Media portrays dads as ‘feckless and lazy’

Fathers’ Day is looming but a survey in Britain suggests many parents believe the way in which dads are portrayed in much of popular culture inaccurately paints them as feckless and lazy.

The survey by Netmums found that 92% of respondents said the stereotypes of fathers in cinema, on television, advertising, and elsewhere did not reflect the reality of their role in family life, while just under half said those portrayals — with Homer Simpson and Frank Gallagher from Shameless namechecked — made men look lazy and stupid, while a smaller percentage said they thought it was almost a “subtle form of discrimination”.

Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard said: “It’s never been harder to be a father — but good dads have never been more needed by their families. So it seems perverse we are telling men to step up and be involved, while running them down in the media.”

Paul Ryan, assistant lecturer in the sociology department in NUI Maynooth, said it was “undoubtedly true” that many portrayals of fathers and men in general did not accurately reflect their contribution to domestic life, but said women were similarly affected in many ways through their portrayal in aspects of the media through “a reinforcing of stereotypes across the board”.

The longitudinal “Growing Up In Ireland” study has already outlined many of the activities children undertake with their fathers and Mr Ryan said “fathering is different to mothering” and that a lot of interaction between fathers and their children was activity-based.

On the media portrayal of fathers he said there was an element of “comic licence” but said: “If we were to portray the female characters in the same way how acceptable would that be to the public?

“It maybe reflects a wider belief that it is the women who are ultimately running the show and men are more feckless. Do people believe that is the case? People are intelligent enough to know how to tell the difference.”

He said that in the 1980s 1990s in films such as Fatal Attraction and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle a trend emerged where independent and sexually active women were often portrayed as threatening, while now there may be a trend to depict men as bumbling.

He said the media was obsessed with perceived crises in masculinity and within the family and yet research indicated that overall families were remarkably stable and “there really is no crisis in the family”.