There he was, THE Tiger Woods - one of the world's greatest athletes ever, known as a man of steel on the golf course, nearly dissolving into tears during his comeback press conference. "Woods’s eyes turned moony," The NYTimes reports, "as he talked about his injury-induced hiatus and the opportunity it afforded him to reconnect with his wife, Elin; marvel at their toddler daughter Sam’s development, and attend the birth of their second child, son Charlie, on Feb. 8."
“I didn’t realize how much I loved being home and being around Sam and E and now Charlie,” Woods said. "I knew that family would be important to me, but I didn’t know it would be to this degree, the closeness that I feel,” he confessed.
Welcome to the Age of The Family Guy (and NO, not the crass animated version). Woods' very public Family Guy admission is just the latest sign that dads are stepping up to claim their rightful role and change public attitudes about parenting. It's been a long time coming. Although Motherhood may still rule the media roost (and get its own new ABC sitcom starting tonight) -- dads are finally get getting their due.
For years, the most prevalent media image of Fatherhood can be put in one word: D'oh! (Not that I don't love The Simpsons.) I first wrote about the negative and stereotypical media images of dads back in June of 2007, and questioned whether the bad rap was deserved or not.
But in recent years, the media portrayal of American dads as Homeresque has been giving way to new portrayals, like that of Coach Taylor - molder of young men, role model, and co-parent of a teenage girl and baby daughter - on Friday Night Lights, and the almost-to-good-to-be-true life partner, parent and husband Joe Dubois on Medium.
Another example of this fatherhood about-face can be found buried in a NYTimes article about Pepsi's decision to completely scrap its new Tropicana Orange Juice packaging. It seems consumers hated the new redesigned carton and logo, so Pepsi is tossing the whole concept down the drain -- EXCEPT for the imagery behind its new ad campaign which includes photos of fathers and children hugging. "Such dad-centric images are rare in food ads," The Times notes.
Glenn Sacks, a national columnist on father and family issues, notes on his website plenty of more examples. Don't be surprised if you start seeing a lot more.
But the most recent public example of the new fatherhood role model is someone I'll call "The First Family Guy." All along the campaign trail, Barack Obama boasted he had read all the Harry Potter series to his daughters, and talked about the importance of being there to send his girls off to school in the morning, have dinner with them in the evening, and tuck them in at night. Even during his address to a Joint Session of Congress, President Obama told Americans that "I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our childrens education must begin at home." A lot is being made of Michelle Obama as Mom-in-Chief, but Dad-In-Chief is a title President Obama embraces with both arms.
Scoot over Homer and Peter...make room for the 21st Century Family Guys.
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