The Boy Game

Streaming video - 2015

The truth is all boys suffer under cultural codes that demand toughness and silence. This is the landscape in which kids who bully (who have often been targeted themselves) thrive but lose their emotional wholeness, the unspoken harness that keeps targets from speaking up, and that leaves the many bystanders watching, conflicted, but too scared to act. Boys desperately need a way to talk about the painful gender straitjacketing they are subject to, to develop the resilience needed to stand up, be themselves, and redefine masculinity in terms of emotional, tolerant strength. And girls (who can be the victims of hyper masculine behavior and can support it or stand up against it) need to be part of the conversation. The Boy Game follows the st...ories of three boys whose lives are intertwined: Reynaldo, who masks his own insecurities by acting tough who targets Noel, too scared of looking weak to tell anyone, and Kenny, the protagonist and bystander, who is increasingly conflicted by his friendship with both. Based on off-the-record interviews with boys nationwide, then fashioned into a hard hitting scenario, it was shot like a doc to capture the intense pressures boys face every day. The video comes with a cutting edge study guide. Written by two Harvard Educators, (designed to be used with co-ed groups or boys alone) it's a resource in itself. "While bullying has certainly exploded on the national agenda, most of the conversation has revolved around empathy for those who have been targeted by bullies. While this is laudable - and necessary -- it doesn't capture the dilemmas, the agonies of those who witness it, who get swept up in its dynamics. The Boy Game is that rare document that takes you inside the heads of several boys at once. This prismatic approach enables viewers to enter the scene, rather than simply observe it with greater understanding and empathy. If the conversation about bullying is going to advance, this is the project that will help us advance it." - Michael Kimmel, Sociology SUNY Stonybrook, author, Manhood in America & The Gendered Society. more