SupermanFan.Net

I came across this book title, and it set me thinking.

http://www.amazon.com/Packaging-Boyhood-Su…s/dp/0312379390

My own first instinct would be to keep sons of mine away from schoolteachers and television.

There is a plethora of “raising boys” experts and books at the moment. Where I live, undoubtedly the most feminised country in the world other than Paradise Island, it’s almost a case of too little, too late. The lampooning of stupid, worthless males (particularly white fathers), for example, continues here unabated in the advertising media.

It wasn’t as bad as this in my childhood era, but, then, like many children of Baby Boomers, I grew up with a father who had absolutely no interest in my life or aspirations beyond providing food for the table. When I think back, the almost complete disconnection between father and son is mind-boggling. I mention it because I know my experience is far from unique in that generation.

So, who do kids like that turn to?

“Saving our sons”? Maybe super-heroes and the like are not a threat to a boy’s development per se. But all that stuff can be a bad influence in the absence of a real, switched-on, connected father at home. Living with that kind of father, super-heroes and Homer Simpson are just plain fun. But with a disconnected father, or no father at all, they become something more insidious, like role models.

- Aldous

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 28th, 2009 at 9:12 PM and is filed under Aldous, commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.