As many of you in the US I'm sure are aware of, Father's Day is this weekend. I already talked about how much I adore my husband, and father of my children this post , so I won't repeat it here.
What I do want to talk about is the perception of fatherhood in our society.
On Mother's Day, I saw an outpouring of support, and admiration of women, for our place as mothers, and wives. It was a week of gushy posts on Facebook, and Twitter. Images of flowers, and blessing of love, and gratitude filled social, and news media. Suggestions about the best gifts, and the yummiest breakfast to wake mom up to was everywhere.
What do I see this week as we lead up to Father's Day?
I see a bunch of goof posts. A collection of spoof moments designed to make us laugh at how bad of a job that dad did, or how questionable his parenting skills are. He could never be a mom, and that, for so many is hilarious for some reason. (Not that I think that's true, but that's the general idea behind the meme) I have seen a few shopping ideas, but mostly I see much poking fun at dumb ol' dad type of gaffs.
Why is that? Would it be okay if the gender were reversed, and we had a bunch of 'look at how clueless of a mother you were in this picture'- stories posted? I highly doubt it. I would expect a pretty big backlash if men talked about their wives poor parenting skills the way we do men's.
I'm not judging people for this. I know it's supposed to be all in good fun. I just question the beliefs behind it, as well as the values it reinforces. Men aren't dumb animals waiting for women to come save them from themselves. Just the same as we ladies aren't all princesses waiting for a man to come along to provide for us. We're just people with global abilities that are not determined by our gender. Both genders have a lot to offer in the world, and both should be celebrated for our individual strengths independent of stereotypes.
What do you love about your father, or the father of your children? What are you doing for Dad on Father's day?
Thursday, June 13, 2013
4 comments:
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I love that someone else sees this! This is why Father's day and Mother's day are never a big thing in my house. When I was little I made cards at school but we've never done anything at home. Our philosophy is that we should appreciate our parents every day. When I have kids I will continue this untraditional tradition :)
ReplyDeleteI do like to celebrate those days, but we never get very extravagant about it though. Your philosophy is definitely a good one to live by!
DeleteI am one of those people who hate jokes, especially hurtful ones that are meant to be all in good fun. Know why? Because behind each of these things is the belief that they are true. No one make fat jokes about someone who is not fat, no matter how much they say they are "just kidding." It is only a way to say mean, hurtful things without having to take responsibility for their believe. Drives me crazy! Ok, now that that rant is out...on to the Dads.
ReplyDeleteIt is not only around father's day that we see these types of "spoofs on men". If we look at all our TV sitcoms, and commercials they berate men everyday. The commercial of the poor fool trying to pick up a girl in the bar, or a show about how stupid men are...all of them are geared towards and DO emasculate our men. As a mom of three boys, with a fourth on the way, this concerns me deeply. I do not like the idea that our society sees our men in this way. They are useful and worthwhile wonderful beings!
Can you imagine how women would react if we were portrayed like our men are? It would not be pretty. Thank you for writing this post, it is time to celebrate our men, and our boys, and show them how much worth they have!
You're right. I was noticing that the inequality recently on TV, as well. Men are portrayed as dumb, and women are in all the cleaning commercials. I've thought about doing a post about that, too. We're still not equal until I see a man in a Swiffer commercial acting like he knows what he's doing without a woman walking in, and rescuing him from what is so obviously portrayed as women's work anyway. The Clorox commercials are probably the worst.
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