10 February 2014

The Good Father

My first year of college, I discovered The Fascinating Girl, a self-help book from the '60s that instructs young women on how to catch a man (make friends with people who may have attractive relatives, appear helpless, exhibit childlike joy, entertain the attentions of another man).  My roommates and I were very taken with it, because it made such amusing reading and also excellent source material for papers being written for women's studies classes.  I still have my copy with the tabs marking our favorite sections.

I just discovered that a documentary about the author and her book Fascinating Womanhood (advice to married women - harder to mock because it's more disturbing) is in the works. 

Last night I was giving Steve a little speech about The Fascinating Girl (which he read when we were engaged) and how hard it is to imagine that anyone would follow advice that advocates such falsehood and portrays the roles of wife and mother in a way that seem ridiculous from my perspective.  I went on about how I see a similarity in the way social media teaches me stay-at-home motherhood and wife-ishness look, though (cute! adorable! so fun! full of crafts!), and that, depending on who you are, there's a falseness there too (meaning he's not getting a bag of Swedish fish on Valentine's Day with a cute note proclaiming that I 'o-fish-ally' love him. But if your spouse does, that's cool.). 

Steve was looking at me through all of this like he was listening and comprehending but not actually understanding how you can feel bossed around by Pinterest.

MBC: I think men generally feel differently about this.

Steve: I don't care what anyone else thinks about me.  I already know I'm a good husband and father. Right?  (Turning to The Bairn)  Am I a good father?

The Bairn: Yes!!

Then they did some hugging and talked about how great trains are.

Must be nice to have that y chromosome.

I love that E and The Bairn are holding hands here
She is a very fascinating girl.

2 comments:

Amy said...

Look at her childlike joy!!

eliana23 said...

good pictures. The only thing I envy about manhood is the self confidence quotient.

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