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I also had a visceral response to this article. As Mike Lanza is explaining his childhood experience to the journalist (Melanie Thernstrom), she quotes him:

I also had a visceral response to this article. As Mike Lanza is explaining his childhood experience to the journalist (Melanie Thernstrom), she quotes him: Since they didn’t want to “stoop all the way to girls,” he says, giving me a smile.

grotsnot 10y ago
To be fair, the guy is in his 50s. 40someodd years ago was a different world and he's just describing the attitudes of the time. Boys played with boys and girls played with girls. I interpreted as Lanza merely walking us through the thought process boys from the 70s had, not as saying it's an attitude boys today should have. It's easy to picture that smile as indicating self-awareness of the outdatedness of the attitude.