The making of a man

Writer Jason McBride wonders what kind of man his son Jack will be, and what he should be teaching him about "manliness".

Here is an excerpt from his essay:

"I think that the discussions around gender, around race, around sexuality that we've had for the last few years, to me -- somebody who regards those discussions and those changes as liberating and joyful -- I think it's a great time to be a boy or a man in the milieu which I and Jack live in, where it's permissible for Jack to come to school with nail polish that his grandmother puts on him at Christmas time, or to dress up in a dress in the drama centre at school.

He's not going to be mocked for that by his teachers. He's not going to be mocked for it by his classmates. That said, my parents, when Jack puts nail polish on, find it a little... you can see the worry and concern cross their faces because they obviously are of a different generation where that's not so liberating and joyful. I think there is a concern that he could be too effeminate and picked on by classmates or we might be nudging him towards 'dreaded' homosexuality."