As a father of young children, I've often felt the unspoken fear of males that is generated in the mostly-female-led groups my kids are involved in. More than just the natural reticence to open an all-female group up to a male, the problem is that the assumption of guilt overrides common sense in interaction. I'm presumed to be a perv when dealing with strangers' children.
This piece in the WSJ (one of several) hits it on the head very well. Sadly, as a male I'm simply not permitted these days to say that I love children.
The result of all this hyper-carefulness, however, is that men often feel like untouchables. In Cochranville, Pa., Ray Simpson, a bus driver, says that he used to have 30 kids stop at his house on Halloween. But after his divorce, with people knowing he was a man living alone, he had zero visitors. "I felt like crying at the end of the evening," he says.
What kind of kids are we raising in this atmosphere? What kind of behavior are we teaching men to do that is acceptable in such a climate?
No comments:
Post a Comment