Culture in the 21st century
I think I am turning into my mother.
Not that that is a bad thing, but I remember when I was much younger the things I would say to myself like “when I grow up, I’m going to be a different kind of mother!” - usually that statement would be as a result of something she said that I didn’t want to hear.
Isn’t it funny how when we get older we actually find out that many of the things our parents taught us when we were younger were on the mark? Like “if you save money now, you’ll be better off later” or “if this relationship doesn’t work out, don’t fret. The right one will come along”?
Ok, I’m digressing a bit.
What I really wanted to bring up this morning was a commercial I saw a couple of days ago. I think it was for McDonald’s. In it, there is a young attractive woman walking down the street. She has a baby, who is strapped in to one of those baby holders that a woman can put around her shoulders that the baby can rest in without her having to hold him/her. The woman has a McDonald’s cup in her hand, and she’s sipping on her drink. There are young men (I’d guess mid 20s in age) sitting on the steps to their homes watching her as she walks towards them and by them, smiling and nodding and obviously interested.
Towards the end of the commercial, she says something like “sorry guys, this is the only man I’ll take with me to McDonald’s” and the camera pans to the baby, obviously a boy.
Do you know what I think when I see stuff like that now? I think “where’s the father?” I mean, is she married to the kids father? Does the kid’s father have an aversion to McD’s? Or is this just a case of a single mother taking her kid to McD’s? What type of message does that send?
I know. I really shouldn’t put that much thought into a McD’s commercial. But as I’ve gotten older, I think about stuff like that more - the symbolism of it, the implied statement behind it that says “I may have had a fling or relationship that didn’t work out, and had a baby from it.”
This isn’t a slam on single motherhood, btw. My mother was single at various times with me and my sisters. I just think about the implied messages that commercials like this send to young women. Like “it’s ok to have a baby without the father being around” - that sort of thing. If a woman gets pregnant unexepectedly due to a fling or if she’s in a relationship with someone and it doesnt’ work out, I encourage that woman to have the child …. because it’s a precious little life. But I just wish that commercials like the McD’s commercial would emphasize more the very important role the father plays in the upbringng of the child.
I feel like in today’s society, father’s sometimes get the short end of the stick. Families are still de-emphasized to a certain extent in movies, TV shows, etc. I know this has been going on for a while now, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve just come to recognize it more. These are the kinds of things my mother used to point out to me, but I just never listened and waved it off as ‘old-fashioned nonsense.’
On a semi-related note about our culture, Mark In Mexico writes about a trend happening across Europe called “toothing” which sounds like the latest trend in how to obtain a “quickie.” Oh, the wonders of technology. Warning: some pictures in that post are not work-friendly.
Cross-posted at SisterToldjah
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October 7th, 2005 at 6:45 am
[...] Cross-posted at California Conservative, where some of the other blog contributors there have some spot-on posts about fighting today’s culture wars like the following: [...]
October 7th, 2005 at 7:49 am
Exactly! The problem with commercials like that isn’t so much that they’re promoting single motherhood as that they promote the idea that fathers are irrelevant. Nice to have around, you know, but not necessary. My teenage sons are very aware of these types of messages, and other male-bashing messages, and sometimes point out to me ones that I’ve missed. Just goes to show that a vulnerable segment of society is being adversely affected by this sort of thing.
No wonder today’s young men are so uninterested in marriage.
October 7th, 2005 at 9:07 am
Interesting are the young men who watch and smile as she is with the baby.
Also interesting is the baby being so calm and peaceful.
I hope they didn’t give the little baby a Valium for the photo shoot.
As a recent father, I know that my boy absolutely hated the little carrier from day one, and kicked and screamed so furiously that a very different picture would have been created.
Mom would have been covered with hot coffee, in tears, and looking at the surprised and snickering men like, “What’s up! You want some of this action?” The men would have quickly fled inside to safety.
Another illusion is that parenting is easy and sexy, and that individualistic single men are just waiting to leap into a long-term relationship with a single mom.
October 7th, 2005 at 4:30 pm
Um ….. maybe the father is working, so that Mom can pay for those happy meals?
Maybe he’s home watching football, because he’s exhausted after taking care of the kid all morning while Mom got work done?
Maybe he’s with his older daughter at a soccer match?
Maybe he’s in Iraq?
Or maybe he’s home blogging, getting all worked up, projecting all his culture-war worries onto some dumb television ad?
October 8th, 2005 at 8:59 am
“sorry guys, this is the only man I’ll take with me to McDonald’sâ€Â
The only above theory that would logically work with this statement is the Iraq one.
How nice if the add would have been, “Sorry boys, while his father is defending OUR freedoms in Iraq he is the only man that I’ll take with me to McDonalds”
You are right! That would have been much better!