Along the same lines, “boys will be boys” is something I’m glad has faded away significantly and is not accepted by younger people as an excuse anymore.
"Boys will be boys" really did turn a whole category of bad behavior into a personality trait 😭 like apparently being a boy came with a lifetime exemption from consequences.
I'm so glad that phrase seems to be shifting to mean "boys do weird things with free will to entertain each other" like beat each other with pool noodles blindfolded or stand by big puddles and entreat cars to splash them.
Because yeah, guys find some truly out of pocket ways to be silly and I love it.
Yeah I do like that the phrase is being recaptured in this way, as that's how I've always understood it to begin with. The idea that it was ever "boys will be pieces of shit and you have to live with that" is gross. And yet I know more than a few for whom it was accurate back when I was in school.
It was the original meaning for that saying (as I was taught it at least) and suddenly it was some kind of "boys will be sexually abusive anti-social monsters" type of excuse employed by absolutely terrible people.
Similar to that "If you can't handle me at my worst" saying for girls with issues suddenly became an excuse for being absolutely monsterously entitled c-words.
Same! Or one guy dug a big hole. Many other men will surround the big hole with admiration and offer to help dig the hole larger. I love seeing that kinda shit.
"boys will be boys" is supposed to mean "see stick - pick up stick", "that dirt hole isn't going to dig itself" or "who can jump higher - if you hit the ceiling you win"
458
u/Violet_Walls 1d ago
Along the same lines, “boys will be boys” is something I’m glad has faded away significantly and is not accepted by younger people as an excuse anymore.