Downsized and out in Bristol and Somerset

Friday, July 02, 2010

Also on fatherhood

My brother Hugh wrote a very interesting piece about fatherhood recently. It basically discusses the idea that the gender roles and social structures defined by patriarchy do not function to the benefit of men any more than they benefit women. Well, I totally hear that.

One point that I found particularly interesting was his discussion of role models of emotionally available men, and why this makes it difficult for men to be the caring, ‘present’ fathers they might like to be. This interests me greatly because I see this in many of my friends as they become parents and it applies to women just as much as to men.

It is just as challenging for women to work out how to be the kind of mother that allows the father to be emotionally available, to be practically involved on an equal level, when the only role model you have is a 1970s/1980s nuclear family where the father wasn’t interested in being home for bathtime and the mother – who was a full-time homemaker - took it as read that she would mother her husband as much as her children.

So I see many people whom I previously thought of as quite radical, revolutionary thinkers acting in ways that seem odd, for example at parties the women gather with the children in one room and talk about childcare while the men stand in another and talk about anything but – even though by doing this they are showing their own children exactly the kind of family unit that they would *say* they didn’t want to perpetuate.

We are all trying to figure out our places in the new society that we would like to see, indeed we aren’t even really sure what that society would look like, and as Hugh says this is even tougher when you haven’t slept properly for months. I appreciate that Hugh is writing specifically about fatherhood here but to present it as a problem that only applies to men means he doesn’t address the whole issue.

Ironically, though, he is guilty of doing exactly the same thing elsewhere when he assumes a ‘normal’ family unit is one where a father goes out to work to support a family and the mother is a full-time homemaker.

It’s easy for a new father to end up feeling quite lonely because, at work he has to be a professional and perform, and at home he needs to be a great dad and there’s little space left for him to reflect. Of course that is not to say for a moment that Mums don’t have it tough too – being a Mum is one of the toughest jobs in the world. It’s just that, like trying to manage a home and look after a young child, consistently earning cash to feed a family, trying to be emotionally available and not having time to see the friends who gave you a sense of who you were prior to fatherhood do all pull in different directions.

Yes. Of course it is difficult to juggle the different demands on one’s time. But Hugh, I am astonished that you seem to think this is limited to men and that women have only the job of ‘being a mum’. This was your own family set-up until quite recently, but surely you are aware that in Western societies most households need two incomes? Usually, both parents must work out of necessity.

With that in mind, do you think a working mother gets more sympathy than a working father when she tries to put the needs of her family before the demands of her job – for example, needing time off to care for a sick child? And if she does ask for it, do you think the reaction is ‘What a great mum, she’s really there for her family, it’s so great to have people in the organisation who care about work/life balance’ or is the reaction in fact suspicion that she isn’t ‘dedicated enough’ to her job and therefore should, for example, be passed over for promotion in favour of a man? Do you think that mothers, even those who are lucky enough to have a partner involved in childcare, do not feel pulled in different directions trying to ‘consistently earn cash to feed a family, to be emotionally available and not having time to see the friends who gave you a sense of who you were’?

We need to decide: do we want Fathers to be strong Real Men, or do we want them to be loving and emotionally present? It’s quite confusing to be asked to have it both ways. If we want Dads to relate more fully to their families, we need to stop mocking and denegrating their feelings and instead to acknowledge and celebrate them.

The assumption you seem to be making here, which is usually the underlying assumption in complaints from men that they aren’t ‘allowed’ to show their feelings, is that women, by contrast, are allowed to show our feelings without negative judgement in our society. That is simply not true.

Yes, women do tend to be more honest about how we factor feelings and emotions into our decision-making, and yes, we constantly see images of women being emotional. But this is not lauded in our culture as a positive trait.

On the contrary, it is used against us and has been the main crux of our oppression for centuries: women, patriarchy tells us, are wishy-washy bags of emotion who just can’t think logically, so shouldn’t be allowed to vote, shouldn’t be doctors, shouldn’t expect to have responsible jobs, just can’t think/argue logically like men. On the other hand, if we deny our emotions we are unfeeling bitches and likely at any point to dissolve into a mess of (probably hormone-related) emotion at any point, so you can’t trust us either way.

You might as well ask the question here: do we want mothers to be strong Not Real Women, or do we want them to be loving and emotionally present?

We need to stop mocking and denigrating feelings in *everybody*, not just men, and acknowledge and celebrate them in *everybody*, not just men.

And this brings me onto your mention of ‘win-win’ and your aside that ‘that goes for feminism too’. Feminism is about achieving equality, not about putting one gender above another – in fact the very same arguments that you are making throughout your preceding few paragraphs, with which I wholeheartedly concur, and in most of the entire post. Please get a basic understanding of feminist theory rather than assuming that ‘we’ are de facto against ‘you’ as is so often portrayed by people who haven’t done their homework – see here for starters http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/06/03/faq-arent-feminists-just-sexists-towards-men/.

The adjustment required on becoming a father isn’t helped by negative stereotypes in the west. I have pulled up one or two female speakers in public recently when they have projected stereotypes of men that would be considered outrageously sexist if they were expressed about women today. Rightly, it is no longer acceptable to crack dumb blonde jokes about women, but Dads are still fair game for negative humour.

Hugh, of course it’s unacceptable to denigrate fathers with negative stereotypes, but are you seriously suggesting that ‘it is no longer acceptable’ to be sexist? Perhaps dumb blonde jokes aren’t laughed at in your circle of liberal middle-class nice guys, but please, look around you, open a copy of the Sun, watch a stand-up comic, whatever. Women are most definitely still ‘fair game for negative humour’. And if you think it's only fathers who are denigrated, or who don't have 'safe spaces' to discuss their experiences, open the Daily Mail, or talk to a mother about whether she finds it easy to admit that she found it difficult to breastfeed, or whether she has a 'safe space' to talk to friends about how her child's company sometimes bores her shitless.

Hugh’s points about the prevalence of female authority figures in a child’s early years are very interesting and valid. Again, this is something that works to the detriment of females as well as males – the idea is set very early on that women do the nurturing, men do the wage-earning.

This contrasts with what I’ve seen in other cultures such as the Far East, where men are proudly involved in nurturing children and it is perfectly normal for babies to be carried, cuddled or disciplined by the men in their family. Whether they are entirely involved in the practical side of childcare such as feeding and nappy-changing is another matter, but the displays of affection are there and this carries on into adulthood where it is often perfectly acceptable for men to hold hands or hug.

But if you want your sons to have more male role models, you are going to have to be those role models, lads – no one else can do this for you. Are you willing to give up your high-paid jobs, downsize your affluent lifestyles to something you can afford on two part-time wages and spend more time with your kids? If you want to address the imbalance of female authority figures that children meet in their early years, why not retrain as a nursery nurse or primary school teacher? You can’t have it both ways. Or sign up to be a scout leader and when people take the piss, tell them how and why their attitude is unacceptable.

it is confusing as a man to be expected to Be Strong and Bring home the Bacon and also at the same time to be emotionally available and be present and involved. Some clarity about what constitutes a workable set of possibilities for the role of a father would be helpful: something pragmatic and rooted in reality not something derived from an ideological standpoint.

Yes, things are changing. Deal with it. No one else is going to figure it out for you, and the process is not always going to be comfortable, nor are you always going to have unflinching support from everyone around you. Things is tough all over. Want some clarity about a workable set of possibilities? Decide on them and then live them. If you want change, you have to pick up your pitchfork and make a revolution.

Monday, May 17, 2010

My submission to the Browne review of higher education funding

Dear Lord Browne, please make a special 'pre-1990s graduate' tax for everyone who went to uni when you still got a full grant plus housing benefit and could sign on in the holidays. They can afford it, especially since they went on to buy houses when houses were actually affordable, and are therefore now rolling in it in comparison to those of us who graduated later. We had to pay off loans and pay inflated property prices caused by those early graduates investing the money they didn't have to spend on repaying loans in 'developing' property. Not to mention that we had to work in the holidays instead of signing on and sitting on mummy's sofa talking about revolution and getting our laundry done for us. It's time to redress the balance.

Friday, May 07, 2010

In case you didn't realise already that the system is fucked up

So at the moment, the Tories have 7 percentage points more of the votes cast than Labour, and 44 more seats in Parliament. Yet Labour have only 7 percentage points more votes than the Lib Dems, but have almost 200 - TWO HUNDRED - more seats in Parliament. I'm waiting for someone to tell me how that is democracy.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Bristol West's answer to Sam Seabourne writes...

Oh god, god, god, god, god. Just realised that this time tomorrow we may well have a Tory government. Oh GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD.
I'm already planning to go out and help the local Lib Dems tonight at the polling station, but will it be enough? I suspect we will win in our constituency since it was tight last time between Labour and Lib Dem and I can't see people round here voting Tory. Mind you, there are a lot of small businesses, shops etc, who might go blue. More likely disillusioned Labour voters will go Green or Lib Dem, and the Greens have no hope of winning so fingers crossed for Stephen Williams getting those tactical votes.
Hopefully the leaflets I delivered will have helped, I feel like a right proper local activist (even got a text message from Nick Clegg -allegedly-this morning saying thanks for my hard work). Shame that some of the envelopes I pushed through doors were empty by mistake... I only realised when a woman came running out to ask what was meant to be inside the envelope I'd put through the door. 'Election information', I said. 'Oh, which party?' she said.
Of course I should have said 'Your local Conservative candidate madam!' But like the well-meaning leftie fool I am, I told the truth. 'Says it all really, but then they're all just as bad as each other aren't they?' was her parting shot - can't help kind of agreeing with her given the record of the local council but hey ho.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

A question for runners

Dear fellow runners, if there are any of you reading this, I have a question.
It goes without saying that we all have little movie-training-montages running in our heads as we go - you know, cutting from yourself looking determined running past bushes, to yourself looking determined but slightly tired running past the duckpond, to yourself doing the hands-on-thighs-while-looking-up-determinedly pose) while waiting at the zebra crossing. And it's obviously important to shout 'AADRIEEEENNNNNE' in your head if you have to run up any steps.
But my question is this: when you've finished your run and you're doing your bit of walking to cool down, do you worry that passers-by won't realise that you've just run a bloody long way and will just think you've wimped out? And if so, how do you cope? Do you do lots of puffing and 'phew'ing? Do you hold your phone to your ear and talk loudly about 'GOD I've just run MILES I'm KNACKERED...yes...just doing the WARM DOWN now'? Do you affect a limp so they'll think you *could* be running but you've just injured yourself?

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Brarse: an update

In case anyone's interested, in the end I got a dress made to measure. However, despite careful measuring and my explaining to the (very sweet) dressmaker that I was there specifically because I have trouble finding dresses that fit around the tits, when the dress arrived in the post I found... it doesn't fit round the tits.
So I've got to go all the way back to Brighton and get it altered. Fercryingoutbloodyloud it's not like I'm some kind of freakish physical anomaly! I just want a nice frock to wear to my mates' weddings! Is that so much to ask?

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Great news, girls: the glampon has arrived!

Not sure what to make of these: tampons delivered monthly to your door in 'gorgeous, feminine' packagine. I mean, putting aside the obvious practical consideration that if they get delayed in the post, or you come on a day or two earlier than expected, you'd have to go out and buy Always like, er, always, my first reactions are rather mixed.
OK, so they seem to be basing this marketing on the idea that having your period doesn't have to be grim, a shameful reminder of your own dirty womanhood, and that's a positive thing, even if you haven't yet tasted your own menstrual blood as Auntie Germaine recommends in the Female Eunuch. Yes, your monthlies can be chances for more glamour and femininity, through having your tampons in, wait for it: pretty packaging. Embrace the classy neutrals and pseudo-damask pattern on the box, girls! Feel the loveliness of that 'silk fit' cotton (is it cotton? is it silk? is it some kind of hybrid made by force-feeding silk worms cotton wool until they barf?) as you shove a lump of condensed fluff into your bleeding fanny.
But how exactly is this new? How is it different to what all sanitary 'protection'* manufacturers do all the time when they cover their packaging with pink swirly butterfly-type stuff? I've never seen tannies (or sannies for that matter) in Tesco's packaged with a photo of Jenna Jameson draped over a Lamborghini or any other kind of 'masculine' design.
Plus I take quite a big issue with all this 'have a happy period' ((c) Always) crap anyway. You know, the adverts with some bird on rollerskates/running along the beach/getting her samba on in a carnival. Sure, we shouldn't be ashamed of having periods or treat them as if they're an illness rather than a normal part of life, but what do we gain by pretending that they don't hurt? Given the choice between going rollerskating on the first day I get the painters in, or curling up on the sofa with a hot water bottle and having a good cry over repeats of Sex and the City**, I know which one I'd rather be doing.
Women have nothing to gain through pretending that female-specific bodily processes are all just a great happy joy session. Pregnancy: a beautiful experience. Childbirth: all it takes is a warm bath and if you have an epidural you're a quitter. Breastfeeding: comes naturally to everyone. The menopause: nothing more than a few hot flushes, dearie. Periods: just something you get on with and don't complain about. Bullshit - or, indeed, cowshit.
Of course, if you use a Mooncup like I do, you don't have to get anything delivered in any kind of packaging or worry about running out - or pay £2.29 a month (including TAX! Don't get me started) for the priviledge. It's not pretty, but I fail to see why it needs to be.



*Please, protect me from my body's natural processes, just like when I have a cold and buy a big box of nasal protection wipes with integrated tissue-feel cotton-weave technology!
**This is just my personal thing, I'm sure readers have a variety of coping mechanisms, all equally valid.