Growing up in the hood in a two parent home owned by my grandparents, I had the fortune to learn a lot about life and the expression of life early on. One of my favorite phrases happens to have been family jewels. My grandfather would often tell me to ‘Get you some Jewels, boy.’ One day I got up the courage to ask what he meant by that and he began to explain to me. Jewels were a man’s precious stones. The idea was still Greek to me, but I went outside the house and repeated it every chance I got.
When a friend was acting similar to the way I had been when my grandfather suggested to me that I get some Jewels, I would use the phrase. ‘Get you some Jewels, boy.’ I made it popular in my hood, but it was spreading like wildfire on its own in other hoods.
I got into high school, and the white kids would call it Crown Jewels. Same meaning, different dialect. I started to use them both interchangeably. But, Family Jewels was my favorite. Then as I got older and more intrigued with words and their definitions, I wanted to know for myself what exactly did this term mean. After a short search in the library, I began to find books and such on the subject. Apparently, the slangy expression denoting a man’s private parts had quite the colorful history.
Family Jewels was indeed a man’s precious stones. Back in the old days, the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries, there was supposedly an actual piece of clothing with jewelry attached covering a man’s private parts. This piece of jewelry was handed down from fathers to sons to show manhood. When it became uncool to don such a fabulous piece of fabric ‘Family Jewels’ was born. Or something like that…
Family Jewels are testicles. Family jewels are nuts. Family Jewels can be equated to manhood. No nuts, no glory, and all those phrases that tend to support masculine stereotypes. But, you can’t let your Family Jewels define your manhood alone. When you’re a Mr. Nice Guy with “no nuts,” you can quickly be perceived as a Pretty Pushover. Nice Guys might take a passive approach to life and relationships. Nice guys are said to finish last. Instead of standing up for themselves, some men let others walk all over them. ’Get you some Jewels, boy,’ as my grandfather would say.
I used to be a Mr. Nice Guy. I used to have that ‘go with the flow’ attitude. I would let things happen, rather than make things happen. Until, my wife told me almost the exact same thing my grandfather did. ‘You gotta stand up for yourself. That’s not attractive.’
Woah! I didn’t see that coming. I always viewed myself as an assertive type dude. Guess I still have some learning to do, because I love and respect my wife so much. I immediately began to change my ways. I’m more stern now and I say “No” a lot! I guess you can say I finally got my Jewels.
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