Gender and Masculinity: Fatherhood

The figure of the father as depicted in media has had a varied career in American popular culture. Over time, several stock father figures have emerged. These include cold and remote authority figures, wise and caring parents, lovable but bumbling and often imposed-upon buffoons, psychologically and physically abusive monsters, and absent fathers. The stock figure of the father that tends to dominate popular-culture texts differs from one decade to another, reflecting cultural shifts and changing social concerns. There are also significant differences in the stock figures of fathers by type of medium (print, film, television) and genre (comic strip, film drama, television sitcom, animated series, and so forth).

Traditionally, newspaper comic strips have tended to offer positive portrayals of fathers. Reflecting the commercial constraints and comedic conventions of the genre, the fathers featured on the funny pages are typically flawed but likable characters. An early example of the type is Jiggs, a socially ambitious nouveau riche Irish immigrant lampooned in the long-running strip Bringing Up Father (1913–2000). The perennially popular Dagwood Bumstead from Blondie (1930–) is another classic example. Recent [Page 135]examples of the type are more nuanced, with less emphasis on physical comedy and social missteps and more focus on the myriad challenges of maintaining interpersonal relationships, as is the case with Jon Patterson of For Better or Worse (1979–).

In contrast to newspaper comic strips, films offer a wider variety of stock father figures, ranging from the loving and lovable fathers often featured in light comedies to the morally monstrous fathers who abuse their children—and others—physically, psychologically, and sexually. A father of the first type is featured in Bob Clark's A Christmas Story (1983), in which Darren McGavin plays a curmudgeon whose gruff demeanor and ready use of rough language cannot mask his genuine affection for his family. Roman Polanski's neo-noir Chinatown (1974) includes a classic example of the abusive father in the person of Noah Cross (John Huston), whose granddaughter/daughter was the product of his sexually abusing his daughter Evelyn (Faye Dunaway). The absent father also figures prominently in films. David Fincher's cult classic Fight Club (1999) includes several diatribes deriding physically absent and psychologically remote fathers. Filmmakers are willing to portray unsympathetic fathers in part because, unlike television producers, they do not have to develop characters that attract long-term audience loyalty.

During the 1950s, television replaced film as American popular culture's dominant medium. Televised depictions of fathers have great cultural weight because of the medium's popularity, pervasiveness, market penetration, and the parasocial relationships viewers enter into with characters in established, long-running series. Such enduring relationships often have greater immediacy and personal and collective cultural impact than those developed in response to a character featured in a single book or film. For this reason, televised depictions of fathers form a useful cultural barometer. The preferred portrayal of fathers during the 1950s is best summed up by the title of the popular sitcom Father Knows Best (which during its run, 1954–63, moved from the Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS, to the National Broadcasting System, NBC, and back again). Wise and knowing fathers from that era include Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont) of Leave It to Beaver (which debuted on CBS in 1957, then was aired by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC, until 1963) and Ozzie Nelson, the sweater-wearing dad of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (ABC, 1952–66). The early to mid-1960s continued to depict televised sitcom fathers as beloved and respected authority figures in such series as The Andy Griffith Show (1960–68) and My Three Sons (1960–65 on ABC, then on CBS until 1972).

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