Pop Smear: Fathers in the Media

Anyone who has seen a movie, television show or commercial over the past couple decades can easily surmise that fathers are an easy target. Media-portrayed dad descriptors that come to mind are stumbling, bumbling, naive & ignorant, backwards, out-of-touch, lazy, vice-laden, misogynistic, sex-crazed (and it's only rarely for his spouse, of course), distant, selfish, and superficial. I am sure that there are many fathers who have partake of these deficiencies. But, is that mainstream? Should it be mainstream? I hope not!

A recent article from the Washington Times provides one historical depiction of fatherhood in the media. The thesis is that fathers are currently easy targets. If you target minority groups (women, gays, blacks, Asians, Latinos, etc.), that wouldn't be politically correct. For the most part, you could put any one of those categories as the butt of a joke on TV. Were you to do so, however, you wouldn't hear the end of it. Your career would be in jeopardy: you would have to attend "rehab". Criticize majority groups--like whites or dads (special combo deal if it's a white dad)--and you're in the safe zone. It's a pity that society looks to such pitiful role models when it comes to something as important as fatherhood. Unless fathers make their voices heard, I'm afraid the trends will continue.