What boys are taught to be made of

Boys at an early age are forced into the model to be masculine to play with trucks, army men, guns etcetera. This is the belief of how to raise little boys to be men one day. Boys are taught to not cry when they get hurt, to not show emotion because they need to suck it up and be a man. The "boys will be boys" model is something I find extremely flawed, it by no means is a way of justifying their actions. This is where I begin to see where male privilege is first established in the minds of the boys, allowing them to get away with something because they are just being a boy. I believe that to be a bit ridiculous and only further explains why boys grow up thinking what they are doing is okay, when in reality it is not. Violence in males is a problem and most parents do not stop because in their minds they are “being boys”, when it should not be happening at all. The amount of violence that happens amongst boys is astonishing. As Kimmel says in his article "There's no question that there's a boy crisis...boys are four to five times more likely to kill themselves than girls." Kimmel goes on to list more statistics on the violence of males. And we wonder why this is, I believe most of the violence that males experience today is a direct result of what we, for lack of a better word, have taught them. When I say we, I mean the people that are directly involved in the lives of young males, whether it be media, family, friends, world and so on. The violent tenancies of males is a result of how we have conditioned them to be, they are taught to not share their emotions and taught that violent behavior is okay. So in return when they get upset, pissed off, angry and so on, that it is okay to react violently because they are a man and that is what men do. The crisis we are dealing with is a result of how we do not put in the time to raise boys to be men. The approach that Kimmel believes to be the way to raise boys to be men is "to erode boys' sense of entitlement...confronting racism, sexism, and homophobia -both in our communities and in ourselves." We must not allow the notion that boys being boys is an okay thing, they are not meant to be savage, violent creatures. But as Kimmel put it perfectly, "Men (and boys) can do better," and we must be focused on establishing a new example of a man that is "based on a passion for justice, a love of equality, and the expression of a full range of feelings." There is so much potential in men to be better husbands, boyfriends, brothers, friends and people if there was a model that was not so flawed and culturally accepted.