[4] According to Ford, an example of toxic masculinity that persists into male adulthood is men being shamed for expressing emotions, in behaviour that is seen as feminine.
[4] Ford makes recommendations of how to change the ways that boys and girls are raised, which she believes may avoid or reduce toxic masculinity.
[5][3] Personal reflections on the birth of Ford's son play a role in both the beginning and end of the book.
[1] The book's epilogue is a letter by Ford to her young son, describing "boyhood[] in which being sensitive, soft, kind, gentle, respectful, accountable, expressive, loving and nurturing are no longer framed as incompatible with being a man".
[5] Alex Casey describes the book as written with "withering wit", as an "incredibly thorough time capsule of the modern fight for gender equality", an as "some of the most essential and electric feminist reading of the year".