{"id":3328,"date":"2019-02-20T11:36:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T16:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2019-02-20T11:36:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T16:36:45","slug":"dads-and-diaper-ads-a-tough-gender-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/2019\/02\/20\/dads-and-diaper-ads-a-tough-gender-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Dads and Diaper Ads: A Tough Gender Test"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1RKNm8balSs&#038;feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/1RKNm8balSs\">new diaper commercial<\/a> caught our eye this week.<\/p>\n<p>The Pampers Pure ad opens with John Legend changing his daughter\u2019s diaper, smiling and singing a song. A toy piano accompaniment joins in as other dads are seen wrangling toddlers and tenderly changing diapers. The lyrics rhyme their children\u2019s \u201cstinky booty\u201d with dad\u2019s \u201cdiaper duty.\u201d Beatboxing replaces one dad\u2019s lyrics. Each dad is expressing love and having fun during this everyday act of care for their baby. The commercial ends with a message from Pampers, thanking fathers for \u201cmaking every moment special.\u201d In a variation of this ad, as Legend sings, the camera pans out to reveal a chorus of 10 more singing dads with infants strapped to their chests\u2014a not-so-subtle metaphor for the fanfare and social applause men receive for merely changing a diaper.<\/p>\n<p>Watching this commercial reminded us of a series of diaper ads in 2012 that made headlines for invoking a very different message about fatherhood. Huggies had promised to put their product through the \u201ctoughest test imaginable\u201d by leaving fathers alone with their babies for five whole days. In <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/j7kX8ZKylD4\">one TV spot<\/a>, upbeat music plays while moms literally hand over babies to their fathers. The dads struggle to entertain, feed, and keep their babies clean. Changing diapers causes looks of befuddlement, intimidation, and disgust.<\/p>\n<p>Each of these ads conveys different meanings of fatherhood and men\u2019s relationships to their children, yet both are consistent with conventional meanings of gender and family. The Huggies ad frames fathers as babysitters to their own children, positioning women as primary parents who are rarely given a day off. The ad also pokes fun at fathers as clueless, comical, bumbling oafs when it comes to the most basic care needs of their children. When it was released, the Huggies ad received swift backlash from fathers groups who wanted their contributions to family labor recognized and taken seriously. Trying to sell diapers as so good that they even pass the \u201cdad test\u201d seriously missed that mark.<\/p>\n<p>John Legend\u2019s Pampers Care commercial, by contrast, conveys fathers as competently and casually caring for their children\u2019s diaper needs. Dads in Pampers\u2019 universe are equal partners who share diaper duty with their off-screen wives. But dads\u2019 diaper duty remains active, fun, and silly. Dads are shown tickling their children; holding their children\u2019s feet; kicking their legs to the tune; and pulling a toddler across the bed as he tries to crawl away. A similar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Honest\/videos\/378207616298570\/\">diaper ad<\/a> for this year\u2019s Super Bowl from the Honest Company noted that it was \u201cthe only day a year parents are hoping for a blowout #GoRams.\u201d As a dad bounced a blonde-headed toddler on his lap while making funny cheering sounds, the ad\u2019s tagline promised that the new Honest diaper \u201csurvives all his wiggles &amp; jiggles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now consider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=71-7oVOx3oQ\">yet another diaper commercial<\/a>, this one for Pampers Swaddlers, marketed as the softest diapers available of the Pampers line. A doctor places a tiny, crying newborn on her astonished mother\u2019s bare chest immediately after delivery as the mother embraces the vulnerable baby. The loving, feminine voiceover proclaims, \u201cFrom the first loving touch, everything that touches your baby should be this comforting.\u201d Their product is \u201cthe #1 choice of hospitals,\u201d \u201ctwo times softer,\u201d and \u201cwraps your baby in our most premium protection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Pampers Swaddlers: First Connection | Pampers\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/71-7oVOx3oQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The gendered messages are clear: <em>Diapers must merely \u201csurvive\u201d fathering, but they need to reflect the depth of motherly love.<\/em> Diapers ads are selling the idea that parents should buy the best diapers so moms can provide the most comfort and best care for their babies\u2014almost as an extension of the maternal body itself\u2014and, you know, just in case Dad needs to \u201cbabysit\u201d and things get rowdy.<\/p>\n<p>At first glance, the diaper commercials targeting men signal how far we\u2019ve come in making the gendered division of early childcare labor more equal. We should expect to see more commercials like this as men take on a greater share of diapering and other duties. But dad-focused diaper ads show diapering as fun play rather than part of the more laborious aspects of early childcare. The reality is that women deal with most of the figurative and literal shit of childrearing.<\/p>\n<p>And the diapers they need to do so aren\u2019t cheap. The average monthly diaper bill for one kid runs close to $80, more than 11 hours pay for a minimum-wage job. This is a major reason why one in three mothers in the United States struggle with <em>diaper need<\/em>, lacking enough diapers to keep a baby dry, comfortable, and healthy. It\u2019s also why many of those mothers must use what are called \u201cdiaper-stretching\u201d strategies to get diapers to last longer. Creating makeshift diapers out of paper towels, t-shirts, and duct tape, hanging wet diapers to dry for reuse, and urging kids not to drink that extra cup of water or milk are all things mothers across the country are doing to diaper their children.<\/p>\n<p>Diapering is not just gendered; it reflects vast and often hidden economic inequalities that make providing the basic essentials of early childcare nearly impossible for poor parents\u2014especially mothers in poverty. Mothers are not only doing the bulk of physical diaper labor required for wiping, cleaning, and fastening. They are also performing most of the mental and emotional labor when families must save, sacrifice, and innovate to stretch limited diaper supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing that provides more context to those dads play\/mothers care diaper ad messages. If soft, dry diapers are a reflection of maternal love, then what message does that send to poor mothers who can\u2019t afford enough diapers to keep their children comfortable? What are we selling to those women who do whatever they can, even going without food for themselves, to ensure their children have diapers as soft as a tender motherly touch? Is it any wonder that <a href=\"http:\/\/pediatrics.aappublications.org\/content\/132\/2\/253\">diaper need<\/a> is one of the strongest predictors of maternal stress, anxiety, and depression? Perhaps we could use more diaper ads that don\u2019t make women feel that they fail as parents when they can\u2019t afford diapers that prove a mother\u2019s love.<\/p>\n<p>Diapering dads is an important cultural message we all need to see and hear. And many fathers are doing their fair share. But we need to dispose of the idea that to make diapering seem manly, it needs to be fun, a game, or a way Dad gives Mom an occasional \u201cbreak\u201d from the kids. The \u201ctoughest test imaginable\u201d for diapers is not fathers\u2019 presumed incompetence regarding childcare. It\u2019s whether we can seriously rethink the gender stereotypes of diapering and care labor more generally. We\u2019ll pass this test when mothers no longer do most of the shitty work of diapering and managing diaper need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1RKNm8balSs&#038;feature=youtu.be A new diaper commercial caught our eye this week. The Pampers Pure ad opens with John Legend changing his daughter\u2019s diaper, smiling and singing a song. A toy piano accompaniment joins in as other dads are seen wrangling toddlers and tenderly changing diapers. The lyrics rhyme their children\u2019s \u201cstinky booty\u201d with dad\u2019s \u201cdiaper duty.\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1958,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1958"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3329,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3328\/revisions\/3329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/feminist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}