We all knew them in our younger days: the guys whose bodies were expertly crafted by Budweiser and yet who referred to any girl over 100 pounds as a "fat chick," who targeted dorky guys and quiet girls, who were always "that drunk asshole."
If you've got a boy and half a brain, you really, really don’t want your son to turn into That Guy. The fabulous ladies over at Jezebel have a great piece up, beautifully titled "5 Ways to Prevent your Son from Turning Into a Date-Rapey Alcoholic Douchebag."
The biggest thing, of course, is teaching him to treat himself and his fellow humans –male and female –with respect.
Help him understand the odds of injury when overindulging, the dangers of ending up alcoholic and that peers don’t always have the right idea –like that girls only like guys who act like assholes (okay, some of us were stupid but wised up sooner rather than later). Know his friends –if they are douches, chances are he will be acting like one too the minute he's out of your sight.
And most importantly – stay in touch when he goes away to school.
I like the article, but it rocks even harder because it was a response to a Newsweek piece about warning daughters about alcohol before they go away to school, including warning them about how drunkenness raises your chances of date rape. As one of the commenters over at Jezebel said "That's not the alcohol's fault, dude."
So much attention is given to girls and their need to control their sexuality, to not "send the wrong message." And while girls certainly need to be aware that the nice guy filling their drink at a party might just not have their best interests at heart, guys need to be equally as aware that rape is rape and it doesn’t matter how drunk or slutty the girl in question might be. While yes, our girls need "the talk" about relationships, self-respect and how to behave, so do our boys.
