We all need positive role models, and perhaps none more so than our boys today. One in four boys in America is living without a father. Only one in five teachers in primary school is male. In fact, as a share of the profession, there are twice as many women flying fighter jets in U.S. military planes than there are men teaching in Kindergarten. And the dearth of good men in the lives of boys is not just at home, or in schools… but in the media, and online too. Look to your social media feeds and you’ll see Andrew and his army of Tatertots, hear the bombastic low IQ rhetoric of Fresh and Fit, and the grifts and whines of an unruly mob of equally poor male role models. What is spat out of our TV sets are no better. Gone are the days of Mr Rogers and his wholesome world views. No more are we blessed with Bob Ross and his meaningful advice for life. And Uncle Phil’s stern, yet consistently fair style of fatherhood abandoned our screens long ago. Today, we live in the era of inept TV dads, and incompetent fathers; Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin, Hal Wilkerson, Phil Dunphy, and even Daddy Pig. Each another poor reflection of fatherhood; lazier, and more incompetent than the last. Again and again, it’s the same tired tropes, wheeled out to the same deflated boys. Whilst within the context of modern parenthood, such archetypes make increasingly less sense, as fathers are actually doing more and more than ever before, and this is how we represent them. More childcare, more house keeping, and more solo parenting; the dads of the real world are short changed and betrayed for knee-slapping laughs and other cheap comedy schtick. Have you seen it too? Where have the good TV fathers gone? And how many more doofus dads do we have to rack up and project into the hearts and minds of our boys, before the canned laughter stops? What do you think? ~ Study  Children without dads Teachers by sex  Dads and child care  Images by Francisco Andrilotti #dads #dadsofinstagram #dadslife #mensmentalhealth #boys

2024-01-12