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Dads on the Front Line
The Fight Against Sexism By Kelly Burgess
However, as Roland Warren doesn't hesitate to point out, men are also objectified in our culture and it hurts women and men equally. Warren is the president of The National Fatherhood Initiative and father of two boys, ages 18 and 21.
Warren's example is the father who dresses the children for summer on a winter day. He also takes exception to the latest round of J.C. Penney ads featuring a dad losing control of the household and crying in despair, "Where is your mother?" The tagline is that she's off at the J.C. Penney all day sale, but what Warren wants to know is this: What mother would feel comfortable going out shopping all day if her husband was an incompetent dunce?
"In our culture men are objectified at a different level," says Warren. "They are portrayed as dumb, dangerous or disaffected. This particularly hurts when it's framed around the issues of family and parenting, because our country is already trying to deal with a growing problem of fatherless households."
The National Fatherhood Initiative is dedicated to improving the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible and committed fathers.
"As a father of two young men, something I've found particularly harmful are the images of how they're supposed to view themselves as men and their roles as men," says Warren. "That's all interconnected to how they view women. The media culture works pretty aggressively to keep men and women both in roles that are defined in pretty specific ways. This keeps men and women from being full partners."
