About the Author

Frederick Joseph is the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Friend and an award-winning marketing professional, activist, and educator. He was recently featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List. He lives in Long Island City, New York.

Reviews

"Patriarchy Blues is an incisive, provocative, and challenging call to action. Through his own turbulent and tender life story, Frederick T. Joseph shows us what patriarchy costs all of us and precisely what's at stake if we don't dismantle it. This book is pure fire, the forging kind, the healing kind." - Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
"Frederick's perspective is poignant and necessary and the questions he poses about intersecting identities are stunningly urgent. In a world filled with despair, this book gives me hope." - Liz Plank, author of For The Love of Men: From Toxic to Mindful Masculinity
"In Patriarchy's Blues: Reflections on Manhood, Frederick Joseph deftly peels away the layers of innocence we all attempt to cling to when confronted with our own complicity in harmful paradigms, providing a blueprint for how we might be able to reclaim ourselves by replacing the horrors of domination with projects of radical compassion, empathy, vulnerability, and self-inventory--which is to say, finally become human. Joseph has learned a great deal from bell hooks here, and I think she would be proud because Patriarchy Blues is such a moving, inspiring, rigorous vision for living." - Robert Jones, Jr., New York Times bestselling author of The Prophets.
"Fred Joseph puts it all on the line, exposing the disparate forms of patriarchy that are entrenched in our lives. With tremendous vulnerability and humility, Joseph peels back the layers of his life to demonstrate that disrupting patriarchy starts with interrogating the self. Again and again Joseph reveals that understanding oppression through an intersectional lens is critical to achieving intersectional justice. Tapping into the deepest part of our humanity depends on our willingness to sustain a steady gaze. Patriarchy Blues is a roadmap for dismantling the interlocking systems of white supremacy, heteronormativity, and toxic masculinity that work to degrade us." - Sonja Cherry-Paul, New York Times bestselling author of Stamped (For Kids)
"[A] scorching treatise on toxic masculinity. Joseph's critiques of "the patriarchy... both overt and ingrained" are razor-sharp, but it's the clear-eyed reckoning of his own place within it that tethers the soul of his book...This potent work makes a systemic issue immensely personal." - Publishers Weekly
"Joseph covers a great deal of ground, taking on rape culture, White privilege, victim blaming, the rights of sex workers, and the fact that "the Black American experience is not monolithic," always returning to the intersectionality that governs how people are defined and, too often, oppressed... A well-reasoned, wide-ranging plea for a new conception of personhood and justice." - Kirkus