IWF VP Carrie Lukas explains why Father’s Day is more than just a “Hallmark Holiday” on NRO this morning:
“The last few decades have been rough for fathers. If dads once were idealized in popular culture as all-knowing patriarchs, today they’re usually the butt of the joke. The Simpsons, comedy classic though it is, probably is the best known example. Marge is a relatively positive role model; a caring, generally sensible figure (in spite of the hair). Homer is stupid, childish, undisciplined, and completely incompetent. From Malcolm in the Middle to The Family Guy, the modern TV dad is more idiot than ideal. Just as any fictional battle-of-the-sexes today is invariably won by women, positive images of dads in entertainment are rare.”
“Our media culture’s disrespect for dads certainly stems from the sad reality that men increasingly are absent from their children’s lives. In this sense, television is relatively kind to fathers: They may be clownish, but at least they’re there – a dream for a growing portion of American children. Today, one in three children lives without his father. According to the National Fatherhood Institute, roughly one in ten children won’t see his father at all this year, and two in ten have never been to dad’s home.”