SEGAL, Eric J.

p. 638 :

Other observers characterized city life itself as an enervating influence and a threat to masculinity. One commentator wrote in 1902 that urban parents « are frequently pained to find that their children have less power and less vitality to endure the rough side of life than they have themselves. […] Families who live in the city without marrying country stock for two or three generations […] later are unable to rear strong families. » New working patterns for urban industries drew middle-class men from the home, subjected them to enfeebling work environments, and interrupted traditions of father-son apprenticeships through the intervention of corporations. Medical discourse, too, substantiated fears of modern urban life, identifying neurasthenia as an affliction affecting both men and women of « the in-door-living and brain-working classes. » In boys the disorder was treated with outdoor physical exercise.

To counter the influence of these perceived social developments, a variety of groups sought to shape the character of the nation’s youth, through the general rubric of boys' work. Boys' works organizations in American cities and towns included the popular Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), founded in 1851 to ease the transition of young men arriving for the first time in large cities, and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), formed in 1910. Concerned adults – by profession « boys’ workers » – in urban, rural, and farming communities formed extrascholastic organizations to benefit and manage boys from various classes. Character building, a narrower term than boys’ work, focused specific attention on preparing white, middle-class boys to become responsible men. Through extrascholastic activity designed to discipline youths, character-building groups sought to instill in middle-class boys in particular probity, rectitude, and robust physical health.

("Norman Rockwell and the Fashioning of American Masculinity" dans The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec., 1996))