Empowering Men and Boys

[perspective]

I was looking at the subject heading for "empowered women do not circumcise". And it got me thinking, in our society we always talk about empowering women, we even try to do the same for girls, have a special day of the year called "take your daughter to work day" to make them feel more confident about working. We have books, workshops, heck whole movements dedicated to getting woman to feel valued, and strong down to their very soul.

This is great. Its amazing this kind of stuff exists, and there should only be more of it. But I think we need to start doing the same for boys, and men, because these are lessons boys are just not being taught.

If we empowered men, taught them to value their full body, in what ever state it is in, we would find a lot less circumcisions. If men were taught to value themselves in the same way, no doctor could convince a parent to circumcise. "O, yeah, lets just remove this part of your sons body, its just a extra piece."

The fact that we have a law that protects girls from this kind of stuff, yet the value of the male body is discussed and argued on a daily basis in the USA, from living rooms to doctors offices. Imagine ever time a baby girl was born, a parent was placed in the situation where they had to judge the value of their daughters genitals, and if any part should be cut off? Horrible.

If boys and men were taught to treat themselves with the same level of value and respect, it would go a long way to dropping circumcision rates.

[PuppyFluffer]

I agree with you.

I have always thought that the social pressures were just as great on boys/men as they are on girls/women yet very little is made of this. There is great effort put towards a girl's self esteem and such but little support and encouragement for boys in this regard.

Boys are taught to be strong and tough from babyhood and their inner selves are not nurtured as girls are. Their physical bodies are certainly not nurtured either in my opinion.

I view it as a great honor and responsibility to raise our boy with better standards. I see him as a true gift and I am blessed to love and support him as he grows into a man. I also view the gift and responsibility of our two daughters the same way.

[PuppyFluffer]

http://theothersideoftheglassthefilm.blogspot.com/

I've not read the whole thing but I think this speaks to what you are talking about.

[LavenderMae]

I also agree. I'm trying to raise all my children to value themselves and their bodies. My daughter and I were just talking about how we protect girls from circumcision in this country (but how it isn't the case everywhere) and not boys and why that is. She things it's absurd (as do I) that boys' bodies are not respected in that aspect. We also talked about how it's thought to be hilarious when a boy/man is hit in the testicles and how it's really disrespectful and not funny.
I think our society has far to go when it comes to respecting our bodies in general (regardless of sex). I think about it a lot as I'm raising a daughter and two sons.

[Anastasiya]

Originally Posted by LavenderMae

We also talked about how it's thought to be hilarious when a boy/man is hit in the testicles and how it's really disrespectful and not funny.

I couldn't agree more.

And to add to the lack of respect for the boy, when a boy is being a boy - roughhousing, wiggling in his seat, jumping and hopping from place to place rather than walking, his teachers (and doctors) push medication because he's labeled as "hyperactive" or something else.

Our poor boys. We do SO much for our girls but our boys are just left in the dust.

I highly value our Church's teaching on the dignity of the human person and the respect for bodily integrity. You can believe my kids will be growing up knowing that their bodies are nothing to be ashamed of, that every person has inherent worth and dignity, and that circumcision is an assault on bodily integrity.

[CC_muffin]

You may like the book Raising Cain. It was sort of the answer to Reviving Ophelia, and it speaks to the way we box boys in with such a narrow view of what it means to be a man. It was very refreshing for me to read something about the male experience because I agree with the pp about so much focus being on girls and how boys are just kind of forgotten in mainstream media.

[CrowTRobot]

I couldn't agree more with this thread. Boys and men are treated as being inherently bad by an ignorant culture. A boy can't be a boy and a man can't be a man. They have to be "trained" or "fixed" in order to fit in with what society deems acceptable. So much is rightfully done to protect and nurture girls, but boys are treated as a nuisance. I was thinking yesterday about how bizarre and twisted it is that testicular or prostate cancer or a man being hit in the testicles is considered hilarious.

[Fi.]

Originally Posted by CC_muffin

You may like the book Raising Cain. It was sort of the answer to Reviving Ophelia, and it speaks to the way we box boys in with such a narrow view of what it means to be a man. It was very refreshing for me to read something about the male experience because I agree with the pp about so much focus being on girls and how boys are just kind of forgotten in mainstream media.

I'm tempted to read this now, how good is it?

[CC_muffin]

I think it is absolutely worth reading. It has a lot of anecdotal evidence the points to the problems with how we as a society "program" our boys. Another book I read was called The War Against Boys:How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men. Christina Hoff Sommers is a very radical lady, I'm still not quite sure how to feel about her book. I think she means well, but tends to take things to a very extreme place that can border on offensive-but, still an interesting read as long as you keep a critical eye open so to speak. I found Raising Cain to be much more reasonable, and I love that it was written by two male psychologists who work with adolescent males.

So, really long story short, I would say read it

[MoonJelly]

ITA with all of this. I see it all the time in my daughter's daycare. Girls are heavily favored. Boys are treated like they are a nuissance. And it's very difficult to get many people to see this and to really get what is happening and why it is harmful. School as it is in our current society is quite harmful to our boys.

I wonder if it would help if the male-female teacher ratio were more balanced than it typically is.