A Response to "The Boys Are Not All Right"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/boys-violence-shootings-guns.html?module=inline
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/03/opinion/sunday/boys-men-masculinity.html

The top link is to the article and the bottom link is to the responses to "The Boys Are Not All Right" to the editor.

I read this opinion piece on the New York Times Website called "The Boys Are Not All Right". The article was written by comedian/actor/author Michael Ian Black. In this article, he writes about why he believes mass shooters are all boys/men. He explores how we, as a society, contribute to boys being emotionally stagnant and how, in turn, this may contribute to so many mass shootings. He believes that we are putting far too much emphasis on masculinity and not on the complexities of boys and men themselves, whereas we have explored girls in this way for a long time. We tell girls they can do anything and they are outperforming boys in school as a direct result of that. I agree completely with Black. We nurture girls and teach them to be emotionally open, empathetic, and vulnerable. We do not hold boys to the same standard. How often do we tell boys not to cry when they are upset? How often do we tell them to be brave and strong and to have no fears? And then we wonder why they don't talk about their emotions or why they are sometimes full of rage. The majority of boys will not grow up to become mass shooters and some boys are raised knowing it's okay to be vulnerable.

There were a lot of compelling responses to the editor about this piece. Many of which suggested we have more men portrayed in movies and TV shows as dynamic and emotional human beings as opposed an embodiment of the masculine ideal as they often are now. A woman brought up how the overly masculine male characters are not portrayed with any kind of flaw like a Shakespearean character might be. As a theatre major, this spoke to me. Male characters in plays can absolutely be written as the stereotypical masculine figure and when they are written that way they are usually much deeper than what is on the surface. I don't find this to be true in most movies with the usual masculine character.

Reading these, I wonder if we will ever redefine what masculinity is into something that is less destructive.