OPINION:
In the recent case of a Tennessee soccer coach arrested on child sex abuse charges, it was only the accidental leaving of a cellphone at a restaurant that got him jailed (“Tennessee soccer coach arrested on child abuse charges,” web, July 10).
It is strange that the victimized boys didn’t come forward on their own, as they all must have felt something was wrong.
Boys are increasingly targeted by such predators, yet male child victims remain more hesitant and unlikely than girls to report the offenders/offenses.
Boys often refuse to open up or ask for help due to their fear of being perceived by peers and others as weak or nonmasculine.
A collective yet mostly subtle societal mindset persists: Real men can take care of themselves and boys are basically little men.
If mainstream media and advertisers fail to fully acknowledge, via their products, that this is wrong, why would the rest of society?
The mindset may explain why Donna Jackson Nakazawa’s book “Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal” includes just one man among its six interviewed adult subjects.
There must be a very small pool of men traumatized by adverse childhood experiences who are willing to tell their stories.
FRANK STERLE JR.
White Rock, British Columbia
Please read our comment policy before commenting.