4 Ways We Teach Boys It’s Normal to Pressure Girls Sexually
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Masculinity is a tough thing to quantify, and so often the aspects of masculinity that are celebrated are things like physical strength, stoicism, chivalry, and sexual prowess. Taken together, that can be a pretty toxic combination. Then when it comes to what cis-heterosexual boys learn about sex, things get particularly tricky.
Here are four ways we teach kids it’s okay for boys to sexually pressure girls, and why we need to remind them that this simply isn’t the case!
For cis-heterosexual boys who grow up getting a lot of messages about sexuality (say, that sex with a girl is a rite of passage, a conquest, and the quintessential display of masculinity), there can be some pretty troubling effects.
One of these is that many boys feel the need to prove themselves sexually, and a common way they may try to do that is by putting sexual pressure on girls.
Now, a lot of us simply take this script for granted. Or we understand it to be part of a cishetero dating ritual. But that ritual is not only exhausting, it’s also damaging to people of all a/genders, and our kids deserve to know they can rewrite the rules.
Still, in order to rewrite them, it helps to identify just how we reinforce them. So here are four ways we teach kids it’s okay for boys to sexually pressure girls, and why we need to remind them that this simply isn’t the case!
To read more of this article by Ellen Friedrichs, click here