We spend a great deal of time, and rightly so, talking about the challenges facing the girl child. We talk about gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy, abuse, safety and the need to empower young women. But in the middle of all these important conversations, there is another child we need to ask about: the boy child. What is happening to South Africa’s boys? Because behind the school uniforms, the bravado and the insistence that “boys will be boys”, there are young boys
dealing with bullying, violence, peer pressure, absent or emotionally unavailable fathers, substance abuse, gangs and mental-health struggles. And too often, when a boy is hurting, we don't ask what's wrong. We tell him to toughen up. When he cries, we tell him to stop. When he is bullied, we tell him to fight back. And when that pain eventually comes out as aggression, we punish the behaviour without always asking where it came from. So, have we forgotten to check in on our boys? Are we raising boys who know how to communicate, process rejection, deal with anger and ask for help—or are we simply raising boys who have been taught that vulnerability is weakness? Today, we put the boy child under the microscope and ask a difficult question: If we don't invest in the emotional, social and
mental wellbeing of boys today, what kind of men—and ultimately what kind of society—are we creating tomorrow?