For blog-post 5 , I decided to interview and ask my father about his relationship with his best friend. He told me that his best friend is called Abed and they have met each other at school and have known each other since they were grade 5 so for more than 40 years and till now they still best friends and their friendship turned to be a close relationship between their families ( wives and children) .

1. Why are you close to your friend? Be specific.

My father said that he is very close to his friend because he has been knowing him for 40 years and still having the same relationship as they were when they have met at school at the age of 11 , they share the same interests as watching television and especially football games, and films , they are both fans of the same football teams ( Barcelona and Brazil) . My father and his best friend were sitting in the same desk at school and they share the same emotional characteristics of being caring , supportive and secrets houses of each other. And this proves the results of the researches in the article No man is an island that friends have things in common and this what make their friendship stronger and longer.

2. What kinds of things do you like to do together?

My father’ answer was: I like spending hours with him , when i was young we used to do a sleepover nights in each others houses . we do lots of things together , we hang out eating together , watch football matches , family visits , helping each other in doing homework , doing volunteer work in the same place , sharing secrets , constructing promises that we will be friends for ever and this turned to reality , even if each one of use married and have children we still hang out in families and also even each one of us is in a country we still have the same relationship and we still communicating on a daily basis. And this illustrates that true friendship is not just about sharing things in common , friendship continuity is based on being supportive to each other remaining the same quality of relation with time.

3. Have you ever told your friend how much he means to you? If so, what did you say and how did he react? If you have never told him how much he means to you, why not?

My father ‘ answer shocked me , he told me that he always tell his friend how much he means to him and that his friend’s reaction is always the same , his friend also keep telling him how much he means to him . I asked my father why do you tell your friend about his meaning to you ? he told me that as men they are supposed to be with no emotions as society imposes them to be but in relationships and especially male friendship,telling your friend how much he is important for you means that you support him to know that his presence is important for you and for men talking about emotions is what they miss so telling your friend how much you love him makes him feel his importance and thus you become a social and emotional support for him because sometimes friends can be your family and this what make friendship lasts longer and remain stronger because friends are not just for the happy days they are also for sad days , you really need them .

” A friend in need is a friend indeed”

In his article about “Masculinity” Michael Kimmel, talked about Masculinity in different ways saying that masculinity is shaped and influenced by four major things: first , by the cultural differences , secondly by the considerable variation in any one country aver time , thirdly , masculinity changes over the course of a person’s life and finally , the meaning of masculinity vary considerably within any given society at any one time. This leads to the global construction and shaping of men’s stereotypes ,traits and view of their masculinity.

In page 3 of the article ” Masculinity” Kimmel wrote ” Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes.” , Kimmel gave the example of of studying medicine , that in order to graduate to be a doctor you have to spend 7-11 years studying and you will graduate in your late twenties , even early thirties and this suits men more than women because women are emotional seeing people suffering , whereas men are strong , but if women chose to study medicine they have to postpone their plans to have children to after their late thirties because ounce they enter their thirties chances to have children become lower because of the fertility so , also ounce you have children your responsibilities will became more stressed and women have to balance between household , children , study and work this is why mothers tend to have part-time jobs and thus society traits , stereotypes of seeing her function changes , another example of social institutions is workplace men have higher positions and wages because they can work more hours dedicating themselves to the work because they don’t have other stuff to worry about or do , also bosses tend to judge women workers more than men workers because most bosses are men so they tend to impose their social traits about antifeminity that they have learned it from their masculinity over women ex: judging women and men about being late , they tend to create excuses for men being late whereas judging women for being late because they don’t appreciate what women do and they consider themselves being more important than women . This relate to the purpose of the 4th episode of “Man Enough” because the 4th episode demonstrates how the social stereotypes and traits of each gender created its characteristics and the purpose of this is to give importance to the new step they were talking about which is to find way to change how society is constructed to achieve the social equality between men and women .

In the conclusion to his article on page 4, Kimmel wrote, “Understanding how we do masculinities…opens up the unimaginable possibilities of social change.” And what he means by using the term masculinities ( in plural) instead of masculinity ( singular) is significant because gender varies so significantly—across cultures, over historical time, among men and women within any one culture , and aver the life course – we cannot speak of masculinity as though it is a constant, universal essence , common to all men . Gender must be seen as an ever- changing , fluid assemblage of meanings and behaviors; we must speak of masculinities. By pluralizing the
term we acknowledge that masculinity means different
things to different groups of people at different times. And the term masculinities was expressed and explained in ” Man Enough” when they were speaking about each one’s way of seeing and living masculinity in their lives ,the way they see women , and when they were talking about what was the meaning of masculinity several years ago .

A good example of a successful man in his status and achievement is my inspirational man “The Lord Steven Smith Baden Powell ” .

Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) was a military officer who helped protect Britain’s imperial empire for over 30 years. He was especially talented in military scouting. Baden-Powell was a prolific writer who often chose his military experiences as the subjects of his works. He is best known for starting a worldwide scouting movement.

Robert Baden-Powell was born Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell on February 22, 1857 in his parents’ house in London, England. His father, Professor H.G. Baden Powell was a vicar and a professor of natural science. His mother, Henrietta Smyth, was Professor Baden Powell’s third wife. The couple had seven living children together, of whom Robert was the fifth, and they also raised three children from the vicar’s previous marriage. Baden-Powell’s father died just after his last child was born, when Robert was only three years old. In 1869 Henrietta changed the family name to Baden-Powell out of respect for her late husband.

Mrs. Baden-Powell educated her children in the outdoors. Through long walks in the country, she taught them about plants and animals. They were also allowed to read books from their father’s collection on natural history. Baden-Powell’s formal education started with a Dame’s School in Kensington Square. In 1868 he attended the Rose Hill School in Tunbridge Wells, where his father was also educated. Two years later he won a scholarship to the Charterhouse School in London. In 1872 the school moved to Godalming, which was surrounded by woodlands known as “The Copse.” The wilderness was an important part of Baden-Powell’s childhood experience. As a schoolboy, he did not excel either academically or athletically. He was mainly interested in the outdoors and theater.

It was during this last appointment that Baden-Powell really began to develop his ideas about the scouting movement. In 1904 he attended the Annual Drill Inspection and Review of the Boys Brigade in Glasgow, where the founder, William Smith, had recruited over 54,000 boys. Smith had asked Baden-Powell to rewrite his book Aids to Scouting for a younger audience. According to Michael Rosenthal in The Character Factory, this gave Baden-Powell “the vision of a British society made strong by legions of well-disciplined, morally upright, patriotic youth who found their satisfaction in defending the interests of the empire and following the orders of their superiors.”

Since Baden-Powell was still occupied as inspector general of the cavalry, it took a few years to put his ideas into action. In 1906 he wrote a short paper called “Scouting for Boys,” where he put some of his ideas into print. His vision for scouting was strongly influenced by three of his contemporaries, William Smith, Ernest Thompson Seton, and Dan Beard. Seton and Beard had started similar youth organizations in the United States. This small paper turned into a six-part series called Scouting for Boys, which was published between January and March of 1908. The series included the first publication of the Scout Oath and Scout Law. This series then led to an official weekly magazine, called The Scout, which increased the visibility and appeal of the scouting movement in the public’s eye.

In the summer of 1907 Baden-Powell acted upon his ideas and ran a demonstration camp for boys on Brownsea Island off the coast of Dorset. Twenty-two boys, from ages 10 to 17, took part in the weeklong exercise, which consisted of camping, cooking, tracking, singing, and storytelling. This was the beginning of what was called “unquestionably the most significant youth movement of the twentieth century ” in Michael Rosenthal’s The Character Factory.

Brannon’s Themes of masculinity in terms of status and achievement do fit when describing the contribution ,rank and achievement of Lord Baden Powell because Baden Powell was a successful man in his achievements and his major achievement is creating the first and the most important youth organization in the world , his achievement of founding this amazing educational movement that educate millions of youth around the world , and the fact that the system of the scout is similar to the system of military is very unique to Baden Powell .

Even if Baden Powell had passed away but still his achievement and contribution remaining to remind us of his rank and importance work and dedication to the education of youths.

Baden Powell wrote a lot of books that we still relay on it in the education and progression of our youth in the scout and those books are:

Baden-Powell was regarded as an excellent storyteller. During his whole life he told “ripping yarns” to audiences. After having published Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell kept on writing more handbooks and educative materials for all Scouts, as well as directives for Scout Leaders. In his later years, he also wrote about the Scout movement and his ideas for its future. He spent most of the last two years of his life in Africa, and many of his later books had African themes.^[11]

• 1908: Scouting for Boys
• 1909: Yarns for Boy Scouts
• 1912: The Handbook for the Girl Guides or How Girls Can Help to Build Up the Empire (co-authored with Agnes Baden-Powell)
• 1913: Boy Scouts Beyond The Sea: My World Tour
• 1915: Indian Memories (American title Memories of India)
• 1915: My Adventures as a Spy^[19]
• 1916: Young Knights of the Empire: Their Code, and Further Scout Yarns^[75]
• 1916: The Wolf Cub’s Handbook
• 1918: Girl Guiding
• 1919: Aids To Scoutmastership
• 1921: What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns
• 1921: An Old Wolf’s Favourites
• 1922: Rovering to Success
• 1927: Life’s Snags and How to Meet Them
• 1929: Scouting and Youth Movements
• est 1929: Last Message to Scouts^[76]
• 1932: He-who-sees-in-the-dark; the Boys’ Story of Frederick Burnham, the American Scout^[77]
• 1933: Lessons From the Varsity of Life
• 1934: Adventures and Accidents
• 1935: Scouting Round the World
• 1936: Adventuring to Manhood
• 1937: African Adventures
• 1938: Birds and Beasts of Africa
• 1939: Paddle Your Own Canoe
• 1940: More Sketches

And most of his books are available online.

Sources:

www.biographyonline.net › humanitarian › baden-powell

en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Robert_Baden-Powell,_1st_Baron_Baden-P…
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell – Wikipedia

biography.yourdictionary.com › robert-baden-powell
Robert Baden-Powell Facts – Biography – YourDictionary

Miryam Sioufi

“Men want a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. That is what is written in their hearts. That is what little boys play at. That is what men’s movies are about. You just see it. It is undeniable.” John Eldredge

In the documentary “The Mask You Live In ” , men were illustrated as being weak , having emotions and the right to express themselves crying unlike society stereotypes which are that men should have no emotions using violence to solve problems and being dominant .

The 2 aspects of research that really jumped out at me and illustrate the results of society stereotypes pressure on boys and men are: 1. Everyday three or more boys commit suicide and 2. 93% of boys are exposed to internet porn .

These 2 aspects got my attention because I think that boys’ everyday suicide is a real problem caused by society traits and stereotypes towards boys that even from young age parents , schools and other social networks tend to trait young boys as men teaching them that you have to hide your emotions ( no crying especially in front of girls) , you are strong, you have to use your power to fight . This leads boys to overthink about their masculinity and how to prove it to not be ignored or bullied by other boys and all these things lead boys to commit suicide to give away their masculinity

It shocked me that 93% of boys are exposed to internet porn, this mean that boys are misusing the technology they were exposed to , and this is very dangerous because this is a harmful way to prove a boy’s masculinity and boys tend to do this as part of their attempts to discover themselves and this simply means that a full generation and society is at risk of losing themselves to prove their masculinity.

And to link the findings of this documentary with Carlos Andres Gomez book , the part which really got my attention from this book is , when he realized that he is homophobic even if he was behaving and thinking about himself like a gay , and the documentary helped me understand this view when saying that masculinity is about physical appearance and the thoughts about one’s self as a man influenced by society , that yes sometimes men behave and dress like women but sometimes this is a result of society traits and stereotypes .

Finally , “Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice.” — Edwin Louis Cole

Miryam Sioufi

“The most worth-while thing is to try to put HAPPINESS into the lives of others” Lord Baden Powell

These inspirational words were said by The Lord Robert Steven Smith Baden Powell , who is The cheif and the founder of the scout around the world. Baden Powell was born on 22nd february 1857 in Paddington London(England) and died on 8th January 1941 in Nyeri ( British Kenya)

If I want to talk about baden powell’s acheivments and contribution it would last for tommorow because he is an amazing person and his words contributes a lot to my life and personality and i have learned a lot from his story .

if you want to know why i consider this person my inspirational man , i would say because he created and found the most influencial and first world youth organization that helped and still helping over 4 million youth to create there personalities based on amazing books and words , and i am one of those millions of youths that were influenced by his amazing words .

His words had influenced me a lot resulting in me choosing to be a member of this youth world organization from childhood and now continuing his mission of working with the youths and trying to influence them the same way Baden Powell`words has done for me , now i am working with the scout here in Montreal in a scout group responsible for youths from 7-9 years old .

It may seem a strang or exggareted expression but if you do a analysis for my blood you will see scouting in the results .

Finally the greatest lesson i have learned from Lord Baden Powell was that wherever you are or whatever you have try to put happiness in the lives of others because this will make you fell like you are the happiest person on the earth and when you leave this world try to be touchable person in the life of others.

For me an inspirational person is a person who you can memorize forever for his contribution to your life , you have learned a lot from him and also tought him a lot. An inspirational person is someone who touches your life , who was beside you in your difficult moments as well as your happy , who support you in every step you do .

Miryam Sioufi

Pizza