On Growing Up a Boy in America (original) (raw)
Related papers
Men and Masculinities, 2019
In August of 2018, the American Psychological Association (APA) published a new report entitled, "APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men." These Guidelines summarize the extensive scholarship documenting dilemmas associated with masculinity that harm boys' and men's lives. It discusses many elements of what is labeled "traditional" masculinity, which requires boys and men to suppress certain feelings and emotions (e.g., sadness, loneliness), limiting their psycho-social development and shaping their behaviors, relationships, and identities. In other words, subscribing to ideologies of conventional or "hegemonic" (i.e. currently and situationally valorized) masculinity (Connell 1995) comes with psychological and interpersonal costs. These constraints can lead to boys' and men's lack of empathy for girls and women, as well as for gay and "effeminate" boys, and for LGBTQ+ individuals. At the same time, they operate within a culture where "himpathy" leads people to identify with even poorly behaved white boys and men (Manne, 2018). The Guidelines explain, however, that even as men face "costs" of masculinity (see Messner 1997), the expectations of and privileges associated with masculinity mean boys and men are less likely to seek support or treatment for mental health struggles. Ignoring mental health needs indeed becomes an enactment of masculinity itself. As the authors of the report summarize, "compelling evidence exists supporting the need for guidelines for psychologists who provide services to boys and men" (2018; pg. 4). They outline ten separate guidelines for psychologists helping boys and men to seek happiness as well as to establish more intimate and egalitarian relationships. The Guidelines begin by urging clinical psychologists to understand masculinities as socially and culturally constructed (Guideline 1), and as constructions that look different over the life-course (Guideline 2). They encourage practitioners to recognize how power and privileges associated with masculinity are structured by broader systems of inequality, as well as how this inequality deeply harms boys and men and their relationships (Guidelines 3 and 4). They encourage "positive" (i.e. active) involvement from fathers (Guideline 5) and support the role of educational and healthcare institutions in expanding boys' understanding of their intellectual capacities and occupational potentials (Guideline 6). However, what constitutes "positive" and "healthy" are at times unclear, or in the case of fathering implicitly presumed to mean present rather than a reimagining of fatherhood beyond providing and playing. The Guidelines also acknowledge and suggest that psychologists work to reduce risk-taking behavior, address trauma that result in boys and men harming themselves and others (Guideline 7), and encourage
Masculinity Politics, Myths and Boys' Schooling: A Review Essay
British Journal of Educational Studies, 1997
This essay reviews two recently published American books about masculinity politics -Michael Kimmel's pro-feminist Manhood in America and his edited collection The Politics of Manhood -in order to comment critically on the current debate underway in various parts of the world on 'boys' and their schooling which sees them as the 'new victims' of the educational process.
The Australian Educational Researcher, 2014
Within literature relating to the broad field of boys' education attention is regularly drawn to the significant difference between essentialist and anti-essentialist accounts of "the boy problem" and the limitations of gender-based educational reforms which rely upon deterministic notions of what boys are 'really' like and, by extension, what they 'really' need. While these deterministic interventions have been widely critiqued in academic literature they nevertheless continue to dominate school and media based discussions about how to best support alienated, disengaged and at risk boys. This raises questions about the extent to which anti-essentialist approaches can be made more accessible and meaningful to teachers in schools. It further suggests the value of developing detailed accounts of real world interventions that have had a demonstrably positive impact upon the boys involved without reinforcing essentialist notions of masculinity. Adopting an attitude of "educated hope" (Giroux, 2003) and drawing upon the resources of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1987), this paper examines one such case of anti-essentialist reform involving three Australian schools. It explores one particular boy's experience of an intervention known as Boys with Books and argues that Ryan's journey can be conceptualised as a line of flight away from traditional forms of masculinity: a journey in progress that has impacted positively upon his relationships with peers and teachers and changed his beliefs about his possible future options. The paper, therefore, illustrates the capacity for teachers and schools to display anti-essentialist understandings about masculinity while responding in practical and 'do-able' ways to the needs of at risk, alienated and underperforming boys in schools.
Manly expectations : memories of masculinities in school
1996
BibliotMque nationale a*a ofCanada du Canada Acquisition., and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographic Services Branch des services bibliographiques 335 Wdlingtw, Street 395. we Wellington Ottawa, W i o Ottawa (Ontario) K I A ON4 KIA ON4 Your Ble Volre rt%rence Our file Notre r&&ence PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lsnd my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below)
Big boys don't cry : reflections on nurture in male culture and education
2003
This project takes on the form of a personal narrative of my life experiences as a boy, man, teacher, parent, and husband. My focus is on nurture in the male culture as it relates to a man's experience in our society. The process of intense self-reflection necessary in creating a narrative project of this type is, in itself, part of a personal defining or redefining of myself. I believe that going through such an exercise can be a very valuable teaching tool for anyone seeking to change or improve his or her life. From a teaching perspective I believe this is especially important as teaching is, or should be, a very personal experience that relies on much more than technical skill. In many respects, I believe that who we are is how we teach. This project examines male nurture from within four primary topic areas. These are: Male Suppression of Pain; Male Sensuality and Nurture; Fathers and Nurture; and Nurture and Male Teaching. Through the discussion of this issue through these...
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN MAKING WOMEN VISIBLE IN BOYS' LIVES
This chapter argues that the foundation for engaging boys in building gender equality starts with making women's lives and experiences visible to our sons. Removing the unknown and bringing women back from the margins establishes an immediate relational identity for boys as their masculinity is constructed. This assertion stems from a qualitative research study utilising in-depth interviews to explore the accounts of twenty self-identified feminist mothers' experiences of raising sons. Analysis of the data was grounded in the notion of feminist maternal practice as an agentic activity capable of re-positioning both mother and son in relation to gender difference discourse. The gender binary and the mother and son The mother and son relationship is embedded within dominant discourse about gender difference and is held accountable to normative gender practices. Gender difference discourse locates the body as the source of gendered identity, and activity, thus creating the appearance of gender as an innate attribute of the individual. Being named as male or female is the discursive pathway through which the gendered subject emerges. The mother and son relationship is held accountable to normative gender practices circulated by gender difference discourse. These practices reproduce and maintain ideas about masculinity and femininity as two distinct and innate entities that are finite in nature and universal in kind. The feminist imperative is to disrupt these existing arrangements because they reproduce male domination and female subordination. Gender difference discourse is grounded in the gender binary as a symbolic representational system. The mother and son relationship is configured through the gender binary and the son is defined by his relationship to his mother. As masculinity can be configured as the
Socialization of boys and men in the modern era an evolutionary mismatch
This paper examines the misalignment between modern human society and certain male phenotypes, a misalignment that has been highlighted and explored in great detail in the work of Tom Dishion. We begin by briefly enumerating the ongoing developmental difficulties of many boys and young men and how these difficulties affect them and those around them. We then suggest that the qualities that have been advantageous for men and their families in our earlier evolution but that are often no longer functional in modern society are a source of these problems. Finally, we provide a brief review of prevention programs that can contribute to preventing this type of problematic development and eliciting more prosocial behavior from at-risk boys and men. We conclude with an overview of research and policy priorities that could contribute to reducing the proportion of boys and young men who experience developmental difficulties in making their way in the world.
2021, "Towards an Affirmative Feminist Boys Studies", Boyhood Studies
Boyhood Studies, 2021
This critical commentary considers the significance of Connell's The Men and the Boys in the development of an affirmative feminist boys studies. In particular, the article asks: How can research on boys contribute to feminist research on childhood and youth, without either establishing a false equivalency with girls studies, or overstating the singularity of "the boy" across diverse cultural and historical contexts? Connell's four-tiered account of social relations-political, economic, emotional, and symbolic-provides an important corrective to reductionist approaches to both feminism and boyhood, and this article draws on The Men and the Boys to think through contrasting sites of identity formation around boys: online cultures of "incels" (involuntary celibates); transmasculinities and the biological diversity of the category "man"; and the social power excercised within an elite Australian boys school. The article concludes by identifying contemporary challenges emerging from the heuristic model offered in The Men and the Boys.