Sean, thanks for this piece - two things popped for me. Passive aggressiveness, much as you describe amongst mid-western males, unfortunately is not all that unique. In South India we see this —what in our families we term as "taking unnecessary digs" - almost social conditioning. The other is a deeper issue of what constitutes acceptable intra-male behavior, esp when expressing softer emotions (empathy, caring, tenderness), the old "boys don't cry" trope. Unfortunate that we continue to perpetuate these.
Another fine piece you've written! This one has made me a think of a Tony Hoagland poem (beloved, heartbreaking) about how we train boys to become men, called "The Replacement" -- I'd paste it here rather than pasting the link, if I wasn't so sure that pasting it would eff up the italics, if it would even fit. https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MiscpoemsHoagland.htm
Reminds me of the people I work with and by that I mean 800 middle schoolers
Sean, thanks for this piece - two things popped for me. Passive aggressiveness, much as you describe amongst mid-western males, unfortunately is not all that unique. In South India we see this —what in our families we term as "taking unnecessary digs" - almost social conditioning. The other is a deeper issue of what constitutes acceptable intra-male behavior, esp when expressing softer emotions (empathy, caring, tenderness), the old "boys don't cry" trope. Unfortunate that we continue to perpetuate these.
This should be required reading! Thanks, Sean!
Another fine piece you've written! This one has made me a think of a Tony Hoagland poem (beloved, heartbreaking) about how we train boys to become men, called "The Replacement" -- I'd paste it here rather than pasting the link, if I wasn't so sure that pasting it would eff up the italics, if it would even fit. https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MiscpoemsHoagland.htm