Pops in Pop Culture: Fatherhood, Masculinity, and the New Man

by Elizabeth Podnieks (Editor), Heath Diehl (Contribution by), Andrea Doucet (Contribution by), May Friedman (Contribution by), Melvin Hill (Contribution by)

Overview

The definitions of fatherhood have shifted in the twenty-first century as paternal subjectivities, conflicts, and desires have registered in new ways in the contemporary family. This collection investigates these sites of change through various lenses from popular culture - film, television, blogs, best-selling fiction and non-fiction, stand-up comedy routines, advertisements, newspaper articles, parenting guide-books, and video games. Treating constructions of the father at the nexus of patriarchy, gender, and (post)feminist philosophy, contributors analyze how fatherhood is defined in relation to masculinity and femininity, and the shifting structures of the heteronormative nuclear family. Perceptions of the father as the traditional breadwinner and authoritarian as compared to a more engaged and involved nurturer are considered via representations of fathers from the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, South Africa, and Sweden.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137581563
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	01/12/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	265
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Podnieks is Associate Professor of English and the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University, Canada. She is the author of Daily Modernism: The Literary Diaries of Virginia Woolf, Antonia White, Elizabeth Smart, and Anaïs Nin (2000); the co-editor of Textual Mothers/Maternal Texts: Motherhood in Contemporary Women’s Literatures (2009); and the editor of Mediating Moms: Mothers in Popular Culture (2012), awarded the Outstanding Scholarship (2012-2013) Prize by the Canadian Women’s and Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes. She is the Area Chair (2012-ongoing) for the Motherhood/Fatherhood Area of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Pops in Pop Context; Elizabeth Podnieks

PART I: SELF-DEFINING DADS: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, PATERNAL LESSONS, AND NARRATIVE PERFORMANCE

1. Pappahandbooks: Guidebooks for Dads in Twenty-First Century Sweden; Helena Wahlström Henriksson

2. Fatherhood, Feminism, and Failure in Louis C.K.'s Comedy; Peter C. Kunze

3. "Daddy Time all the time": Representations of Involved Fatherhood in Contemporary Dadoirs; Elizabeth Podnieks

4. Daddyblogs Know Best: Histories of Fatherhood in the Cyber Age; May Friedman

PART II: "REAL" MEN: BRAWN, POWER, AND PROTECTION

5. Ads and Dads: TV Commercials and Contemporary Attitudes Toward Fatherhood; Kristi Rowan Humphreys

6. Hard Bodies, Soft Hearts: Mixed-Race Men as Muscular Daddies in the Films of Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson; Andrea Schofield

7. Contemporary Crime Fighting Dads: Negotiating Masculinity and Fathering in 24 and Castle; Christy Ebert Vrtis

8. Tale of Two Fathers: Authenticating Fatherhood in Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us; Melvin G. Hill

PART III: ECONOMICS AND EMOTIONS: PROVIDERS, PALS, AND NURTURERS

9. Breaking Dad: Re-Imagining Post-War Models of American Fatherhood in Breaking Bad; Heath A. Diehl

10. Masculinity, Subjectivities, and Caregiving in the British Press: The Case of the Stay-At-Home Father; Abigail Locke

11. A Sentimental Fathering Model: Alexander McCall Smith's Vision for Nurturing Paternity in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series; Nicole L. Willey

12. Modern Fathers in Modern Family: The Impact of Generational Differences on Fatherhood Styles; Kathryn Pallister

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The essays that comprise Pops in Pop Culture work together to make a valuable intervention in studies of fatherhood across a broad spectrum of forms of popular media and contemporary culture, and in a range of different national and cultural contexts. Taking a cross-media approach, the essays differently interrogate and contextualize symptomatic examples of cultures of fatherhood from popular film, serial television, situation comedy, advertising, videogames, literary fiction, and more. It is a timely and welcome addition to scholarship on mediated masculinities." - Hannah Hamad, Senior Lecturer, Media Studies, University of East Anglia, UK

Editorial Reviews

"The essays that comprise Pops in Pop Culture work together to make a valuable intervention in studies of fatherhood across a broad spectrum of forms of popular media and contemporary culture, and in a range of different national and cultural contexts. Taking a cross-media approach, the essays differently interrogate and contextualize symptomatic examples of cultures of fatherhood from popular film, serial television, situation comedy, advertising, videogames, literary fiction, and more. It is a timely and welcome addition to scholarship on mediated masculinities." - Hannah Hamad, Senior Lecturer, Media Studies, University of East Anglia, UK

From the Publisher