ther away from their bodies, and usually talk louder and less often to their sons. During play, fathers are more aggressive with boys than with girls. These actions, sociologists believe, create the foundation in which boys become aggressive, more easily aroused, and desensitized. During adolescence, boys receive further clues pertaining to their roles as boys. Parents purchase and encourage toys that are made for boys, while discouraging toys usually reserved for girls. A majority of these toys, such as guns and action figures, promote an environment conducive to killing the bad guy. On the playground, boys from an early age form social hierarchies and taunt each other toward greater and greater risk-taking activities. Of all the activities employed to prove masculinity, none is more powerful than sports, specifically football. Starting in high school, boys who are good enough to make the varsity football teams tend to be highly admired. For many of their peers, male and female, they represent the essence of masculinity. When it comes to music or film stars, there is often a generation gap in the taste of adolescents and their parents. But athletes get parents, especially fathers, stamp of approval. In fact, for many American fathers having a son who is neither interested in sports nor athletically inclined is little short of a tragedy.While nothing is intrinsically wrong with organized sports in school, there can be detrimental affects when there is an inordinate emphasis on competition and winning. When 60 Minutes did a program in youth football they found that the emphasis was very much on winning. This emphasis in winning encourages boys to do whatever it takes to take home the trophy including violence. As on high school football player states, Youre afraid of getting hit in the knees, of having the wind knocked out of you, but you dont tell your buddies, only you know. You come through the crises, and you feel goo...
