Proud Boys, Lost Boys, and Home Boys

What’s going with Boys these days? Let’s look at three groups of Boys and see if we can find out.

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash. Boys being boys. Will they become Men behaving like real Men?

A recent article in the AARP magazine (yep, I’m old and get the magazine) got me thinking about different groups of “boys,” which here is code for Men — or at least beings morphologically resembling Men.

The article is in the April/May 2024 issue, called “That Tat Has Got to Go,” by a retired ER doctor; and as it’s about Home Boys, being the high note, I’ll finish with that.

So … let’s start with the so-called Proud Boys.

First, I will ask a question I’ve asked before: If they’re so bloody proud of who and what they are — and what they are doing — why do they so often hide their faces? Thusly:

Screenshot by author, from CNN segment “The Proud Boys Explained: From Rituals to 1/6.” Accessed 5/10/24

Note the banner in the background: FREE OUR POLITICAL PRISONERS. They’re proud of 1/6? What political party has been vocal about characterizing the 1/6 insurrectionists in that way?

What presidential candidate?