First of all let me toss out
this disclaimer. This piece is not meant to impugn
the efforts of single mothers. In fact, if anything
it's a rebuke of dead beat dads. Neither I or the
young man that advanced this theory and breathed life
into this branch of thought are products of single
parent homes, but we both have first cousins and
close friends who are Clarence, the young man that
prompted this piece often joins me and my friend
Geoff for lunch, and we watch The People's Court and
an occasional documentary, while we think deep
thoughts. A few weeks ago, we saw a biographical
documentary about former football star, turned
activist, Jim Brown. Towards the end of the show,
some gang members that were under Jim's mentoring
were interviewed, and they were talking about how
they were learning to get control of their emotions. I, as a confirmed knuckle
dragging, male chauvinist was incensed by this
statement. In my mind, having control of one's
emotions is the very definition of a MAN, and I was
not prepared to offer any sympathy to any man who was
unable to do so. Geoff, too was incensend and
commented on the fact that many gang members, and
other types of criminals are proned to emotional
outburst, that were perhaps the hallmark of the
criminal mind, since the violent nature of men and
their strength makes them dangerous when negatively
aroused emotionally. Clarence stated simply that:
many of these same guys were raised by single
mothers. He went on to say that women are by nature,
emotional, and while it compliments us as men, it may
not be good for us to grow up as men, believing that
such emotional responses are -OK. Making a quick mental note of
all of the guys that I have known that were prone to
emotional outbursts, I quickly drew a parallel
related to their lack of male parental guidence. Mind
you that a couple of them turned out to be "bitches"
even with fathers in the home, but for the most part
Clarence's original statement held. I noted that in
my home, if we had been proned to emotional
responses, the pressence of my father made us at the
very least, learn to control those emotions,
in order to avoid the potential pop upside the head. Baby boy, Mama's Boy. Whatever
you want to call them. These are men in serious need
of some male supervision.
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