A few weeks ago, in the early days of the latest Government “crisis” over the shutdown and debt ceiling, Piers Morgan interviewed two women, one of them actress Sharon Stone, about a documentary they were promoting focused on bringing equality to girls and women around the world. It was an insightful, positive interview about a very important global topic. At one point, Piers asked a question that lately has been asked a lot: Would the world be better off with... Read more
When our son was little, he and mom had a very close, happy relationship. Mike was a sweet boy who had no problem giving mom hugs and asking her lots of questions. He was her little boy. But then Mike moved into the early stages of puberty and the relationship changed…dramatically. With tears in her eyes, Jan asked me one day why her son hated her. What Jan didn’t know at the time was that Mike was at a crucial... Read more
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…” So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27) (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God…(Colossians 1:15) (Jesus) is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being…(Hebrews 1:3) Stereotype is the new four-letter word in our culture when it comes to gender. Understandably, we don’t want... Read more
As I mentioned in my last two posts, in our well-intentioned desire to rescue our boys (and girls) from boy stereotypes, we have unintentionally robbed boys of any vision for what it means to be a boy. And with no vision for boyhood, boys have no sense of what it means to be a man. Just because something is a stereotype doesn’t mean it’s not true or that it can’t be helpful. In fact, one of the ways we can... Read more
Faster than a speeding bullet… More powerful than a turbo jet engine… Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound… Look, up in the sky…it’s a bird…it’s a plane… It’s a boy! In my last post I suggested that our attempts to get rid of boy stereotypes has left our boys without any idea of what it means to be a boy. We’ve robbed them (and us) of any vision of boyhood and haven’t replaced it with anything of... Read more
Prince Jake was kind and caring. Princess Rose was brave and strong. –from A Fairy Tale, by Lego Books What makes a boy a boy? Seems no one really knows anymore. We’ve spent so much time as of late trying to free boys of “boy stereotypes” that we no longer really know what “boy” means. In fact, many in our culture have spent so much energy criticizing “stereotypical” boy behavior that boys who may fit that stereotype are made to... Read more
These are tough days to be a boy! Boys are falling behind girls in virtually every area of education from pre-school to college The average reading skills of a 17 year old boy have declined in the last 20 years 17-18 of the top 20 growing professions favor the verbal and relational skills of women over men Boys are growing up in a world without a compelling vision for noble manhood These are tough days to be the Church: Sexual... Read more
During a recent men’s retreat a couple of us men we’re talking about boys and specifically the issue of boys’ and girls’ “space.” The first comment came from a dad whose wife insists that whatever he buys for his 2 year old son he needs to buy for his 4 year old daughter. She doesn’t want them treated any differently. If he buys his son a toy gun, then he should buy one for his 4 year old daughter. If... Read more
When was the last time a little boy was living in and running around the White House (and I mean a real little boy…not a President acting like a boy)? President Obama? Raising two girls President Bush? His two girls grew up in the White House President Clinton? His daughter grew up in the White House President H. Bush? His sons were grown men President Carter? His daughter grew up in the White House President Ford? Nope President Nixon? Nope... Read more
For all of the great advances women, in particular, have experienced thanks to the Women’s Movement, one of the consequences, intended or unintended, is the confusion between “equal” and “sameness,” or the misunderstanding of differentness. Understandably, because girls and women were so far behind in the 60’s and 70’s, it was important to stress that girls and women were not only equal to boys and men, but that they could also do anything boys and men can do. Equal, however,... Read more
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