It's difficult to advocate for boys without recalling centuries of male domination, always at the expense of women and girls. Both genders provide real opportunities for expression, satisfaction and challenge. There is a popular notion that aggression and violent behavior in boys is normal. We make boys violent because of the treatment we give them and the violence we expect and allow from them. Most men have experienced or witnessed serious violence.
Random violence can strike a boy almost anywhere and at anytime.
Subjecting boys to routine, systematic violence, often right under the noses of adults responsible for their care, has serious consequences for both men and society. We must break the cycle of violence and realize how normal it is in boys' lives. We must also do something about the violence on TV and throughout the media, the war games in the schoolyard and those sports programs that exploit children. Parents are in a particularly powerful position to counter popular myths that state boys are destined by biology to fight, taunt and bully each other. We love and value our sons, and know that no child is expendable.