A man is being charged with first-degree manslaughter after hitting and killing a baby.
Hypermasculinity is Akin to Death
by Mychal Denzel Smith | TheLoop21
Twenty-year old Pedro Jones of Long Island, NY is being charged with first-degree manslaughter after hitting and killing his girlfriend’s 17-month-old boy, Roy A. Jones, because he was crying and Pedro was "trying to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl.” He struck the child so hard with his fists that the boy went into cardiac arrest and then died at a local hospital.
When I read this story, my heart broke into a billion inconsequential pieces. An infant is dead before he even knew there was a world that existed beyond his own laughter and screams, and a confused young man is now a brutal killer and will likely spend a good deal of time behind bars without any true rehabilitation. Undoubtedly, a deplorable situation all-around.
This may seem to be an isolated incident but the mentality that created it is pervasive. While the end result here may read as extreme to some, ultimately this stands right in line with the accepted societal norms of what manhood is and is not. Roy Jones’ death is the consequence of our refusal to recognize that embracing of hyper-masculinity and its narrow definition of manhood is destructive and dehumanizing.
Our culture holds tight to the presumptions that a man should be unemotional, callous, dispassionate, and/or heartless. This is the role assigned to men and it has been adopted, accepted, reinforced and allowed to go unchecked by everyone. Pedro punched Roy because he didn’t believe a boy should be crying—because crying is female behavior—even at 17 months old when it is still the primary means of communication for a child. Pedro's extreme reaction to notions of masculinity has likely been carried with him all of his life, something that has been passed down to him from the people, men and women alike, that informed his upbringing.
Pedro internalized those lessons and applied them in the most severe manner, causing the physical death of an infant, but in no way can we write this off as singular. We are spreading these ideas to each other everyday, not only putting men in the position where they feel as if they can’t express emotion, but where they think they’re not allowed to feel in the first place. We are, in effect, teaching death.
I’m lucky to know quite a few men who have rejected conventional, societal norms of what manhood is, and they continue to serve as examples for me as I navigate my own journey. However, these men, while growing in number, seem too few and far between to make any drastic and immediate impact on the prevailing and, in my mind, pernicious mindset that disables men’s emotional growth. It would be easy to become disenchanted and cynical about the prospects, but appropriating that attitude does nothing to solve the problem.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21.com
Hypermasculinity is Akin to Death
by Mychal Denzel Smith | TheLoop21
Twenty-year old Pedro Jones of Long Island, NY is being charged with first-degree manslaughter after hitting and killing his girlfriend’s 17-month-old boy, Roy A. Jones, because he was crying and Pedro was "trying to make him act like a boy instead of a little girl.” He struck the child so hard with his fists that the boy went into cardiac arrest and then died at a local hospital.
When I read this story, my heart broke into a billion inconsequential pieces. An infant is dead before he even knew there was a world that existed beyond his own laughter and screams, and a confused young man is now a brutal killer and will likely spend a good deal of time behind bars without any true rehabilitation. Undoubtedly, a deplorable situation all-around.
This may seem to be an isolated incident but the mentality that created it is pervasive. While the end result here may read as extreme to some, ultimately this stands right in line with the accepted societal norms of what manhood is and is not. Roy Jones’ death is the consequence of our refusal to recognize that embracing of hyper-masculinity and its narrow definition of manhood is destructive and dehumanizing.
Our culture holds tight to the presumptions that a man should be unemotional, callous, dispassionate, and/or heartless. This is the role assigned to men and it has been adopted, accepted, reinforced and allowed to go unchecked by everyone. Pedro punched Roy because he didn’t believe a boy should be crying—because crying is female behavior—even at 17 months old when it is still the primary means of communication for a child. Pedro's extreme reaction to notions of masculinity has likely been carried with him all of his life, something that has been passed down to him from the people, men and women alike, that informed his upbringing.
Pedro internalized those lessons and applied them in the most severe manner, causing the physical death of an infant, but in no way can we write this off as singular. We are spreading these ideas to each other everyday, not only putting men in the position where they feel as if they can’t express emotion, but where they think they’re not allowed to feel in the first place. We are, in effect, teaching death.
I’m lucky to know quite a few men who have rejected conventional, societal norms of what manhood is, and they continue to serve as examples for me as I navigate my own journey. However, these men, while growing in number, seem too few and far between to make any drastic and immediate impact on the prevailing and, in my mind, pernicious mindset that disables men’s emotional growth. It would be easy to become disenchanted and cynical about the prospects, but appropriating that attitude does nothing to solve the problem.
Read the Full Essay @ theLoop21.com
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Mychal Denzel Smith is a writer currently based in Virginia Beach, VA. He blogs for Thisweekinblackness.com. Follow him on Twitter @mychalsmith or email him at mychal@theloop21.com.
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