The Media: THe Social Construction of Gendered Parental Roles

The Media: THe Social Construction of Gendered Parental Roles

The Media: The Social Construction of Gendered Parental Roles

There is a type of discrimination that occurs every day in our modern society.   It goes largely unnoticed and unacknowledged, but hurts millions with its silent sting.   It is the discrimination against fathers and is perpetrated by the long tendrils of the media.   Every father, no matter how adequate, inadequate or superb, is affected by this constant defamation.   This discrimination consists of the constant degrading of the parenting role of the father and is, as well as has been a detriment to the fostering of positive relations between a father and his child or children increasingly over the past years.   This treatment is unfair, unfounded and harmful.   Unfortunately, it is also prevalent in our society.   The media, as the largest shaper of social constructions, is most effective through two of its most popular subdivisions, the entertainment media and the advertising media.   Both parts have a long-standing record of discrimination against fathers and show no sign of recognizing the implications of their actions, let alone stopping them.   The reason why this is such a tragedy is that the images that the media portrays are so often taken as fact, that these beliefs have sunken into our societal consciousness and become "truths" in the mind of the average American when they truly are not.   With few images to hint at the contrary in our lives, how can we defend ourselves from falling victim to the unfounded dominant belief?   The truth is that we cannot, but at least we can attempt to recognize the roots of our beliefs and at least begin to question the "givens".   The discrimination against fathers is an issue of culture and not of nature.
Through the television and movies, all we see, in regards to fathers, is the media's portrayal of their fabled inability to effectively parent.   It is rarely directly said that fathers are not as well equipped to parent as mothers, but it is greatly implied....