A Young Man's Journey by Floyd Godfrey

Floyd Godfrey’s story is about a man “curing” himself of his attraction to other men. This is a controversial topic, because of the debate on whether conversion therapy is legitimate or quackery. I’m going to base my review on the quality of the writing, not on the actual content or the opinions of the author. Say what you like, but I have to respect free speech.

Godfrey describes his experiences in middle and high school with his female classmates, and needless to say, they weren’t very good. He saw the girls as friends, not as people he was attracted too, and since the girls often tried to seduce him, it was even more difficult. From his aunts, he was told that men were detached, didn’t want to listen. From his father he learned that flirting with girls was sinful, as shown where his father deliberately sat between him and a girl in church so they wouldn’t look at each other. Then he attended a Christian camp, where the boys are only interested in doing things that are forbidden by the church. From that he learned about hypocracy.

Each chapter ends with a list of questions. In the chapter on sexual abuse, there’s a checklist for all the things that might be going through a young man’s mind while he’s being abused; does he think it was his fault, was he looking for a mentor, did he know deep down that this was wrong?

Godfrey also touches on the issue of pornography, which he sees not as a perversion but as a kind of addiction. He says that viewing it doesn’t make you a pervert, but you do need to recognize that it’s not something you can control. I don’t necessarily agree that porn is evil, but I don’t think it helps young men improve their sex lives either. Seeing women with large round breasts, big brown nipples, perfectly round butt cheeks, big beautiful lips, long blond hair, and “come hither” looks can make you expect too much when you finally get laid. The average woman looks nothing like that. Just like the famous writer John Ruskin was horrified to discover that his wife had pubic hair, the average young man will have a hard time with the fact that women aren’t all Vogue models.

I’m going to give Floyd Godfrey credit for the effort. He touches on a lot of issues with regard to how young people are taught about sex dating. It’s definitely something that has to be dealt with through sex ed.