Last night, the ambitious drama/musical ‘Empire’ debuted on FOX. In one of the flashback scenes, Lucious Lyon (played by Terrence Howard) beats his 6-year-old son for wearing his mother’s feminine things. The flashback was based on ‘Empire’ writer and director Lee Daniels’ emotionally troubled childhood.
In an interview with former CNN host Larry King last year, Daniels explained how his police officer father beat him and dumped in a garbage can after he wore his mother’s shoes and wobbled into the room where his father was playing cards with his cop buddies.
Daniels said the beatings had no affect on him. He said he came downstairs the next Sunday wearing his mother’s shoes and carrying her purse.
Daniels was 6 years old — and by that time, the small window for successfully navigating through his psychosexual development stage had already passed.
Ages 2-6 is the crucial psychosexual developmental stage where boys begin to focus on their genitals and seek to identify with the same-sex parent. In the absence of a healthy male role model some boys will being to form an unhealthy attachment to their dominant/aggressive mother’s feminine things as a way to connect with her emotionally and gain her acceptance.
If the dominant mother (or weak father) rejects the child’s behavior, the boy will not navigate successfully through this stage of psychosexual development (Oedipus Complex).
Be aware that not all boys who covet their mother’s shoes will grow up to be cross dressers or gay.
What did you think of ‘Empire’?
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