Commentary

What boys really want

BY WANDEKA GAYLE, Staff Reporter

I OWN A 'T' shirt that reads, 'I Know What Boys Want' and the impulsive responses shock me everytime I parade around the place with this open declaration.

The responses range from lewd to strange, but the ones that rocked me were 'Attention,' 'Education' and 'A good whooping.' All three answers ring true and are the very things that the majority of our boys do not get enough of.

Masculine marginalisation is an ancient issue that has been discussed ad nauseum as have teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, obesity and safe sex, yet it does not make it any less relevant.

The major reason so many men are in the sorry state is that their mothers did not really know what their boys wanted.

The drill

We know the drill. Women in this matriarchal society of ours taught their girls to stay indoors, do housework, and learn to be doting wives. Boys were allowed to stay out, gallivant and learn how to be as worthless as their part-time fathers.

Then, with modernisation and the advent of women's liberation, women taught their girls to be twice as good at school to be considered even half as good as their masculine counterparts, who ironically, did not always try half as hard to make the grade. Thus, women fill universities and men fill prisons or line the street corners waiting for hand-outs or for the next innocent person to pounce on and plunder.

Yes, it may seem a rather unbalanced, gloomy picture but it is our reality.

Hurricane Ivan may have highlighted the country's vulnerability but it also exposed this mentality.

Several frustrated men who may have lost property in the hurricane would rant and rave about the country's lack of resources and weakening economy without lifting a finger to fix their own problems. Others resorted to criminal activity.

Boys will be boys

Sayings like, 'Boys will be boys' only serve to cripple our nation by excusing incorrect behaviour and allowing it to cement into a dangerous mindset. Parents and teachers alike have been known to embrace this saying to their own detriment.

We need to 'nip it in the bud' and tell them when they are wrong.

On the flip side, there are men who do strive for excellence and stand head and shoulders above their faltering brothers but the problem is they are the faithful few who were taught to want the things that can build a nation.

However, this is wasted on many boys who are taught to exalt the "bad boy/gangsta" image and thus the scholastic brothers are seen as soft, weak and unimportant.

Thus, our boys need the special attention in their every facet of development - whether social, spiritual or academic. They are after all the key to stemming the cycle of masculine worthlessness.