|
"Dad,
why are they always saying things like that about boys?"
This question asked by my 11 year-old son triggered a campaign
which in just seven weeks has driven T-shirts, hats, and other
merchandise bearing the slogan "Boys are Stupid--Throw Rocks at
Them" out of nearly 3,500 retail outlets worldwide. The products
depict a little boy running away as several rocks come flying at
his head.
The stores dropped the products after being bombarded with
thousands of e-mails and phone calls, largely from the listeners
and supporters of my radio talk show. Most of those taking
action have been fathers who are concerned about the cultural
atmosphere surrounding their boys.
However, some of the most passionate and articulate supporters
of our campaign have been the mothers and grandmothers of boys.
It is mothers who generally supervise their children's
educations on a day-to-day basis, and they more than anybody see
boys' largely ignored struggles.
Though our educational establishment has been slow to recognize
it, boys have fallen seriously behind girls at all K-12 levels.
Girls get better grades than boys and are far more likely to
graduate high school and go to college. The vast majority of
learning-disabled students are boys, as are students diagnosed
with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Nearly nine
million prescriptions of Ritalin are written for American
children each year--most of them for boys between the ages of
six and 12.
Boys also suffer from having few men in their lives. Modern
schools, particularly at the elementary level, are often devoid
of men except perhaps the janitor and the maintenance crew. And
there are more boys growing up in fatherless homes than ever
before.
Add to all of these problems a boy-bashing preteen and teen
culture--where clothing which insults and taunts boys is seen as
acceptable and "funny"--and it's natural that many boys feel the
deck is stacked against them.
As parents, we suffer along with our children, and like millions
of mothers and fathers, my wife and I have lain awake in bed
many nights worrying about our son. Perhaps this explains why
the campaign has struck such a chord--over 400 newspapers and
television and radio stations in seven countries have carried
stories about it.
Some commentators have criticized me, saying the shirts are just
a harmless joke and that I need to "lighten up." However, to the
limited extent that the shirts are humorous, it is adult humor
being played out on boys.
Others say I'm violating the targeted businesses' First
Amendment right to freedom of speech. However, the function of
the First Amendment is to prevent the government from
restricting our freedom of speech. Our campaign is instead a
consumer action against companies which carry products which
insult boys. Should John Ashcroft ever kick in the shirt
designer's door, arrest him, and beat him with a nightstick,
I'll be the first to help raise the designer's bail.
Some say that in launching a campaign which has received
extensive press coverage, I've inadvertently helped the
manufacturers of "Boys are Stupid" products by giving them free
publicity. There is some truth to this, and the publicity factor
is a common problem with consumer boycotts. However, the company
can't be happy that the products it has said are its best
sellers have now been knocked out of 90% or more of its retail
outlets worldwide. More importantly, this campaign is not about
hurting the products' manufacturer--it is about getting "Boys
are Stupid" products out of our stores. I don't care how many
other T-shirts the company sells and how many Jaguars the owner
buys as long as these products are not in our stores.
Other critics, mostly men, deride me as unmanly. I confess this
attitude puzzles me. These men often grumble about TV
commercials in which men are portrayed as idiots and clowns, and
they read their kids bedtime stories from children's books where
fathers--the few left in modern children's literature--are
similarly depicted. Yet many of these men seem to be struck by
cultural amnesia the moment somebody finally decides to do
something about male-bashing.
How many times in the past 20 years have several major companies
been forced to remove a product and apologize because it was
offensive to males? Very few, I would guess. The media attention
garnered by the campaign has already led some observers to
speculate that many companies may soon be reexamining their
marketing strategies for fear of a consumer backlash against
anti-boy and anti-male ads.
I've never pretended that "Boys are Stupid" products are among
the most important challenges today's boys face. The boy-bashing
culture the products typify is just the tip of the iceberg.
Today, thanks to the actions of concerned mothers and fathers,
that iceberg is a little smaller.
This column first appeared in the
Los Angeles Daily News
(2/4/04).
Glenn
Sacks' columns on men's and fathers' issues have appeared in dozens of America's
largest newspapers. Glenn can be reached via his website at
www.GlennSacks.com or
via email at Glenn@GlennSacks.com.
|
