What makes a male child become a “boy,” as we understand that concept socially? In her new book, When Boys Become Boys, Judy Y. Chu reports on her two-year study in which she followed a group of boys from pre-kindergarten through first grade. She concluded that most of what we think of as “boy” behavior isn’t natural or authentic to boys, but is something they learn to perform. Boys aren’t stoic or aggressive or hierarchical; they aren’t bad at forming relationships or unable to express themselves. They pick up all these traditional traits of masculinity by adapting to a culture that expects and demands that they do so. (via How Boys Teach Each Other to Be Boys – Noah Berlatsky – The Atlantic)