My heart yearned, cried out, and opened up again when I read this article by Tom Chiarella in the current issue of Esquire: The Problem With Boys. I picked up the magazine in the airport last Sunday, in my mind thinking, “I’m going to pull an Anthony Bradley” and read a men’s magazine as an anthropologist. To be straight, the entire issue was good. I used to subscribe to Esquire way back when (I used to be a FAITHFUL subscriber to Harper’s, which may surprise those of you with limited political categories who insist I’m a neo-con)… (in fact, some of the best essays I’ve ever read I read in Harper’s, including Mario Vargas Llosa’s Questions of Conquest: What Columbus Wrought, and What He Did Not, which won a National Magazine Award in 1990). Anyway, uh, what was I saying….
Right, boys. The whole article is good, but there’s a particular point the writer makes that’s important. Chiarella says that when he brings up the problem with boys, he oftens gets a reflexive response to the tune of “girls have needs and we’re not done helping girls,” as if helping boys must be at the expense of helping girls. He means nothing of the sort. He wants to continue advancing the lot of girls in this country, and he thinks we can do so without sacrificing the boys. His term for what has happened to boys is, “The Great Forgetting.” The way he frames the discussion is helpful, because it’s not an either/or.
Jennifer said,
July 7, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Thanks for pointint this article out. I’m a very interested observer as a mother of a son.
Anthony Bradley said,
July 8, 2006 at 9:38 am
Haha, Rudy. Good call. The “secular” magazines have been talking about the crisis we face with boys for at least a year. I find the same crisis in the church as well but the Christian magazines remain silent on the issue. If you really want to weap read the Newsweek magazine story on the same issue back January. I literally almost quit my job to go back to teaching high school after reading the article (I’m serious). You’ll likely cry when you read the stats for black and latino males–it’s much worse. I’m not sure what we’re going to do about the current crisis but it’s worthy of starting a 501(3)C just to work on this issue.