The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric, Second Edition by Renee H. Shea Lawrence Scanlon Robin Dissin Aufses

Author:Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Language Arts & Disciplines, Readers
ISBN: 9780312676506
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
Published: 2012-08-05T21:00:00+00:00

Rebecca Walker

in the following excerpt from her introduction to the essay collection What Makes a Man: 22 Writers Imagine the Future (2004), rebecca walker, journalist, activist, and author of the memoir Black White Jewish, looks at the pressures boys experience to conform to certain societal expectations.

The idea for this book was born one night after a grueling conversation with my then elevenyearold son. He had come home from his progressive middle school unnaturally quiet and withdrawn, shrugging off my questions of concern with uncharacteristic irritability. Where was the sunny, chatty boy I dropped off that morning? What had befallen him in the perilous halls of middle school? I backed off but kept a close eye on him, watching for clues.

After a big bowl of his favorite pasta, he sat on a sofa in my study and read his science textbook as I wrote at my desk. We both enjoyed this simple yet profound togetherness, the two of us focused on our own projects yet palpably connected. As we worked under the soft glow of paper lanterns, with the heat on high and our little dog snoring at his feet, my son began to relax. I could feel a shift as he began to remember, deep in his body, that he was home, that he was safe, that he didn’t have to brace to protect himself from the expectations of the outside world.

An hour or so passed like this before he announced that he had a question. He had morphed back into the child I knew, and was lying down with a colorful blanket over his legs, using one hand to scratch behind the dog’s ears. “I’ve been thinking that maybe I should play sports at school.”

“Sports?” I replied with surprise, swiveling around and leaning back in my chair. “Any sport in mind, or just sports in general?”

A nonchalant shrug. “Maybe softball, I like softball.”5

I cocked my head to one side. “What brought this on?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe girls will like me if I play sports.”

Excuse me?

My boy is intuitive, smart, and creative beyond belief. At the time he loved animals, Japa nese anime, the rap group Dead Prez, and everything having to do with snowboarding. He liked to help both of his grandmothers in the garden. He liked to read science fiction. He liked to climb into bed with me and lay his head on my chest. He liked to build vast and intricate cities with his Legos, and was beginning what I thought would be a lifelong love affair with chess.

Maybe girls would like him if he played sports?10

Call me extreme, but I felt like my brilliant elevenyearold daughter had come home and said, “Maybe boys will like me if I stop talking in class.” Or my gregarious AfricanAmerican son had told me,“Maybe the kids will like me if I act white.”

I tried to stay calm as he illuminated the harsh realities of his sixth grade social scene. In a nutshell, the girls liked the jocks the best, and sometimes deigned to give the time of day to the other team, the computer nerds.

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