Fatherhood and Feminism

Can those two words exist without contradicting the purpose of the other? One man (and probably many others) seems to think so. As I was perusing Google today to see what would be interesting in the world of fatherhood, I happened upon a website called Fathers For Life. The title promoted a good message, I thought: encouraging that fatherhood is a calling one has for a lifetime. Once you become a father, that never ends, so you have the wonderful opportunity of developing and honing the skills you have to become a great dad.

I clicked around the website to see what kind of information was available. The organization talks about activism, children, divorce, civil rights, social policy, public policy and policy reform, domestic violence, gay issues, health, support groups, and the destruction of families, among other things. It looks like a lot of good information, though, I admit, I didn't read all of the sections very thoroughly.

I did read one section very thoroughly, however, and this was the section about feminism. Specifically, the section I read was called The Fifth Commandment. In this opinion piece, one man talks about how feminism is destroying our ability to properly abide by the fifth of the ten commandments -- honor thy father and thy mother. The argument is essentially that because society is pushing for more genderless phrases and words in order to sounds more politically correct, we are depreciating the contributions that men make to the world in order to help women feel more valued. The author also uses statistics (mostly from Canada) and analogies in order to show how feminism does not actually promote fairness and understanding, but a demoralization of society in order to appear more fair and just.

Once again, this is an opinion piece, but I found it a very interesting and intellectually stimulating read. I think it is worth your time to read and think about, too. Let us know what you conclude!