JUST BE A MAN ABOUT IT {BOY}

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The barbershop, the smells of masculine tonics saturating a space filled with leather chairs, displaying the latest edition of KING MAGAZINE; a place where little boys become men, a place of STURDY moral character. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being inside the walls of a local barbershop along with a toddler that was waiting for his first haircut. I sat and watched as the little boy was taken to the chair. As soon as he was placed in the chair, the tears came. @ This point I was marveled that the barber was looking @ his crying in that he must be a sissy or something manner. Rightly so, since the male species no matter his age, is not supposed to whimper during his time in the barber chair. As I sat there, watching everyone involved try to get the little boy to stop crying, I couldn’t help but wonder, why is a little boy being taught such a hard lesson about life @ such a tender age?

How is a little boy supposed to sit passively and have no feelings about something he knows NOTHING about? Amazing how something simple like this forces boys to become men that are violent, LOVE hating their enemies and treat women like objects. How can we accept this ‘take it like a man mentality’ and think it is a must for a little boy if he ought to grow into a man? This made me wonder if the barber and his mother learned as children that being a man means you can’t be an innocent little boy. How could they inflict this event on a child, ignore his cries and not question the way we go about this activity? When do we as people examine our choices as investments of energy with predictable risks and returns? When we act in an inhumane manner, I believe we merely affirm what already is. This is like using a paddle when the stream is already moving in the same direction. The dishonesty we create about ‘manhood’ in the barbershops redirects a portion of a boy’s energy against the flow and create an alternate reality that requires SO much macho energetic input to be maintained.

I get that life is not always clearly defined, so we may find it useful to follow our choices to their logical conclusions. And though we may feel that a little trip to the barbershop is harmless, it can be that small crack that weakens an overall structure of a boy as he turns into a man. I hope that one day, when a mother/father brings their son to the barber; they would not try SO hard for that CERTIFICATION OF MANHOOD. I know this subject matter is so simple and common place to many of us, but can you imagine what this means for a two-year old whose impending manhood is dictated to him in this manner?