The impact that parents have on what their children think about social issues can be huge. After all, parents are children’s first teachers in life. What they see and hear from their parents sticks with them, and as this powerful PSA shows, it’s about time we are more conscious of the things we are teaching our sons and daughters.
Share
Source: YouTube Screenshot
In this powerful short film “Boy Will Be Boys,” director Gloria Morán shows viewers just how lasting of an impression parents make on their children. Specifically, she looks at how parents approach gender roles.
Actor Jorge Díaz delivers the video’s powerful message in the form of a letter written to his young daughter. As he explains the things his family taught him about gender roles when he was younger, he does dishes and other housework that is more commonly associated with the stereotypical “woman’s role.”
Share
Source: YouTube Screenshot
The impact of these shots says a lot as Díaz explains that when he was growing up, he never had to do any of the housework. From an early age, his family told him and his siblings that that was a job for girls.
He goes on to explain how much tougher his parents were on his sister than him. He was allowed to stay out late and have girls over while his sister had a curfew and wasn’t allowed to date. Díaz recognizes how this was a double standard, and viewers can’t help but be a bit shocked when he recalls his father telling him, “boys know what they’re doing and girls just don’t.”
Share
Source: YouTube Screenshot
While it can be shocking to hear plain and clear, it’s important to recognize that this is a common narrative in many households. It can be hard to recognize until you’re looking at the situation from an outside perspective, but the saying “boys will be boys” is too commonly used in our society’s vernacular, and it’s about time that changed.
Share
Source: YouTube Screenshot
In the video, Díaz realizes that he didn’t do much to stick up for his sister growing up, even though he realized that this view on life was wrong. As a society, we can’t fix a problem until we recognize there is one. In recognizing the problem, Díaz is now able to change the way he approaches gender roles while raising his own daughter.
“Being a man is about challenging the script that was handed down to us,” Díaz says, “and I especially don’t want you, mi hija, to grow up in a world where you will be told ‘boys will be boys.’ It’s time to change that narrative and it will start with us.”
Share
Source: YouTube Screenshot
This PSA is not one to be missed. It’s part of the Freewaves initiative that features different work done by LA artists who are working to open new avenues of thought and stimulate dialogue on new gendered relationships.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
Source: Conejo Productions
