'We Need To Have A Conversation About How We Think About Masculinity': Author Liz Plank On Book 'For The Love Of Men'

(CBS Local)-- Liz Plank's new book "For The Love Of Men" is a book that will make you rethink gender roles in society.

The journalist went around New York City and the country to talk with men about masculinity and how being a man in the world has evolved. Plank discovered several fascinating things.

"I started talking to men and the stories I heard were very different from the stories I expected," said Plank in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "I started realizing that we were assuming that men were bad instead of assuming men were good. We were assuming masculinity was a problem instead of assuming that masculinity can be the solution. I started really following men's pain and I realized we're on different sides of a fight we can all be on the same side of."

During Plank's investigation, she sat all day in Washington Square Park with a friend and talked with men from all different walks of life about relationships, past pain, and societal pressure. The author hopes these conversations between men and women can also happen between men.

"I would love for men to talk about their masculinity and have a curiosity about it," said Plank. "That's the best thing you can do for me. We truly are all connected. We have to stop believing in the idea we're on separate teams. We value men for the work that they do primarily. I think we need to examine that and it comes out in a lot of negative behavior. I think we need to give value and listen to the discomfort of not being able to meet society's expectations. We need to have empathy for what that's like and a mainstream conversation about how we rethink masculinity."

Plank's book is available now wherever books are sold.