They looked at each other, seeing themselves as they might possibly look to whomever it was that they might surprise in the dark, and headed immediately back to their camp. My friend claimed that this group of men would never have gone off with their guns at the ready, advancing into the night, if their girlfriends had been with them. He explained that it had always been the function of their girlfriends to ground them, to do things like very overtly noticing speed limits or, in this case, to acknowledge the danger involved in gathering guns and going off into the dark like Boy Scouts after a merit badge. I, on the other hand, recognized this function immediately. It is mothers that notice speed limits, stop signs, weather reports, and social dangers.
Mothers insist, reprimand, discuss plans and continuously caution against risky adventures.
Mothers are constantly attuned to the environment that surrounds their children, and their voice is the voice of sanity, safety and nurturing. Sanity, safety and nurturing are attractive, reassuring terms. If this is the voice of women on the Internet, women should be delighted that they are so well represented. However, boys typically resist the voice of caution and reasonableness and are constrained to rebel against it. Boys leave their mothers to become men, and in the process of leaving, gather their resentment around them like armor, fashioning a shield against further cautionary tales and the intrusion of intimacy.