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 stories 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.