Over the holidays, White House photographer Pete Souza posted this photo on Instagram. He writes:
This is from the annual White House Science Fair. The kids from Girl Scout Troop 2612 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, convinced the President to wear a tiara with them for their group photo. The girls had exhibited a Lego flood proof bridge project.
This photo recalls a series of PSAs produced by the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) that direct viewers to the NRFC website fatherhood.gov. Two of these ads depict similar scenarios, whereby a father is placed in a non-masculine role vis á vis his daughter. In the first, a dad is camping it up outside an apartment complex as he helps his daughter practice her cheer routine:
In a second PSA, professional wrestler Roman Reigns plays tea party with his daughter as a postwoman looks on approvingly:
These ads–and the president’s photo with Troop 2612–reveal a number of dynamics about Obama’s fatherhood politics. Men who are good fathers (or responsible fathers, to use more representative terminology) are willing to feminize themselves. Masculinity must be overcome, at least temporarily, in order for dads to be good parents to female children. Daughters need their dads to check their “natural” impulses and pick up the techniques and paraphernalia of little girls. There is a correlative lesson about heterosexuality here, whereby dads should be willing to dispense with their macho sexuality (“Those boys are much too much” from the cheer routine, drinking tea with pinkies out). Ironically, the juxtaposition of hyperbolic masculine and feminine norms in these ads only reinforces a logic of deep division between male and female worlds that enforces the über-masculinity these ads attempt to undo.
Obama’s willingness–perhaps even eagerness judging by his wide smile–to be photographed in a tiara sends similar messages about the relationship between masculinity and being a responsible father. Playing a supportive role in the lives of daughters means literally adorning oneself in the accoutrements of femininity.
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