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THE LEN LESSER REPORT  

THE LEN LESSER REPORT

 

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MALE ACCOUNTABILITY= RESPECT & RESPONSIBILITY

With all the bad news of males being involved in sexual impropriety in politics, theater and business, we need to ask ourselves what/why the discord. I have never heard of women sexually assaulting a man.

Times have sure changed; for the most part women have gone on to post secondary education and meaningful careers. Check out the stats for the University of Western Ontario and you will find that the vast majority of students are female. The old school premiss that Medicine, Business, Law Teaching are the soul domain of males is wrong. Our young women with perseverance and dedication have earned
the right to excel and yes smash the invisible glass ceiling imposed by graying males.

According to Forbe’s Fortune 500 stats the Ceo’s of GM, IBM, Oracle, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics etc etc all the way to the Supreme Court have a multitude of talented women who are not afraid to speak out and lead.

Males for the most part have not striven for excellence in education assuming that it is not the macho way for men to appear to their friends. Being captains of the hockey. basketball, football team is often their raison d’etre, trusting that their athletic notoriety, will lead to a successful life after the final whistle
is sounded. Reading for fun for most males is not considered cool and video games are the in- thing to play.

Demeaning women and making sexual commentary/ advances for the most part was just thought of as "boys being boys sowing their wild oats." No thought of accountability for their lewd locker -room
negative behaviour.

Parents are long overdue to teach their sons that their words do matter and their behaviour should be respectful of all females. Unprotective sexual permissive activity at the time can look like fun but there
are consequences to their actions. Sexual demeaning comments and inappropriate touching are not acceptable.

I still remember a high school friend " John" who told me that he had been accepted into the prestigious Royal Military College program in Kingston to fulfill his life-long dream to be a military jet pilot. Two
weeks later, John with tears in his eyes, told me that his girlfriend, Joan was pregnant. Her parents had decided that at the age of 18 he had to take responsibilty for his actions and get married. After a brief moment of indiscretion his free education. career evaporated into the clouds. At the time the cadets
could not be married.

I never forgot the tears and I took the consequences of having sex very seriously.

Recently Harry, a good old Dorchester 50 year old boy, told me that he went to a "Stag and Doe" in the Village. His dance partner informed him that " she surmised that he may be her father?" Harry stuttered that with his former life style of having fun with the girls : "yes, you could be my daughter."

Young men have to learn that the moment of sexual inception is not where the parenting stops. There
are many years of expensive child care payments along with taking the time to raise a child.

For the most part teachers and school sex education classes are not the answer to help guide our
young men to be aware of their responsibilities to act in a respectful manner. Sorry folks you the parents are the role models to teach your sons that, here it goes again, the words respect/responsibility matters.

Len Lesser is an education/career counsellor in Dorchester.

Len Lesser

Len Lesser posts a report every week

You can email Len at lenlesser@hotmail.com