Ours is a culture full of dad bods, but one short on father figures. That is the claim made in a new book about how our idea of fatherhood is shaped by pop culture. “Around the time I became a dad, which was right at the tail end of 2018, I noticed that there was a huge surge in Dad-shaped media,” explains Cian Cruise, author of Dad Bod: Portraits of Pop Culture Papas.
“So, I was curious. Do they have something new to say about what it meant to be a dad? Because I think being a dad nowadays is very different from all the figures that I grew up on, largely action movies from the 80s and 90s, where there were very different ideas of masculinity and therefore fatherhood. So, the initial seed or the core seed idea came from, has anything changed in the last 30 years?” WATCH: What can film, television, video games, and other forms of mainstream entertainment tell us about fatherhood? Author @CianCruise aims to find out in Dad Bod: Portraits of Pop Culture Papas.
#CityNewsBookshelf @CityNewsVAN @dundurnpress https://t. co/mgEtgPJbk1 — John Ackermann (@jackermann) June 19, 2022 Cruise starts off with a definition of the term Dad Bod itself. “The rough rundown on it is, if you’re really cute, if you’re a gym bunny, then you’re a little bit narcissistic because you’re spending all of your energy internally.
And then the Dad Bod represents the dude who used to be in shape, but now isn’t, as he’s got something else that’s taking over his attention,” he explains. “And I feel like that is a very interesting way of looking at both the change in our society, on the judging of men based on their appearance, as well as what does it mean to become a dad? Well, a big part of it is, you’re not the center of your own world anymore. ” Related Artice: Dad Up! A Father’s Day Q-and-A with comedian, dad, and author Steve Patterson Dad Bod asks the question, what can film, television, video games, and other forms of media tell us about being a dad? And how close are those myths to reality? Cruise admits every single dad he has ever seen in a movie or TV show has helped inform his idea of fatherhood.
And, sometimes, those portrayals aren’t all that positive. Cruise charts the evolution of the sitcom dad from the all-knowing Ward Cleaver in the 1950s to less-flattering portrayals like Al Bundy and Homer Simpson in the `80s, `90s, and beyond. “They’re the butt of every joke and therefore can’t parent.
They’re never shown as being a reasonable authority figure. ” He finds the trope of the bumbling sitcom dad to be especially harmful. “The idea that men don’t have men don’t have emotions, the idea that men can’t nurture, that they can’t be affectionate, that they don’t want to care or perhaps shouldn’t want to care, is dangerous, in part, because it’s repeated so much in our media, and it’s also dangerous in part because it’s just not true.
” Cruise classifies the various portrayals into different categories. There is the Distant Driven Dad, the Major Dad, the Adventuring Dad, and the Die-Hard Dad, among others. “Bruce Willis’ character, John McClain, is trapped in a situation he can’t get out of.
He is completely and woefully unprepared. He is talking to himself because he is slowly going crazy from the pressure of the situation. And he doesn’t even have any shoes! That’s what being a new dad feels like.
” Cruise hopes the book gets readers to question those portrayals more and come up with their own definition of fatherhood too. “Another structural thrust of the book is to take stuff that’s right in front of our face and say, ‘Wait a second. Let’s take a look at this.
’” Dad Bod: Portraits of Pop Culture Papas is published by Rare Machines and Dundurn Press. .
From: citynews1130
URL: https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2022/06/19/deconstructing-dad-book-culture-fatherhood/
