How does modern media portray the father figure? Allow us to observe some shining examples of fatherhood in recent media...
Mad Men (sleeping with his daughter's elementary school teacher)
Homer Simpson (bumbling fool)
Arrested Development (imprisoned real estate tycoon)
The Family Guy (uncouth and disgusting)
Dexter (serial killer)
Modern Family (half-wit)
Cinderella Story (controlling and selfish)
Rugrats (infants are smarter than their parents)
As displayed in these sitcoms, society and the family is constantly portrayed by the media as vice, not virtue. Where "father knows best" once served as sage wisdom, "child knows best" now reigns supreme.
Previous generations may have comfortable with "father knows best". In fact, they would have thought that it was the equivalent of saying "fire is hot". This generation will find it hard to believe, but "Father Knows Best" was actually the title of a hit TV series that ran from 1954 through about 1960. It actually began as a radio show in 1949.
My point is this: Can you imagine a TV series being produced today with that title...that is a resonating NO! Today's narrative promulgated by the media is that all things masculine are bad, evil, and therefore subject to denigration. Those attributes once respected, specifically manhood and fatherhood, are presented in the most negative light possible in media today.
Which brings me to this morning's flat assertion: the media has been engaging in a war on the family for the past 40 years. And it's biggest target has been fatherhood.
As you know, our household discussion rules of engagement require that flat assertions be backed up by evidence. To produce the evidence requires a brief walk through pop culture TV history.
If you go back to the 1950's and 1960's, kids grew up on sitcoms that were supportive of family, and especially men as fathers. There were shows like "Father Knows Best", "Leave it to Beaver", and "Make Room for Daddy", that promoted a family image. Other sitcoms, "The Brady Bunch" and "The Waltons" had multi-generational households where children lived with grandma and grandpa or older siblings and their offspring. In each of these shows, a child was raised with a moral code that encompassed respect for their elders, where consequences for lying, cheating, or stealing were denounced. Why would you allow media content into your home that is in direct contravention of the moral code? Why would you allow media content that encourages disrespect of the mother and the father or violation of the sanctity of marriage? Why introduce ideas with which you disagree?
Let me begin by saying that it is unimaginable that any of these sitcoms would have been produced before 1970. If you were to watch just one of these by itself it would be funny for sure. Instead you see a surfeit of vice and moral desolation promoted as the normal. And in each of these shows fatherhood is the victim. Now people will argue that watching an excess of immoral material doesn't have an effect on behavior. If that were true, companies would not spend billions of dollars on TV advertising to influence our buying decisions.
There exists a philosophy that fathers are not necessary to the raising of children. And I would agree with that assertion if the fathers resemble those presented as the norm in modern sitcoms. Watching an excessive amount of this new media gives young minds the impression that all families are train wrecks, and that all fathers are insipid and foolish. The media is essentially selling the idea that families are not good for people, and specifically that fatherhood is somehow deficient.
Remember, we all will gradually become part of what we are around. Therefore, it is important to control what you are around. Surround yourself with quality.