Stop telling little boys
they are invalid
because they display ‘feminine’ qualities. Like
softness is not a quality shown by men at all. Like sensitivity
is a thing to be regarded with disgust and unkindness.
Stop telling them that they become less when they express
emotion. Do not them that it doesn’t matter when boys show
emotion, that they deserve to be ignored when they do. Do not
dismiss their tears to toughen them up and turn their feelings
into a joke because that is how you create sociopaths.
Stop saying, ‘You punch like a girl’ or ‘Yeah,
that was all right…for a girl’. And stop telling
your sons their tears make them girls – as though being a
girl is the worst thing in the world. When the truth is being a
girl is no different from being a boy when they are both just
human beings.
Stop demeaning them by making the word ‘woman’ or
‘girl’ a method to control their behavior, a reason
to bottle their emotions and instead be volatile and display
violent behavior. Stop teaching them to bully each other until
they are macho and man up. And the ones of them who do not fit
into this ideal are effeminate as if that is a curse.
I wish society would stop telling little boys that showing
emotion is the same thing as being a girl. And being a girl is
the same thing as being weak.
Instead, never let your sons forget where their essence was just
formed, when their bodies were most vulnerable, they were
protected by the womb of a woman. If they ever call all women
weak, remind them of the strength of their mother who pulled her
whole body apart to give theirs a home.
Instead, teach them how to be kind regardless of their gender.
Teach them how women and men are strong in their own ways. Teach
them to respect the attributes they admire as one human to
another.
Instead, raise boys who accept people as they are and are strong
because of their belief in themselves. Raise boys who are strong
enough to display emotion and softness, and not hide their
feelings when they display their hopes and dreams. Raise boys who
can appreciate the softness of a moonlit night as much as they
appreciate the stormy anger of the sea.
After all, how are they supposed know how to respect women as
much as men, if they are taught from a young age that women are
lesser human beings.