Another fashion spread, this one in Bazaar’s July 2009 issue, mocks the idea that a man can effectively take care of a home and children. The children will clearly suffer. It even suggests that doing so, and being married to a career woman, will inevitably lead him to stray. How could we blame him? Career women are obviously selfish, shallow, and cold.
Or maybe it’s satire, though I’ve lost all faith in satire these days.
Hat tip to Jezebel.
For another fashion shoot sending a clear message about family, click here.
UPDATE: In the comments, Amber Y. offered this alternative interpretation:
I don’t think that this photoshoot mocks a man’s ability to take care of his kids. Raising (three) children is a lot of work, especially if your partner is not an active participant. Switch roles and what images do we get? An overworked stay-at-home mother and a distant negligent working father – a very common image thrown at us from all angles. What this photoshoot shows me is the dynamic between the hard-working breadwinner and the hard-working family caretaker, and the *lack of appreciation* for the one who watches the kids. “Mr Big gets downsized.” The breadwinner ignores the caretaker in every photo. The message here isn’t that men can’t take care of kids; it is that people who take care of kids aren’t as important.
EKSwitaj replies to Amber:
Amber, I definitely see what you’re saying, but if we say that’s the point of the photoshoot then why are the usual gender roles reversed?
I see a few possibilities:
1) Because men aren’t typically expected to take the primary responsibility, it’s easier to imagine a man having difficulties with children and/or considered to be less of an insult.
2) If a woman were shown as having trouble with children it would be seen more as “female incompetence” than as a sign of general difficulty. This is in part because of our typical gender roles and in part because of women being the marked gender.
3) Because of the expectation that women be more nurturing, it is more upsetting to see a woman ignore children than to see a man doing the same. (Women being the marked gender, however, means that it’s more difficult to transfer this into a general statement about breadwinners.)
