Sexy TV Dads

Shifting Paradigms of Fatherhood

© Jan Hill

Sep 5, 2006

father with child, microsoft image bank

Sexy TV dads are nurturing, flexible, suportive, collaborative and intelligent. Could this indicate a paradigm shift in fatherhood?

Last night, while watching Medium reruns with Patricia Arquette I fell in love with her television husband. Why? Well, he is a rocket scientist so he must be smart, and I like smart men. He is also a great Dad to their 3 daughters. He gets them off to school and picks them up and visits with the teacher, and for the most part, seems to be really good at it. Although there is much reference to Arquette's character's history as a bored stay at home mom, the story line usually shows her late for dinner, out of the house before breakfast, and fraught with 'oops I brought my job home again' anxiety.

Is this a new kind of fatherhood that the media is portraying? The kind of fatherhood that doesn't include insensitivity, self-absorption, and bungling around in the kitchen. If so, sign me up!!

According to Stephen Jay Gould, biological evolution happens quickly, as if there is a build up of possibilities, and then a sudden shift to a new species, or a radically modified quality within an existing species. Perhaps social evolution follows a similar pattern. Does this new representation of fatherhood signify a paradigm shift?

The flip side of focusing on women's social equality is the impact that it has on men's roles. Research indicates that as women have moved out into the workforce, their work day has lengthened. They still maintain most of the responsibility for home management and childcare. However, the changing role of women within families has had a huge impact on the men within those families. While researchers suggest the impact has manifested in increased divorce rates, and common-law relationships, many men have embraced their increasingly integrated roles as fathers. If popular culture is a barometer for social change, then perhaps a giant step forward has been made when mainstream television shows embrace the idea that contemporary rocket- scientist fathers are nurturing, flexible, supportive, emotionally integrated, collaborative, and still mighty sexy.


The copyright of the article Sexy TV Dads in Gender Inequality is owned by Jan Hill. Permission to republish Sexy TV Dads must be granted by the author in writing.




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1.   Sep 5, 2006 7:13 AM

So is the last bastion of gneder equality within the family? Are we experiencing a gender role shift in fatherhood? We hear alot about 'deadbeat dads' but what is the other side of the paradigm? Wh ...

-- posted by janhill

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