GenderPAC Applauds Bush Focus on Boys and Young Men

GenderPAC Applauds Bush Focus on Boys and Young Men

WASHINGTON (February 3, 2005) President Bush proposed a new three-year initiative in last night’s State of the Union address focusing “on giving young people, especially young men in our cities, better options than apathy, or gangs, or jail.” The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) said today that attention on boys is urgent and long overdue, but warned that biased notions about what it means to be a “real man” could hinder the initiative’s work.

“The President is right to encourage a hard look at how we raise boys in this country. Harsh codes of masculinity and the aggression it breeds among young men hurt all of us. It’s time to help young men, find alternatives to underachievement, violence, and failed relationships that often flow from our culture’s unrealistic ideals of masculinity,” said GenderPAC Executive Director Riki Wilchins.

Recent studies have focused on the problems of young men. For instance, a UK study of codes of playground masculinity among young boys found enormous pressures to conform to standards of aggression, social isolation, and emotional distance that often predicted academic failure, economic underachievement, and divorce as adults.

In addition, a recent study by noted masculinities researcher Michael Kimmel found that over 90% of school shootings involved young boys who were relentlessly tormented and bullied because they were considered unmanly or not aggressive enough.

Anyone who has been to high school recognizes stories like these:

o Russian-American athlete Aaron Vays (12) was taunted and repeatedly attacked by bullies who warned him that only girls and sissies figure skate;

o Mike Shaposhnikov’s 12-year-old son, a champion ballroom dancer, suffered incidents of shoving, a death threat, and repeated name-calling in a Pacifica, CA middle school.

GenderPAC’s GenderYOUTH Network works with student leaders on 30 campuses to teach and mentor young boys on being themselves and excelling academically and socially, even if that doesn’t meet standards for masculinity or aggressive behavior. The Network’s 2004 national campaign, “Drop the Labels – Back to School!” reached thousands of young boys and girls in 20 states.

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) is the national advocacy organization working to end discrimination and violence caused by gender stereotypes. To join today, visit us at http://www.gpac.org/join.

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