You'll be a – feminist – man, my son!
It all started when Aurélia Blanc found out she was expecting a boy. As a feminist, she had a good idea of how to bring up a girl... but a boy, no.
Books, newspapers and websites are full of advice on how to bring up a feminist girl, but when it comes to knowing how to bring up an anti-sexist boy in a deeply sexist society, parents are left to fend for themselves.
The book was provided to me by the publisher as part of its publication, I was not paid to write about it and I wrote my review freely, in accordance with Simonæ's charter..
Based on this observation, her own personal questions and a great deal of research (everything is extensively sourced), Aurélia Blanc gives us a fairly complete reflection on parenthood when you're a feminist.
« For several decades now, we have been thinking about the meaning of femininity and the education of our daughters, whom we want to be proud and emancipated. We've been fighting at school, in the street and with our families to break down stereotypes and give them the same opportunities as boys. But we continue to bring up our sons in the same patriarchal mould, as if we could deconstruct sexism without questioning masculinity! »
Caustic as can be, Tu seras un homme - féministe - mon fils! is an enjoyable read, and the 200-odd pages fly by. Oscillating between theoretical discussion and practical advice, it gives us the keys to coping on a day-to-day basis, but goes further by questioning masculinity, talking about the responsibility of the media and taking stock of changes in society. It's about the place of men, masculinity and virility, because in the end, our sons will become adults, and their education will have a direct impact on the adult men of the years to come. It's not just a question of allowing our sons to play with dolls and wear pink shoes, far from it.
Even if you already know a lot about the subject, this book is interesting because the different facets of education are linked together, allowing us to put them into perspective.
Whether or not you want to have children, I recommend reading this book, which goes beyond the list of tips to really question the way boys are brought up and where all the clichés, stereotypes and preconceived ideas come from that we put into their heads from a very early age, whether deliberately or not.
