Richard Reeves

Who are kind of similar situations to you.

Like, isn't part of the point of that to talk about your relationships and how you're doing and stuff that is maybe harder to talk to your partner about or stuff that's about your partner and your relationship and sex and things like that?

Isn't that part of the point?

I strongly believe that you don't tell boys and young men how to be a man.

You show them.

And so that's about having more men in the lives of boys, whether that's teachers, mentors.

There's a huge shortage of male volunteers.

So anybody who's listening to this and wondering how they can help, well, one thing you could do is sign up to be a big because big brothers, big sisters is a huge lack of male volunteers and therefore a massive waiting list for the boys and other institutions where you're kind of just putting men in the lives of boys.

And so...

There's this real concern about these negative male role models that boys are encountering either online or on screens one way or the other.

And the best answer to that, I think, is less having more positive male role models online.

They're there, and we should encourage that.

But it's more to have honest-to-God flesh-and-blood men in their lives.

And so when I think about...

The negative influences that many of the kids that my son teaches in fifth grade are getting, I think maybe the best answer to that is him at the front of the classroom and then coaching the girls soccer team afterwards and not saying here's how to be a man, but just showing them that you can be a guy.

and be into your soccer and, you know, be into playful stuff that maybe codes a bit more male, but you're also incredibly caring and a teacher and love kids.

We can't script masculinity in this very narrow way any more than we should script femininity.

If I try to write a script for what it means to be a mature and pro-social, positive woman...

I think I would get into all kinds of trouble, and not just because I'm doing it as a man, but because a lot of women would be like, no, that's not how I want to be a woman.

I want to be a woman like this, and I want to be a woman like this, and I want to be a woman like this.