Peter Pan, Donald Jr., Ryan Seacrest and the boys.
It was early summer, and the wealthy politician’s son was in trouble. He’d done something terrible, possibly criminal, something that would almost certainly derail his future and harm his family.
As he and his siblings had always done, he went back to the family home, to confess to the father who’d had such high hopes for his offspring. “Dad, I’m in some trouble,” he reportedly said.
And then the family took over.
The family’s crisis team drafted a statement for the young man to give and, crucially, a strategy to shape the public’s perception. If America saw this married man in his late 30s as a boy — handsome and high-spirited, mischievous, not a criminal — he’d be able to squirm out of his misdeeds with minimal punishment.
If this sounds familiar, it should. It’s how, in the summer of 1969, the Kennedy camp managed the fallout after 37-year-old Teddy drove his car off a bridge off Chappaquiddick Island, and his young female passenger died.
…(Spoiler alert: In 1969, Senator Kennedy received only a two-month suspended sentence for actions that left 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, an actual young person, dead.)
I’m finding it really difficult not to just copy and paste the entire article here; it’s completely spot on.
The article goes on to illustrate how grown-ass (white) men, such as the 39-year-old Donald Trump, Jr., 33-year-old (at the time of the “pussy” tape) Billy Bush, and 32-year-old Ryan Lochte, continue to evade responsibility by claiming “boys will be boys.” This defense doesn’t work for girls/women (of course) or nonwhite boys/men (like 12-year-old Tamir Rice).
Seriously, give the article a read: The Men Who Never Have to Grow Up
^^ same.
“If boys will be boys, then girls must be grown-ups, whose job it is to protect men from their worst impulses. Witness every administrative body, from middle school to Congress, that has decided that it’s easier and more culturally acceptable to police girls’ and women’s clothing than it is boys’ behavior.
Should one of these fine young fellows slip — inflamed, perhaps, by one bare shoulder too many — there’s probably a woman to blame, and it’s his punishment, not his crime, that becomes the tragedy.”























