Boys will (not) be Boys
A common saying in recent times, “boys will be boys,” is largely accepted as an argument against brutality, specifically male brutality. This statement claims that it is in boys’ physiological makeup to be savage and violent however this is not true. “Boys will be boys” does not take into consideration the vast movement society has taken against violence which proves that the desire for destruction does not exist in everyone. Although William Golding’s fictional novel, Lord of the Flies displays the innate desire in humans for chaos and destruction, he failed to recognize that this is not universal.
The boys in Golding’s novel are all trying to fight the savagery that comes from being stranded on a desolate island. Ralph in
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The founder of #metoo Tarana Burke released a statement on the importance of the movement saying “For too long, survivors of sexual assault and harassment have been in the shadows. We have been afraid to speak up, to say ‘Me Too’ and seek accountability. For many, the consequences of doing so have been devastating.” (Burke). Thousands of women have been able to speak up using the campaign and support each other in order to call this issue out for what it is. With so many women coming out and admitting to times when they’ve been taken advantage of, there is no way this is solely boys being boys. Lord of the Flies includes this idea of boys having power over a woman’s body symbolically through the hunt of the mother sow. One of the boys who is seen as the most violent of them all “found a ledgement point for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight.” (Golding 123). In this scene, the boys strip the sow of her innocence and it is arguably one of the most graphic and difficult scenes to read. Golding failed to include that not all boys would do this especially in this day and age of movements not unlike