Generation Confused, etc.

      In Heather Boerner's article 'Generation Confused' , she discusses the topic of what 'sexual health' really means today and what is the true value of all the technological and pharmacuetical advances we have made in sexual protection.  Sex-positiveness regarding parent to teen relationships generally covers parents dispelling knowledge about physical protection from pregnancy to STD's to their teens.  In 'sexual health', the author is referring what most people consider as physically being safe from the reprecussions of sexual activity.   However, she is trying to push the point that teens have been getting a plethora of mixed messages about attitudes and comfort in their dispositions towards sex.  Teens are bombarded with an association of pharmacueticals with healthy sex, but healthy sex needs to be seen as an emotional entity.  It seems parents rather close their eyes to the complexities and desires of teen sexuality, and while telling them to wait to have sex they still urge them to use protection.  Its as if they are being denied any information on being in an intimate sexual relationship if they do not wait to have sex.  It's as if it's easier for parents to only talk about the medical side of sex in a way of showing their responsibility towards their teens actions, when really what is important is how they understand sex in an emotional, passionate, yet serious way.

 The kind of things that would be healthy for teens to explore is valuing the other person in the relationship, and to understand it is a mutual exchange.   In the position of boys, the author brings up the idea of boys being equally responsible in sex, in providing protection, or even Plan B for instance.   I think that with  the advent of things like Plan B and newer types of birth control, it doesn't mean that responsibility towards your partner should be any less. 

      'Wet Dreams' from boysunderattack.com was an article meant to be read by young boys as a way of explaining the phenonmenon of wet dreams to young boys.  It goes through the reason for wet dreams, and often how they are concocted in the mind.  Alot of this article contained accounts from boys themselves and what they dreamt about, which often included dreams about family members, men, or boys their age.  The article explained how it is common for this to happen, and that is does not exactly equate the boy to being gay.  In a strange way, the article almost leaned too far, as to say that  boys should really not worry about being gay, as if it's a very unnatural and worrisome thing.  The whole point of the article seemed to be about making sure that boys masculinity would still stay intact even if they had dreams about other men and to not act on dreams or decide that you are gay.  In the end of the article, the congratulate you if you have had your first dream, equating it to the passage into manhood.  Overall, I think this article was confusing and to biased and laid out too many confusing ideas about something natural that happens to boys.

Hopfefully boys don't have to always go on the internet to learn about things like this, and could ideally be taught from parents who would be comfortable enough in talking to them about it.  To me, sexual health for boys needs to be more cultivated from open, non-embarrassed parents instead of the media.

What Boys Read + Thorns among Roses

'What Boys Read' explores the stereotypes within boys socialization around literacy and reading.  The stereotype is simple, being that in boys encouragment and habits towards the physical world, reading does not intertwine and when it does it is based on violence, action, or crude humor.  The author is exploring whether or not these stereotypes are created and wanted by boys themselves, or if these desires for action and battles in books are just furthered and assumed by authors.  While violence is often contained in good literature, the flipside of it is the story of the inner battle which explores the vulnerablilites and insecurites as experienced by boy characters.    Showing a real way of coping with violence, the author claims, is something important to be gained through literature- in a sense the battle has to gain more for the character other than superiority.  Magazines can be even worse in pushing stereotypes and desires in boys- for example in Nickelodeons magazine for 'kids' it is often targeted at a boy audience, and is often pushing the idea that boys are silly and stupid and contains an inherent rebellion against education.  

    'Thorns among Roses' focuses on the misunderstanding and behavior of boys learning development in and around the first grade. First grade, the author explains, is a vital time that sets the pattern for boys confidence and behavior in school, which is largely due to boys development in reading  in contrast to girls.  If boys are not up to speed with the lessons in class and are struggling, school can suddenly become a place that is associated with bad self confidence, and can also come out as 'deviant' behavior if they are showing resistance to something they don't understand.  Sucess or confidence, can make or break the rest of a child's experience within the school structure.   What the author also brings up is boys should not merely be dismissed as boys, in the sense that their strange or deviant behavior should not always be overlooked- they may be acting out in a way of avoiding an emotional, perhaps embarrassing,  situation.  In a big way boys tend to feel undervalued in the world of education.  

    Thinking back on my experience as a child, I never felt like a loser or incompetent.  I read at an early age and was highly encouraged by my parents to do so- I found great joy and reward in doing good school work.  What I did think about in the reading which now seems to ring true of my past experience is how kids that they claim to have natural talent, or are 'bloomers' are encouraged further with GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) programs, asking to read out loud in class, etc.  In a way I think the very notion of a program like GATE is more of a psychology for kids and works as a very high confidence- I couldn't imagine what it would have felt like for the other half of the class who stayed behind in the classroom when the GATE class went to go do their activities.  No matter what, kids need a lot of reinforcement within the school system.  

Boys and Race

Why Chicken Means to Much to Me. Sherman Alexie.
In this short story by Sherman Alexie poetically encapsulates the frustrations and expectations created within poverty, race, and constructed views of fatherhood. Chicken, as Alexie describes, was the savior of the very thing that is possibly the worst thing about being poor. However, there were things that caused more helplessness and anger than anything, which was when poverty finally caused his father to appear weak. In the case of his dog getting heat exhaustion and become fatally sick, the family has no money to take him to the vet; Alexie's father decides he has no choice but to mercy kill the dog. Alexies reaction to his fathers decision, let alone tears, creates an anger beyond something he can describe- mostly geared towards his father's weakness. This story really points out a key moment for boys, especially ones that come from a lineage of poverty and racial discrimination. Alexie wants to badly for his parents to be strong, to not be brought down by the stigma and reality of what has happened to their people, for his father to have strength, yet it causes an anger in him that he seems to only be able to run away from.
Making a Name for Yourself: Transgressive Acts and Gender Performance: Ann Ferguson.
In Ann Ferguson's essay, she is both looking at transgressive behavior from boys, specifically in schools, and also specifically African-American males. The essay is very specific in its attention on african-american boys because she claims they are generally witnessed as rule-breakers and performers- which perhaps makes a more direct observation for Ferguson.
She discusses three major strategies that boys use to emphasize and construct their masculinity as youth, which include heterosexual power, disruptive performance, and fighting. One of the underlying themes I sensed in all these 'tactics' that Ferguson proposed was a strong sense for boys to get attention and respect from their fellow peers, and also to dis-identify themselves from the realm of femininity comp. What was most interesting to me however was how Ferguson claimed how oral performance was a way in which blacks can express masculinity and make a name for oneself, which is strange because in one sense I think it's one of the most valubale things, but I wish she would explain more how she came to this conclusion, or railed it up against the 'performance' of other races.
The Puerto Rican Dummy and the Merciful Son.
Martin Espada.
Espada is a Puerto-Rican living in Massachutes. As a poet and intellect raising his four year-old son, Espada fears for his son in his knowledge and experience in a world where racism has brought him hurtling through the hoops of anger, violence, and stifled emotions. It's a world where Espada knows that will in some way or another cause his son to experience what it means to be a Latino male. What is important about this piece of writing however is that Espada's view is not to encourage the outward anger and violence that might be felt by such events, but to encourage his anger to be channeled in the most constructive of ways. He also understands the natural inclination for boys to experiement "with power and control" reguardless of how he may be raised in a way that does not condone violence. What he sees is Latino males being stereotyped as violent, and as stereotypes cause anger and then perpetuate the cyle.

In conclusion, the effect and stigma of certain races certainly creates a specific way of acting for men and boys that can be worlds apart from other races. It is important to historically understand how races construct their genders and to understand why certain things keep perpetuating themselves because they are stereotypes.

Why Chicken means So Much to Me,  the short story written by Sherman Alexie, seemed to really encapsulate a the vital emotional characteristic of boys within families. In the story, Sherman expresses his

American Manhood

E. Anthony Rotundo's articles on boy culture, male youth culture, and male intimacy are a historical summarization on the realms in which boys operate, from boyhood to manhood. The first article, on boy culture, is a strange read and to get used to, for Rotundo uses the word 'boys' as if they were a certain race of people, giving them a very specific history. This history is specific to 'Northern' boys, which assumedly contains North America.
Boy culture is descibed as a sub-culture, a culture in which boys must create for themselves, with themselves. Starting in the home, seperation unto their own world is begun when the kinship around mothers and daughters become hand-in-hand, and encouraged, and as fathers are presumably not at hand, the boys have access to the 'outside'. Boys have been defined by their physicality and independence, which in turn becomes the thing will bind boys together; a characteristic of boys is their involvement in clubs, teams, or gangs. The author uncovers how the driving forces that bring boys together; competition, loyalty, self-reliance, are also the things that can tear them apart from each other. The loyalty to their clubs and friends is also what sets in motion for boys to rebel against authority and even parents. In the voyage from boyhood to manhood, certain ways of boys are forever imprinted: their way of bonding with other men remains on a competitive yet loyal level, however now the intellectual side is favored over the physical. However, the author points out how close to intimacy this physical relationship was with young boys, and once a boy has transitioned into a mans world it is often that women will be the only intimate relationship, as it with women that is never lost. However, the notion of homosexuality in the 1800's was nonexsistent, so if there was intimacy between men there was not the same kind of anxiety present today. However, Rotundo states that one of big factors that lay between men and his relationships was his strong commitment to a career, which can further estrange a person, in contrast to a woman's constant familial ties.
These articles were very insightful and described things I feel like I see and know, but were written like they were really true, that being my only qualm with the article. It generated a very general experience for boys and I wish it would contrast itself to other cultures other than 'Northern'. One of the main points I liked was how boy groups are physically violent with another, not only due to their energy, but in a effort to be close to another man. This is something I feel like I've always seen- when I have been perplexed my friends lack of talking emotionally with each other, there is always a sort of verbal challenge or physical challenge. It also has always created a sort of jealousy in me, that boys seem to 'automatically' make friends since through their work or play in the physical world, yet for a girl to find groups that are emotionally satisifying is much harder because we may not operate in as many physical realms. Also, however it may be the opposite of comradery, the notion of teasing or challenging within boy groups is actually something I find appealing in one sense. On one side there is empathy, and another is to challenge one another, and I feel as though men and women have either one of these often with groups of friends. For me, to challenge your friends is to also show you care for them, and also displays a sort of comfort.