A short YouTube monologue by Connor Beaton discussing how father absence affects young boys’ models of masculinity and their relationship to risk. Beaton argues that lacking a father's example can lead boys either to take extreme, dangerous risks or to avoid risks entirely, producing constrained lives.
A young boy can grow up without the presence of how a man operates when he's stressed, how a man treats women, how a man deals with his own anger or his own grief or sadness. A young boy can miss out on the image of what he can step into, who he can become, the mountain that he can climb or conquer. The impact of a young boy not having a father is that it will impact his ability to take significant risks. It'll impact his relationship to risks. He might find himself taking really severe, life threatening, very dangerous risks that are borderline unhealthy. Or he will find himself not wanting to take any risks at all, and his life will feel very small and dense and constricted.
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