"Perhaps someone who has never been a parent can’t truly understand this, but I would fight a mountain lion with my bare hands if I thought it would protect my son. He may now be 22, but that maternal instinct doesn’t really diminish, and when your son has special needs, as mine does, it truly never abates. I know his father would do the same, so it’s not a mother vs. father thing, it’s a parent thing. I’m only pointing out that the fact that he is a young man (rather than a woman like me) does not impact the fierceness of my love for him in any way.
But even more than being willing to put myself in harm's way for his benefit, I am working to create the kind of world that will nourish and support my son (as well as other boys and men). I’ve written extensively about how patriarchy harms men as well and although some of that is a bit academic, in many ways, it’s also very personal. I don’t want my son to live in a world that tells him who he is supposed to be or how he is supposed to act in order to be a “real man.” I don’t want anyone, including women, to look down on him for not being afraid to cry or for not being embarrassed to hold a male friend’s hand.
