold reception given his recent films. Other men who appear to be enjoying themselves are deluded, the "nightmare" being "all the more horrible for being virtually unacknowledged as a problem."

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