Today, this blog named for me what I could not or refused to name for myself.
When the nurse told me that the child in my womb is a boy, I was genuinely excited. But there was dread too. It's hard growing up a boy in this world, even if it's also hard growing up as a girl. A girl I know what to do with, though. I can teach her the strength my parents taught me. But a boy? How do I teach a boy to be strong? How do I teach him how to empower the people around him, including women?
"What happened in Steubenville makes me sick, but we are kidding ourselves if we think that it is not representative of what is happening in basement parties after the homecoming game all across America. Our kids want to talk about it. They need to talk about it. We need to have conversations about consent that are not centered around what should have been done, but are instead centered on what will be done in the future. Our teens can handle it, I promise they can."
I'm not so afraid to talk to my one-day teenage son. But it won't start just then, either.
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