Over the past couple of years, the phrase “toxic masculinity” has popped up across the internet more and more, and for good reason. Even now, it’s all too common to hear boys shamed for showing their emotions, and one woman decided to take to Facebook after witnessing toxic masculinity in the making.
It was a sight Lyra Balearica had seen hundreds of times in her workplace: A child came to have his blood drawn. He was scared of needles, just like many other kids his age. He cried.
Illustration - Getty Images | Sean Gallup
Illustration - Getty Images | SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP
For whatever reason, his behavior set off his parental guardian. She belittled him and made him feel as though he was not a boy. Balearica describes the experience below:
The way our culture treats boys sickens me. I had an 11-year-old boy in my room to have blood drawn today. He was crying. Not bawling or throwing a fit, just a few nervous tears.
His guardian kept telling him to ‘man up’ and ‘stop asking like a sissy’. Then she threatened to record him crying to show it to all his friends, which made him cry more. I told her we had a strict no recording/photo policy and she got mad at me for ‘ruining the joke’.
When this woman went to the bathroom I told the kid it was okay to express his emotions however he needed to and even grown men are scared of needles.
That everyone is scared of something and he was brave for doing it even though he was scared.
Stop. Telling. Boys. They. Aren’t. Really. Boys. For expressing emotion.
You know why women and femmes have to fear violent men? Because of this sh*t that represses boys and men. Crying doesn’t make you weak. Fear doesn’t make you weak. But berating a child for showing those things make you one weak a** adult.
Her post has now been shared over 116,000 times with an overwhelming number of supportive comments. On behalf of everyone here, a big thank you to Balearica for working to put an end to toxic masculinity.
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