Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: October 19, 2018 08:33PM
gettinreal Wrote:
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> If he referred to his male cohort as “boys”
> would you say the same thing?
I thought of including this in my post, but figured that it doesn't work so far as IRL culture goes.
There are times when adult males are referred to as "boys" in our culture, but if you look at what is actually going on in those times, they are also diminishments of one kind or another.
When a wife says that her husband is "out with the boys," the message given is: This is their set-aside time when (despite the fact that they are adults) they are allowed a separate "place" to be, in effect, carefree adolescents: drinking, belching, etc., etc.
I am also reminded of "The Boys in the Band" play (1968), and film (1970), one of the early, tending towards mainstream, creative works about gay relationships of various kinds. Again: the use of the word "boys" was a thought-through diminishment of "adult males"--in the sense that, even when national attention was being, very hesitantly, directed towards gay rights, the underlying message of the title was: [Our American society says that] REAL men (meaning: straight men) are NOT gay, so gay "men" are actually "less than" or, in other words, "boys."
Plus: In American society, and right now to this moment some areas of this country, black men (regardless of their chronological age, their maturity level, or their professional or other accomplishments) are still, and too often, referred to as "boys." This usage is not as nearly as bad now as it used to be, but it does still exist, and it absolutely affects black adults in negative and disrespectful ways.
Can you think of a circumstance where the words "boys" would be used for adult men, and where, behind the use of that word, there was NOT an intended diminishment of their adulthood? The word may be used playfully or meant to be humorous, but I cannot think of any example where the subtext of the speaker was not a (perhaps unintentional) diminishment of some kind.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/2018 08:35PM by Tevai.