In the wake of renewed discussions of sexual assault on campus, I’ve been trying to see what the “good guys” make of all of this. You know, the guys — largely heterosexual — who support the cause against rape and its culture, but are perhaps unsure of how to proceed from there. A question comes to mind: How do we raise better boys?

The notion of raising a boy, and all that entails tells boys to suppress their feelings.

Right after the presidential election, I felt an urgency to reach out to my younger brother on the west coast. So I sent a frantic, late-night text, imploring him not to let the now- permissible culture of male entitlement and disrespect engulf him. He didn’t reply.

I don’t think my words fell on deaf ears necessarily, but he may be representative of many boys and young men whose masculinity feels threatened. But it’s a masculinity we’ve created and reinforced at every turn, so it’s no surprise that it’s backfired on us now.

It’s wonderful to watch college-aged boys learn and adapt and accept responsibility for things they did not directly do, but are a part of implicitly. Unfortunately, they are constantly faced with restrictions and ideals of masculinity — or, otherwise, aptly named toxic masculinity. That’s a lot to reverse-engineer. I look forward to watching new generations raise new young men who will be greeted with a space for themselves so supportive that they then go into the world and make others feel supported too.