What Does It Mean To Say Boys Will Be Boys?

Improved Essays
Ever heard of “Boys will be boys?” This phrase is used to express the view that mischievous or childish behavior is typical of boys or young men and should not cause surprise when it occurs. This expression has been said as early as 1589, roughly before the first colony was founded in America.
"Boys will be boys" implies about the true nature of boy’s actions. Majority of the time when adults describe this expression, they express it by saying; “Boys are messy, immature and selfish; hormone-driven and insensitive; irresponsible and trouble-making; rebellious, rude, aggressive and disrespectful -- even violent, predatory and animal-like.” For years society has accepted this concept as a way of saying that boys will never change and we have

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    We have all the time in the world meaning we can achieve anything we wish. With twenty-four hours in a day, any woman or man could accomplish amazing feats. But whether we look to our past or present there is always something that we do to limit the genders. We have denied other genders and yet we have described ourselves, Australians, as accepting and kind? We have laws to prevent discrimination, and days to celebrate the forgotten, but this is not enough.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Michael Kimmel's Guyland

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As the years pass by boys seem to become men later and later in life. Through out the book GuyLand, Michael Kimmel examines the multiple reasons he believes boys are getting stuck in this middle ground of “Guy land”. He touches on many topics in an extreme sense in order to get his point about the stigmas of manliness across. It goes into detail on the expectations that modern day boys are expected to abide by in order to reach manhood, or to be considered manly by other boys. It also addresses how this stigma of “being a man” starts as young as the age of three and how it progresses with every year.…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Who would Peter Be today ?”. by Estrada , Pg.69 Base on my own experience, I believe one of the reasons why many children accept other children being bullied , and they rarely step in to help the bullied children is the feeling of being isolated and bullied back from the other kids . There are many examples in social life show this for us every day and even in movies . When a group of students bully a kid and one member in a group have a thought that is unfair and want to protect the bullied kid, then all the other members in the group will bully that student, who don’t want to bully the kid anymore, until he can’t take the pressure and comeback. The scare feeling for standing up and being different from the other kids make the children not only stay where who they are but also stand there and watch the kid being bullied.…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gender In Children

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Since the beginning of time, there have been separate ideas about how men and women should act. These specific gender roles have been taught to the children which they carry with them throughout some of the most influential times in their lives especially in college. This is the first time young adults get to experience freedom in a sense that they are not under their parent’s constant supervision. Those college kids then take what they learned from their parents and combine it with what is shown in social media and how their fellow peers act. Unfortunately, this especially includes sex and men’s thoughts about women which during this time is mostly negative such as what was seen with the Harvard mens’ soccer team.…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This phrase should not be an advocate for teens or men who take things too far. I believe this phrase should only be accustomed to children. This idea of “boys will be boys”should end at a child reaching maturity in which he is forced by society to take responsibility for his own…

    • 949 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walmart Gender Differences

    • 1044 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Upon my visit to the toy section at a local Walmart, I discovered some clear differences in the types of toys tailored for each gender. Overall, the toy section was about four isles with each gender occupying two plus a different section for babies. I found that the difference was mainly in gender and not race. It is usually quite easy to tell which gender the toys in the section you’ve entered are geared towards.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to Jenifer Newsom, the society has a variety of phrases directed to boys including to grow up, grow some balls, and man up among other things, which push boys…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    No matter what part of the world we belong to, a man is seen desirable and attractive if he is masculine. Masculinity can be contextual as different parts of the world have different meaning of masculinity. In Egypt “raguula” is considered masculinity. They standards Egyptian men are held to for masculinity may vary immensely when compared to the Western world. Farah Ghannam uses her work to materialize the male body in an Egyptian context.…

    • 1755 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An adult would say boys will be boys and somehow whatever they did was justified by the fact they were a boy. They were bullying another student? Oh well, boys will be boys. It was as if the phrase could change any wrong to a right no matter how wrong it was. Unfortunately, for girls there were no girls will be girls phrase to get us out of trouble.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This not only applies to males but females as well. In the 2009 film The Codes of Gender by Sut Jhally we learn that in advertisements females are shown to be soft, gentle and not in control, so that men are able to be shown as strong, masculine and in control of the women. When females differ from the “norm” of how females should behave they may also be stereo-typed or looked at in a negative way by society, just because are different than the…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    No one likes to lose. Not one individual can find any pleasure in losing something that is dear to them. In Carolyn Smart’s poem “October” the speaker approaches their loss of the beauty of the summer as almost catastrophic. Their loss of the summer weather, the wildlife, and the scenery takes a toll on the speaker. However, in the last stanza of the poem they realize that they can cherish the memory of these moments of happiness, but cannot grieve their losses forever.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Katz believes that in order for boys to become men they must learn how to be boys, first. John Katz states that there is a specific set of “rules” that all boys must automatically follow from a young age. For instance, the rules stated in the text are about hiding your sensitivity and emotions away. If a boy discusses his feelings, fears or problems he is called a “nerd.” The text implies that in order to be a “man” you must be independent and strong.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    At a young age, gender stereotypes begin sprouting due to the actions of the parents or guardians of a child, whether it be from…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    A Dangerous Experiment When people think of dangerous experiments, they usually think of experiments that take place in science classes. People don’t think of the various political experiments that are going on around the world on a daily basis. However, some of the political doings are just that: dangerous experiments. In the TIME article “Boys Won’t be Boys”, Lisa Abend discusses one such experiment that is taking place in Sweden.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When I was growing up I would make a lot of mistakes and have a lot of accidents. The first thing that my mom or dad would say was “Boys will be boys” and I realize that I have used that as an excuse to do things for a really long time. But some people use it as an excuse to do the wrong things. For example, rape, stealing, and many more unspeakable and horrible things. All I would have to say is “Boys will be boys” and I was cleared and everything was okay…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics