NBC Is Stuck in a Century in Which Guys Taking Care of Kids Is a Hilarious Concept (by Dan Treadway)

I was at my sister's the other night and she wanted to watch the new sitcom Guys with Kids. I had seen previews and suspected it would rely on the standard 'guys as incompetent caretakers' stereotype so avoided it until then. While it was slightly 'better than expected' in this sense, it is still guilty of reinforcing the message that men caring for children is a foreign concept and that they require the everpresence of a woman to keep them in check. I think this article sums up the issues quite effectively...

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"Ultimately, the underlying message dictating that there's something bizarre about a man capably and willingly taking care of his child is at best a dumb commentary and at worst a harmful one. There are now more women receiving a college education than men, and this trend is likely only going to increase in coming years. Given the demographics, it's senseless and ignorant to suggest that despite achieving higher than their male counterparts education-wise, it should be a natural given that women should be the ones forced to put their careers on hold to in order to raise children. From a sheer economics standpoint, we should want to encourage the more educated segment of our society to contribute as much time to their jobs as possible. And thus, it's long past time we fully retired this notion in the entertainment industry that dictates that male characters are meant to be providers and female characters are meant to be nurturers -- and anything deviating from this is somehow a 'hilarious' happenstance."

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE