Masculine Rite Of Passage

In our society, many people have a different idea of what exactly a man is and how each person is to prove that they are a man. The palestinian culture defines a man as someone that can take a beating, can resist, has "signs" to show his beating. This actually happens to be something very common in our society. Sure, we have discussed the beatings that new gang members recieve in order to prove that they are masculine enough to be men but I assert that the impact of masculinity in the male goes much deeper than that. As a member of the male gender, I can confirm that, growing up, I was bombarded by "chicks dig scars" and that a man knows how to deal with pain. Many times have I fallen, scraped a knee, sprained an ankle , or been bleeding or something of that sort and it has hurt but no way would I ever tell anybody that it did hurt. Furthermore, guys are supposed to like to fight, have scars, be manly. It sounds to me that the palestinian intifada and their want to get caught is a much more dramatic way of proving you are a man. I remember seeing a video describing the experiences of palestinian children. The video showed many children who couldn't have been older that 13 throwing rocks at a tank. I know when I was 13, I would not throw rocks at a tank. Their response to the question, "why do you throw the rocks?" was "To prove I'm not afraid." With the constant evolution of different cultures and definitions of masculinity, it is apparant that a dangerous activity like throwing rocks at tanks is going too far and that prison is not the proper place that boys need to learn to become men. Hopefully we can all recognize the unrealistic rite of passage that many are forced to go through and can do our best to correct it.