Deconstructing Dads

Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture

Edited by Laura Tropp and Janice Kelly - Contributions by Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns; Canela Ailen Rodriguez Fontao; Lynda Goldstein; Justin J. Hendricks; Leandra Hinojosa Hernández; Shirley Hill; John W. Howard III; Sarah Kornfield; Deepika Kulkarni; William Marsiglio; Laura C. Prividera; Ralph LaRossa; Peter Schaefer and Heidi Steinour

In the twenty-first century, fatherhood is shifting from simply being a sidekick in the parental team to taking center stage with new expectations of involvement and caretaking. The social expectations of fathers start even before the children are born. Mr. Mom is now displaced with fathers who don’t think of themselves as babysitting their own children, but as central decision makers, along with mothers, as parents. Deconstructing Dads: Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture is an interdisciplinary edited collection of essays authored by prominent scholars in the fields of media, sociology, and cultural studies who address how media represent the image of the father in popular culture. This collection explores the history of representation of fathers like the “bumbling dad” to question and challenge how far popular culture has come in its representation of paternal figures. Each chapter of this book focuses on a different aspect of media, including how advertising creates expectations of play and father, crime shows and the new hero father, and men as paternal figures in horror films. The book also explores changing definitions of fatherhood by looking at such subjects as how the media represents sperm donation as complicating the definition of father and how specific groups have been represented as fathers, including gay men as dads and Latino fathers in film. This collection examines the media’s depiction of the “good” father to study how it both challenges and reshapes the ways in which we think of family, masculinity, and gender roles.

Lexington Books

Pages: 310 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-1603-7 • Hardback • December 2015 • $133.00 • (£102.00)

978-1-4985-1605-1 • Paperback • August 2017 • $60.99 • (£47.00)

978-1-4985-1604-4 • eBook • December 2015 • $57.50 • (£44.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Men's Studies, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Media Studies, Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Sociology / Marriage & Family

Deconstructing Dads

Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

In the twenty-first century, fatherhood is shifting from simply being a sidekick in the parental team to taking center stage with new expectations of involvement and caretaking. The social expectations of fathers start even before the children are born. Mr. Mom is now displaced with fathers who don’t think of themselves as babysitting their own children, but as central decision makers, along with mothers, as parents. Deconstructing Dads: Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture is an interdisciplinary edited collection of essays authored by prominent scholars in the fields of media, sociology, and cultural studies who address how media represent the image of the father in popular culture. This collection explores the history of representation of fathers like the “bumbling dad” to question and challenge how far popular culture has come in its representation of paternal figures. Each chapter of this book focuses on a different aspect of media, including how advertising creates expectations of play and father, crime shows and the new hero father, and men as paternal figures in horror films. The book also explores changing definitions of fatherhood by looking at such subjects as how the media represents sperm donation as complicating the definition of father and how specific groups have been represented as fathers, including gay men as dads and Latino fathers in film. This collection examines the media’s depiction of the “good” father to study how it both challenges and reshapes the ways in which we think of family, masculinity, and gender roles.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 310 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-1603-7 • Hardback • December 2015 • $133.00 • (£102.00)

978-1-4985-1605-1 • Paperback • August 2017 • $60.99 • (£47.00)

978-1-4985-1604-4 • eBook • December 2015 • $57.50 • (£44.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Men's Studies, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Media Studies, Social Science / Popular Culture, Social Science / Sociology / Marriage & Family

Author

Laura Tropp is professor of communication and media arts at Marymount Manhattan College.

Janice Kelly is associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Molloy College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Laura Tropp and Janice Kelly
Introduction: Changing Concepts of the Good Dad in Popular Culture
Janice Kelly and Laura Tropp
Section I: The Evolving Dad in Popular Culture
Chapter 1: The Culture of Fatherhood and the Late-Twentieth-Century New Fatherhood Movement: An Interpretive Perspective
Ralph LaRossa
Chapter 2: Who’s Your Daddy: Sperm Donation and the Cultural Construction of Fatherhood
Laura Tropp
Chapter 3: Soldiers and Fathers: Archetypal Media Representations of Service, Family, and Parenting
Laura C. Prividera and John W. Howard
Chapter 4: Decoding Comedic Dads: Examining how Media and Real Fathers Measure up with Young Viewers
Janice Kelly
Section II: Dads Across Popular Culture Genres
Chapter 5: Watching the Leisure Gap: Advertising Fatherhood with the Privilege of Play
Peter Schaefer
Chapter 6: Detecting Fatherhood: The “New” Masculinity in Primetime Crime Dramas
Sarah Kornfield
Chapter 7: Magazine Depictions of Fathers’ Involvement in Children’s Health: A Content Analysis
Justin J. Hendricks, Heidi Steinour, William Marsiglio, and Deepika Kulkarni
Chapter 8: New Paternal Anxieties in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Protecting the Family against (Supernatural) External Attacks
Fernando Gabriel Pagnono Berns and Canela Ailen Rodriguez Fontao
Section III: (Representing Dads)
Chapter 9: From Good Times to Blackish: Media Portrayals of African-American Fathers
Shirley A. Hill and Janice Kelly
Chapter 10: Queering Daddy or Adopting Homonormative Fatherhood?
Lynda Goldstein
11. Paternidad, Masculinidad, and Machismo: Evolving Representations of Mexican/-American Fathers in Film
Leandra H. Hernández
Index
About the Contributors

Reviews

Communication scholars Tropp and Kelly have compiled an important, in-depth collection that explores the ways in which contemporary media representations of fatherhood cultivate expectations about family life, fuel misconceptions about parenting, and promote complicated and contentious ideas about what being a father means. Contributors use literature reviews, audience studies, and content and textual analyses to examine topics such as the culture of fatherhood and the conduct of fathers; sperm donation and lineage; soldiers, military service, and family commitment; stay-at-home dads, caretaking, leisure, and manhood; masculinity in crime dramas and horror films; increased, yet domesticated, portrayals of gay fathers; and how representations of African American fathers in sitcoms and Mexican American fathers on film disrupt and perpetuate stereotypes about these men and groups. Taken together, the essays illustrate striking contradictions in representations of fathers by showing how these representations are progressive, subversive, and hopeful and also restrictive and harmful, among the latter especially those that offer tidy, uncomplicated depictions of fatherhood; reify patriarchy; and perpetuate traditional attitudes toward gender and parenting. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.
— Choice Reviews

Deconstructing Dads

Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture

Deconstructing Dads

Changing Images of Fathers in Popular Culture

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