Boys will be Boys

Boys will be boys. What a cringe phrase we have allowed to pave the way for unacceptable behavior...but only for boys. A gender that is looked at to be the superior sex, excusing lack of self-control and accountability.

A religious birthright they say.

I would agree there is a biological component. Women and men have their differences but why do we continue to act as if the expectations should be vastly different? Allowing boys to be boys while girls are taught censorship and modesty.

Hold them to the same standard you would a class full of girls.

We all have urges engrained in us from birth, but it is society that teaches us who is allowed to openly act on those things giving privilege to one gender over the other.

As for me, I have spent a majority of my adult life in a firehouse full of boys. Smelly, unkempt, flatulent, belching, nut scratching Neanderthal's. I choose to live and work alongside them. Not expecting them to change on behalf of my presence but accepting the way things are in a male dominated setting. Enjoying it most of the time.

Even though I find comfort in an atmosphere where crude and vulgar comments echo off the walls, from my own mouth as well, it is clear that our journeys here came with very different levels of difficulty. I had to work to be rude and accepted in a primitive state. While my male counterparts were uplifted and cast into the role without question or judgement.

Just as I learned how to live among the knuckle dragging cavemen, I call brothers; they too should be required to learn how to adapt and be held accountable for environments that necessitate obedience.