Parenthood Response - John Gallagher

I thought that all of the presentations on parenthood were very well done, and all of them were done differently which offered many perspectives and norms.  Most of the presentations on fatherhood were centered towards their time spent outside of the household.  The picture of fatherhood was painted as a less involved workhorse who primarily is the provider, and is a “fun” parent on the side.  It portrayed them almost as incapable. The presentations on mothers were centered mainly on the concept of nurture, care, and perfection.  Many of the mothers displayed seemed to be closely connected with their children, and always smiling and happy.  The most interesting parts of each presentation to me were the alternative parenting ones.  Each alternative-parenting scenario offered a unique and different way of parenting, which I found very insightful.

One of the first presentations that stood out to me was Brooke’s.  The way that she looked into the concept of celebrity parenting was interesting something I never have put much thought into. I think that our society’s opinions on motherhood and parenting in general are shaped so much by magazines such as People and US Weekly. However, like Professor Jafar said in class, how much time do we think these celebrity mothers actually spend with their children? They have so much money and probably have other people looking after their kids. Also, as Brooke pointed out, we never see a famous male and his baby son on the cover of one of these magazines, yet every other issue seems to be a female celebrity and her newborn child.  I also thought Keith did a great job with his piece on motherhood, and how Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) became so close and deeply connected with her adopted son of no more than a few years. 

As for alternative parenting, like I said above, all of them were informative and unique.  Ry presented the class with an image of a Chinese female worker carrying her infant while working.  This image not only was appalling, but something that I could never have imagined in my life. There are many different types of alternative parenting that were looked at, and I was able to develop a better understanding and appreciation for them.