Molly Bienstock Parenthood

Both the parenthood and children's TV presentations made me truly analyze myself as a growing adult.  I never really gave much thought to what my life would be like as a mother, wife, or homemaker, but I always knew it would be out of the norm.  When I began pondering my hypothetical future, several questions arose in my mind, but none of them touched upon gender roles.  My unique upbringing never made me think about what was a prescribed role in the home and what was abnormal.  After researching for this project, however, new questions come to mind regarding responsibilities and maintaining healthy relationships.  One of the main pieces of information that I come away with after the parenthood presentations is that communication is key.  Both party members involved in a marriage or family must let each other know how they feel recognized as an essential player in the family unit.  If a spouse feels neglected or exploited, then that person's relationship with his or her kids and spouse will suffer.

I really enjoyed everyone's presentations equally as they each brought fresh research to the table.  I especially liked the commercial that Ellie found with the stay at home dad.  Right away, the words stay-at-home-dad imply a heterosexual relationship where the wife goes to work and the husband stays at home and watches the kids.  In this case, there is no room for gay bashing or homosexual slander.  Even when the father asks his daughter how she wants her hair braided, the father seems well-rounded and admirable.  It seems that the next problem we have to tackle is allowing for there to be a supportive path for women in the workplace.  If we can accept fathers that stay at home and do their kids' hair, then we must accept women with amazing ideas and qualities to make our world of business bipartisan.

The media is a huge impenetrable machine thats job is to pretend to mirror back what it thinks the viewer wants.  We are all part of this society and all pawns in the media's scheme to homogenize our interests, so we need to make sure we tell the media what we want.  So many voices, spirits, and types of people are too easily marginalized into categories where people judge for the sake of judging.  There are more than two kinds of people out there and we have to spread the word so everyone's voice can be heard.  :)