BY Tenere Williams

If you are 18 years or older, you may have noticed an ever-so-slight decline in certain recreational tools of life that helped you mature into a man. Through simple observations of a few fundamental stepping stones that help male youth find their rank on the social totem pole, I have discovered that the young men today are being subjected to a life of—what’s a good word?—wussyness. I’m here to point the finger at society and its social and technological “progression” as the reason for the weak youth of today.

Below are some critical areas that I believe are affecting the lack of ruggedness in today’s youth.

1)  PLAYGROUNDS – When I was a young buck comin’ up, the playground was hallowed ground. Whether it was recess at school or playing at the park, the playground was one of the ultimate proving grounds of a young man’s physical prowess. Whether it was how far/high you could jump out of a swing, doing a flip off of a swing, seeing which was the farthest monkey bar you could jump to, racing other kids on the monkey bars or playing games on big, shiny, pseudo-metal looking slides, you had your chance to solidify your place among the playground legends.

Take this photo of kids playing in a fountain for example. Those young men are playing around with the dolphins. What they should be doing to cool off is running through sprinklers on their lawn or getting sprayed with a water hose—not living the good life, playing around with fountains.

I remember a time when playground equipment was from the Civil War era…old, rickety and made simply of wood and metal. There was nothing but gritty sand below the monkey bars. You jump for that sixth monkey bar and miss, that was your face in the sand, mister.

I remember swings being nothing but a leather strap and a metal chain. You go for that flip and don’t get all the way around, a bloody nose or a trip to the dentist was probably in order. And crying?! What? You could forget about crying because that simply wasn’t an option.

And for all the falls,  scraped knees, elbows, faces and broken teeth, it was all worth it to hear the ooohs and ahhhs from your peers. You knew that if you succeeded, the world was yours and if you failed, you did it on such a grand scale that nothing but respect was given.

Fast forward to today. Have you seen playgrounds? Everything is plastic. There are mats underneath the equipment! Kids get strapped into swings. Parents actually pay attention to their kids! Even worse, some parents actually get on the equipment with their kids and play. That is exactly why kids don’t know how to interact anymore, there’s no one to challenge them.

Things have gone sorely wrong. Parents always ready to sue somebody, the city enforcing safety and health codes…what about the man code? Next time you’re at the playground with a young buck, go ahead and let him fall off the rings. And if he looks to you and wants to cry, you look him dead in his eye and say, “You better not. Don’t you dare embarrass me, yourself or the family name! Just throw some dirt on it, and you’ll be alright.”

If you have kids, I strongly suggest you find some old school playground that has not been updated and have your kids play there. If you don’t have kids, I suggest you lobby to your local city council person to bring back old rickety playgrounds.

2) TOYS – Do you remember the amount of manly toys that were out when you were a kid? I’m talkin’ G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Transformers, He-Man, Go-Bots, Thundercats, Silver Hawks, etc. I remember carrying around a Darth Vader case that had all my action figures in it. The greatest thing was that you could not only buy the characters with names but you could buy the regular foot soldiers or Storm Troopers and really have true battles between good and evil in your room or with your friends.

I also remember the sheer size of toys when I was younger. I could barely hold the G.I. Joe Skystriker (F-14 Tomcat) or Star Wars Millennium Falcon because they were pretty much the size they were on the TV or movie screen. I mean G.I Joe even had the USS Flag, a 7-foot air craft carrier! I never got that, but I remember that thing taking up a whole shelf by itself.

And let’s not even talk about the cool names for characters:

Star Wars: Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Jabba the Hut, Chewbacca, Bobafet, Lando Calrissian, Han Solo

Transformers: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Jazz

G.I. Joe: Duke, Scarlett, Roadblock, Snake Eyes, Cobra Commander, Destro, Storm Shadow

Thundercats: Lion-O, Panthro, Tigra, Mum-Rah, Monkien, Slithe

He-Man: He-Man, Skeletor, Battle Cat

Not only are those all cool names but they could double as cool names for any male seed (minus Jabba the Hut or Chewbacca). But toys nowadays are all super heroes. That’s boring. And don’t get me started on these wannabe toy companies that are trying to go retro like the Transformers. If you’re not gonna do it right, don’t do it at all.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love a set of giant Hulk hands or Iron Man helmet as much as the next guy, but the youth of today need to go back to those good ol’ metal and real plastic toys and add some variety to let the imagination run wild and get off the video games. By playing with some manly toys and watching manly cartoons, maybe we can restore the “man” back in manhood.

3) SPORTS UNIFORMS – I remember when I played in my first basketball league at the local YMCA. I was on the 76ers, but you would have never known that because nothing on my uniform gave the slightest indication that I was on the 76ers. You know why? Because it was simply a maroon shirt that said “YMCA” across the front. That was it—not even the right colors. But you know what, I didn’t care. I was just happy to be playing.

Now it’s all about style. I saw a kid not too long ago wearing a uniform that looked almost exactly like a Laker uniform, and come to find out that was his little b-ball league team uniform. He had the head band and everything…except skills. Kids today would probably cry if they had to wear the uniforms I wore, but it was that type of realness that gave me the skills I have today. Yes, simply by wearing an old t-shirt that said YMCA gave me skills to win a high school basketball championship, and I could only hope to one day wear a professional team jersey because it would have been a privilege not a right.

Same goes for Little League baseball uniforms. I see uniforms today that look better than those in the MLB. What happened to just wearing a shirt with the team name spelled out in block letters? Or better yet, just the initial of your team in the corner of the jersey (“Y” for Yankees; “G” for Giants). Now that’s ballin’ and that’s how true men roll!

The bottom line of all my ranting is this: the young men of today are getting soft due to the so-called “betterment” of society. But if you ask me, if kids don’t start getting back to basics and playing on real playgrounds, playing with real toys and getting basic looking sports uniforms, the U.S. may become the laughing stock of the world. Okay,  maybe not that bad, but we’ll be in trouble.

So again, regardless of the situation your young son/brother/nephew may come across in the process of developing his manhood, my advice is to tell him, “Just man up and throw some dirt on it, you’ll be alright!!”

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Tenere can be reached at twilliams@oyemag.com

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