I knew that was bullshit and this meme is bullshit.
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I was raised by my mother, grandmother and community I grew up in. I had a few male teachers, although none stood out as “THIS IS MAN” vs “THIS IS WOMAN”. I used to joke in elementary school that there are three sexes: Boys, Girls and Teachers because there was a boys bathroom and girls bathroom and a teachers bathroom.
As a kid, I was ahead of my time.
Some male figures growing up in my church made a difference. I was in Scouts but none of the leaders there were worth squat. I was the defacto leader for a couple of years when two leaders just wasted time pulling pranks on us, so I kept things afloat as the other kids were younger.
So, I basically made myself into my own father. Bit of Mr. Rogers, bit of Bob Ross, bit of George Carlin and David Horowitz (did “Fight Back!” – a consumer product TV show that taught you how to spot scams from businesses, shady sales techniques, misleading marketing and stuff). Also, Carl Sagan, and of course Doctor Who.
I had to hear about the horrors of “single parent homes”, how bad feminism is to boys, and how boys raised without fathers become bad adults, from TV shows and other parents around town with big mouths.
I knew that was bullshit and this meme is bullshit.
Should men be involved in children’s lives? Absolutely.
but I knew enough sexually and physically abusive dads around my town to know even as a kid that WHATEVER parental arrangement you grow up with that means NOTHING compared to “Was I raised by assholes? Yes or no?”
(and yes, I knew of abusive moms etc – I’m focusing on this being a misleading meme. You CAN work on BOTH you know. Both toxic masculinity _and_ lack of positive male involvement in children’s lives)
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