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.