The author maintains that, as a social construction, men's use and threat of violence achieves many ends, including power in domestic and business relationships, sexual legitimacy, profit, and membership in male society. Most reasonable men, because of their vested interest in maintaining the status quo, have difficulty admitting that they, too, commit violence, or even that violence has an inherently male nature. This book identifies how men code their desire to commit violence, how they justify it on moral grounds, and how they ignore the realities and consequences of excessive male violence. Male violence is entrenched in society and infused into concepts of masculinity and sexuality; this book is one attempt to force some men to confront their complicity in violence.