{"id":1827,"date":"2010-02-05T21:07:20","date_gmt":"2010-02-06T02:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2010-02-05T21:07:20","modified_gmt":"2010-02-06T02:07:20","slug":"beyond-pink-blue-why-wont-boys-break-a-leg-on-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2010\/02\/05\/beyond-pink-blue-why-wont-boys-break-a-leg-on-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"BEYOND PINK &amp; BLUE:  Why Won&#8217;t Boys &#8220;Break a leg&#8221; on Stage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;  Normal 0   false false false        MicrosoftInternetExplorer4  &lt;![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;   &lt;![endif]--><!--[if !mso]&gt;--><span class=\"mceItemObject\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\">Last week, my sons participated in their school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first school play\u00e2\u20ac\u201da charming production of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sound of Music.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<span> <\/span>While my fifth-grader worked the spotlight from the mezzanine, my 8-year old played one of the Von Trapp boys, appearing in the scene in which Maria dresses her charges in dungarees she fashioned out of floral curtains.<span> <\/span>(Yes, it was adorable!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\">But let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get right to the gender point here:<span> <\/span>Out of 150 kids who voluntarily signed up for the cast, only 20% were boys\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand most of them were in the younger grades.<span> <\/span>While dozens of older girls donned nun\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s costumes, only a handful of pre-teen boys participated. The fifth-grader who played the Captain enjoyed a hearty applause after hitting all the right notes in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Edelweiss,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but his male peers were in the audience, not onstage with him.<span> <\/span>When I asked other folks why this was the case, I heard that most boys were too busy with sports to commit to two weeks of rehearsals.<span> <\/span>Or, they just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think being in the play was cool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\">According to two professional directors who teach acting classes and orchestrate children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s productions in our community, the percentage of boys in our school play was actually rather high.<span> <\/span>At one local theater program, only 10 to 15% of six-to-eight-year old kids are boys.<span> <\/span>At another, a recent casting call for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Peter Pan\u00e2\u20ac\u009d attracted over forty young thespians, but only three or four boys.<span> <\/span>Ultimately, the Lost Boys were played by girls.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\"><span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\">What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s up with this?<span> <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a societal thing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d says Dan Ferrante of the Westchester Sandbox Theater in Mamaroneck, New York. Traci Timmons, of the Bendheim Children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Theater in nearby Scarsdale, surmises that when parents guide their sons\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 extra-curricular activities, they usually prioritize sports over the arts, even if their boys show interest in creative activities.<span> <\/span>As boys get older, some dads fear a stigma of effeminacy or homosexuality often connected to men in theater.<span> <\/span>One positive sign is that sibling involvement can attract cross-gender interest.<span> <\/span>When brothers come to see their sisters perform, they want to be part of the excitement the next time around.<span> <\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\"><span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\">Parents are always hearing about the character-building benefits of team sports for kids of both sexes:<span> <\/span>they promote cooperation, persistence, self-confidence, healthy body awareness, the list goes on.<span> <\/span>True enough, but can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the same be said for performing arts?<span> <\/span>Ms. Timmons argues that acting can enhance kids\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 self-confidence, reduce feelings of social apprehensiveness, build literacy skills, and foster emotional sensitivity.<span> <\/span>For decades, feminists (and parents in general) have rightly fought to ensure gender parity in athletics\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut what can we do to increase boys\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 involvement in the arts?<span> <\/span>Even the popularity of Disney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153High School Musical\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201din which Zac Efron plays a jock who eventually learns to love the limelight on stage as well as on the basketball court\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddoesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to have made much difference.<span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\"><span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\">Kids\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 free time is limited, and they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do it all.<span> <\/span>But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shame that boys who would otherwise enjoy\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand benefit from\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtheatrical pursuits avoid them because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re worried that their friends will think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s uncool or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153girly.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"color: #5b5b5b\">Next fall, Benji will move on to middle school\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut Eli will be in fourth grade, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already planning to be in the school play again. Rumor has it that next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s musical might be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wizard of Oz.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<span> <\/span>I hope they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to cast a girl as the Tin Man.<span> <\/span><\/span><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0066\"> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } Last week, my sons participated in their school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first school play\u00e2\u20ac\u201da charming production of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sound of Music.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While my fifth-grader worked the spotlight from the mezzanine, my 8-year old played one of the Von Trapp boys, appearing in the scene in which Maria dresses her charges in dungarees she fashioned out of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1925,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21095],"tags":[2397,21395,4374,100],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond-pink-and-blue","tag-boys","tag-girls","tag-parenting","tag-youth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1925"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}