Our society’s failure to recognize and care for the social and emotional well-being of our boys contributes to a nation of young men who navigate adversity and conflict with an incomplete emotional skill set. Whether boys and later men have chosen to resist or conform to this masculine norm, there is loneliness, anxiety, and pain.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the neglect of emotional well-being in boys, leading to struggles in adulthood.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom emphasizes the importance of recognizing and nurturing the emotional and social well-being of boys in society. She argues that a lack of attention to these crucial aspects contributes to a generation of men who face challenges like loneliness, anxiety, and pain, regardless of whether they conform to or resist traditional masculine norms. This situation ultimately leads to a harmful emotional skill set that hampers their ability to navigate life's adversities effectively.
In practice
During a discussion on mental health, this quote can be used to highlight the need for better emotional support for boys.
Toughening up, performing masculinity, pretending to enjoy things I didn't enjoy all enabled me to dodge the gender policing of the adults around me. But the way I really was - the swished hips, the Double-Dutching, the hair flips - seemed to always prevail and attract Dad's disdain.
The worst injury is feeling you don't belong so much / to you.
Do not believe that living together before marriage guarantees the future. By burning certain stages, you risk burning love itself. Time needs to be respected gradually, just like the expressions of love.
Merit and knowledge will not gain hearts, though they will secure them when gained.
All really nice girls wonder when men don't try to kiss them. They know they shouldn't want them to and they know they must act insulted if they do, but just the same, they wish the men would try.
When my father came out to his mom, my grandmother said, 'You waited for your father to die; why couldn't you have waited for me to die?' I knew then that I never want to contribute to the corrosiveness of wanting someone to stay hidden.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.