ethnography paper

Lauren Best

3/30/09

WS 1003

Ethnography Paper

In the excerpt from bell hooks’ book The Will To Change, she discusses a major problem facing young, growing men: the patriarch. The patriarch is still a threat to both of the sexes in today’s western society, yet there are a growing number of single parent mothers raising multiple children alone. Hooks states that even if young males hold pro-feminist ideals, once they enter school they will also face sexist male peers and a widespread cultural patriarchal propaganda. After deciding to interview a number of young and adult men who were primarily raised by their mother, I concluded that these men all seemed to have a somewhat different outlook on women due to their matriarchal background.

As a growing number of mothers are taking the primary responsibility as a parent, roles are beginning to shift in today’s ever-changing society. Single parent mothers must now fill both of the roles of father and mother as they try to raise their children. But what happens to the young men raised primarily by their mothers? Hooks states that it is still very hard on the mother to try to raise her son in an anti-patriarchal manner, because they do not have enough time and their sons face outward influence as well. In the chapter from her book The Will to Change, she states that “single parent mothers with limited economic resources lack the effort to consistently map for their sons alternatives to patriarchal masculinity simply because it takes too much time.” She also points out that “many anti-patriarchal parents find that the alternative masculinities they support for their boy children are shattered not by grown-ups but by sexist male-peers.” So do young men all turn out the same despite their varied parental backgrounds? After interviewing a few men on their matriarchal background as a young boy, I found that’s not true in the present day.

I interviewed two young men, James and Andy, both of the age of 20 and my father Tracy, age 55, who were all raised solely by their mothers as they grew up. All of these men stated firmly that their mother played a huge role as caretaker and greatly shaped their perspective on gender and the sexes. Both James and Andy claimed that they treat women with the highest respect and admiration due to their mothers. “I watched my mom work so hard to raise my brothers and I and still have a 9 to 5 job… that’s amazing!” Andy said. All of the men continued to express how greatly their strong mothers impacted their opinion of women. James stated that he doesn’t feel as threatened by independent women because of his mother and that he is even more attracted to strong, independent women because of her. . My father Tracy experienced this same effect but during the baby boomer generation. “Your grandmother raised six of us kids after my dad died when I was two. I watched her own her very own business and still manage to be there for dinner each night. She was like a super hero!”