Are you old enough to remember when TV dads were portrayed as pillars of wisdom and strength?
Characters like Ward Cleaver, Mike Brady, and Andy Griffith set the standard for fatherhood with their level heads and respectability. They were the people their kids could always go to for sage advice when the world seemed to be falling apart. Fathers were once depicted as the bedrock of the family—figures to be looked up to and respected. Today? Not so much. For the last several decades, the depiction of fathers in media and entertainment has consistently spiraled.
Maybe it started with Al Bundy and Homer Simpson, but since the ’80s, the sitcom dad has become nothing more than a punchline—the bumbling, clueless, lazy parent who stumbles through the scene scratching his beer belly while his wife and kids roll their eyes and look knowingly at each other.
Research by Erica Scharrer at UMass Amherst shows that while fathers in the 1950s and 1960s were depicted as serious and competent, starting in the 1980s, they began to be portrayed as foolish and incompetent. By the 2000s and 2010s, dads were shown as humorously foolish in over 50% of relevant scenes, up from just 18% in the 1980s and 31% in the 1990s.
We’re living in a world that’s increasingly anti-family and, specifically, anti-father. The world has largely adopted the narrative that fathers are optional accessories to the lives of their children.
At Doing Good at Work, we believe that Dads are not optional, and families with responsible Dads at the helm are healthier. Just look at the statistics. That’s why we encourage, engage, and empower businesses and organizations to promote healthy workplaces that adopt and create pro-family policies and strategies. Do you want to be the workplace that is pro-family (Dad and Mom)? If so, click HERE to start the conversation.
REMEMBER: Better People make Better Businesses, and Better Businesses make a Better World.
Serving Together,
Boomer
Dr. Boomer Brown, Ph.D., is the CEO of Doing Good at Work. Doing Good at Work is a 501(c) 3 organization that functions like a business. We desire to “Make People Better” because we know better people make better businesses and better businesses make a better world. Learn more: https://doinggoodatwork.com/