QOTD: On Boyhood

 

“I have heard all my life long that boys should be encouraged to show their feelings, but they were mostly liars who said so. They never wanted me to show my real feelings. They are happy when boys weep, and when there is cause to weep, no man should look with scorn upon the boy who does so. They are content when boys say they are frightened. But if any boy should show the high-spirited feelings of disdain for what is mean and cowardly, or feelings of boyish anger against those who do wrong, or boyish contempt for mere softness and self-comforting, let alone boyish admiration for the hero, then all at once their care for feelings is nowhere to be found. Boys used to be taught to restrain the unruly and unhelpful passions and reject those that are unjust and foolish, and to nourish and direct those that are high-minded and generous and manly. Now it appears they are taught to repress the manly and nourish mere weakness. Voluble lies have replaced honest silence.”

– Anthony Esolen, Defending Boyhood

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  1. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    It’s almost as if a bunch of women who don’t like men decided to make sure that boys don’t grow to become men.  As a side bonus, it makes it easier for the women to compete with the effete men.  Is there a name for such women?

    • #1
  2. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    It’s almost as if a bunch of women who don’t like men decided to make sure that boys don’t grow to become men. As a side bonus, it makes it easier for the women to compete with the effete men. Is there a name for such women?

    Soul-less bitches?

    • #2
  3. WI Con Member
    WI Con
    @WICon

    Great quote, and incisive as well. We’ve got four kids, two boys and two girls. I’m surprised at how much the girls have been elevated above boys in all facets of life (culturally). 

    • #3
  4. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    Esolen is an interesting writer and thinker.  See his comparison of two issues of the ‘same’ children’s encyclopedia…The Book of Knowledge..published a few decades apart:

    https://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2006/06/the_book_of_kno.html

     

     

    • #4
  5. Michael Powell Inactive
    Michael Powell
    @Michael Powell

    Excellent post.

    • #5
  6. Charlotte Member
    Charlotte
    @Charlotte

    WOW.

    Now that’s a quote of the day.

    I’ll be thinking about that one for a long time.

    • #6
  7. GFHandle Member
    GFHandle
    @GFHandle

    When I was a lad, I attended a Caddy Camp, where boys mostly from Boston’s North End could earn a summer vacation (and more) in New Hampshire’s White Mountains by caddying at a posh hotel.  Every morning we had an assemply, and every morning we recited what at the time I did not know was one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Samoan prayers (morning). Seems like many worlds ago.

    The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties.
    Help us to play the man,
    Help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces,
    Let cheerfulness abound with industry.
    Give us to go blithely on our business all this day,
    Bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishonoured,
    And grant us in the end the gift of sleep.”

    • #7
  8. Ansonia Member
    Ansonia
    @Ansonia

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    It’s almost as if a bunch of women who don’t like men decided to make sure that boys don’t grow to become men. As a side bonus, it makes it easier for the women to compete with the effete men. Is there a name for such women?

    Yes: “Fools”, because women loose competing with effete men. Ironically, effete men are more often secretly cruel and treacherous men.

    • #8
  9. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Ansonia (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    It’s almost as if a bunch of women who don’t like men decided to make sure that boys don’t grow to become men. As a side bonus, it makes it easier for the women to compete with the effete men. Is there a name for such women?

    Yes. Fools. Because women loose competing with effete men. Ironically, effete men are more often secretly cruel and treacherous men.

    You mean, they behave more like women?  Why would that surprise anyone?  :-)

    • #9
  10. Ansonia Member
    Ansonia
    @Ansonia

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Ansonia (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    It’s almost as if a bunch of women who don’t like men decided to make sure that boys don’t grow to become men. As a side bonus, it makes it easier for the women to compete with the effete men. Is there a name for such women?

    Yes. Fools. Because women loose competing with effete men. Ironically, effete men are more often secretly cruel and treacherous men.

    You mean, they behave more like women? Why would that surprise anyone? :-)

    They don’t just behave like the worst in women. They’re better at it, because they’re naturally more competitive about getting better at it.

    • #10
  11. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Ansonia (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Ansonia (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    It’s almost as if a bunch of women who don’t like men decided to make sure that boys don’t grow to become men. As a side bonus, it makes it easier for the women to compete with the effete men. Is there a name for such women?

    Yes. Fools. Because women loose competing with effete men. Ironically, effete men are more often secretly cruel and treacherous men.

    You mean, they behave more like women? Why would that surprise anyone? :-)

    They don’t just behave like the worst in women. They’re better at it, because they’re naturally more competitive about getting better at it.

    That was part of what I meant.  Like the “trans women” beating women in sports.

    • #11
  12. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    WI Con (View Comment):

    Great quote, and incisive as well. We’ve got four kids, two boys and two girls. I’m surprised at how much the girls have been elevated above boys in all facets of life (culturally).

    Please do explicate. Specific examples would help. 

    • #12
  13. Roderic Coolidge
    Roderic
    @rhfabian

    Keith Lowery: Now it appears they are taught to repress the manly and nourish mere weakness.

    That goes for military veterans, too, who are encouraged to cop mental disabilities like PTSD in exchange for some money.   They ought to be taking on leadership positions in our society, but they are relegated to mental health clinics instead, which is how or ruling class, none of whom knows anyone who served in the military and who are frankly afraid of military veterans, likes it.

    • #13
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