In our attempt to liberate women against the justifiable anger towards men – we often undermine men and their real problems and sadly, the ones most affected among them are the young boys. Though we’re aware; however, in the wave of feminism, the boys are in the lurch – struggling of being worthy and finding a sense of purpose in the ever-demanding fraternity of ‘successful men’, ‘responsible fathers’ and ‘leaders’.
Though blaming it to feminism isn’t fair, because historically we’ve been dependent upon boys dying in order for us to live. We lure them with social bribes, calling them ‘heroes’ – glorifying their death on our behalf. How sad does it sound that “our very survival depends on our boy’s willingness to die”. Being ‘sensitive’ towards men competes with our survival instinct and once we unveil this curtain; we understand the severity of the crisis among boys compared to their counterparts in every aspect of life and in almost all nations.
Now, if we consider the common trait and the leading cause of boy crisis among the nations, Dad-deprivation tops the chart. The study shows that, when we have less father involvement, the child ends up being non-empathetic, non-assertive, likely to under-perform in school and more likely to be suicidal, homicidal and end up in jail.
“Boys who’s hurt, hurt us”
The other contributing factor to boy crisis is the Feminization of Education. When a boy goes from a dad-deprived home to a male-teacher deprived school, it adds to his crisis. It’s seen that boys do better with male teachers and likely to score more on an average when the teacher doesn’t know that the person who took the test is a boy.
This introduces us to the third cause of Boy Crisis – Lack of Purpose.
Before the industrial boom, a man’s sense of purpose was either to be a warrior or a sole breadwinner. However, as men-women relationship changed and feminist movement came in, which of course did wonderful things for women, by expanding their sense of purpose – from the old ‘raise children only’ purpose to raise children, raise money and the combination of both purposes – a man’s sense of purpose remained immutable to earn money or be a loser. Whilst, the feminist movement introduced women to professions dominated by men, men taking caring profession (e.g. full-time dad, social worker, nurse etc.) isn’t much talked about.
This crisis of purpose makes boys feel estranged, withdrawn and hooked on to immediate gratification which later translates into mental health issues and addiction.
It’s crucial for every father to put high value on his son’s physical and mental health. We must cherish our males, with the focus on the young boys.
And as Khalil Gibran says:
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.