Dads Are Parents Too

Shortly after the birth of my third daughter I took all three girls into a supermarket where a woman observed me wearing one child on my chest in a baby harness and pushing the other two around in a shopping cart. “Wow, Dad doing the shopping and the babysitting!” she marveled. Sigh. She was well-meaning but perhaps unaware that for many fathers, that kind of comment – which suggests that Dad is just a placeholder for Mom – is at least as frustrating as it is complimentary.

Granted, this was an atypical outing for me and the girls. The vast majority of the time my wife is the one out shopping with our kids. Mothers from time immemorial have been the primary rearers of children partly by nature and partly as a consequence of a logical division of family labor. But thanks to a rise in the number of stay-at-home or work-from-home fathers such as myself, as well as a growing desire of men to do more hands-on parenting, more men are sharing childrearing tasks that once were perceived as solely the domain of women.

Society hasn’t entirely caught up to this changing reality – hence, moments like the one I experienced above. Part of the attitude I encountered in the supermarket stems from the lingering stereotype of emotionally reserved traditional dads of yore, who may have been responsible heads of the household out in the workforce but who were uncomfortable with, or averse to, the more domestic side of childrearing. In addition, pop culture has helped perpetuate the perception of dads as comically inept with children. Think of the movie Three Men and a Baby or Homer from The Simpsons. So it seems noteworthy when men demonstrate that they can be actual, capable, involved parents.

This is not to say that dads like Homer Simpson don’t exist, of course, but fathers who are more fully engaged in parenting chores are now beginning to resent the misperception and to push back against it.

Mark on 'The Glazov Gang': The Left's War on Masculinity, Part II

My friend Jamie Glazov, editor of FrontPageMag.com and host of The Glazov Gang, offered me another "Mark Tapson Moment" for the show.

I spoke again about the radical left's "War on Masculinity," focusing this time on the growing trend of college programs to eradicate "toxic masculinity."

Please check it out below and take a look at Part I here.

Remember to subscribe to The Glazov Gang's YouTube Channel and please donate through their Pay Pal account or GoFundMe campaign to help The Glazov Gang keep going.

Raising Sons in the Age of Trump

One of the most disturbing facets of the wave of hysteria sweeping half the nation in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory is the recent trend of feminist confessionals about their problematic feelings for their male children.

In a recent opinion piece for The Sydney Morning Herald, self-declared feminist Polly Dunning, herself the daughter of a prominent feminist, expressed difficulty “reconciling my biology with my ideology, particularly when I discovered that my baby, my most-beloved Alfred, would be a boy.”

As an aside, if your ideology is at odds with your biology, that’s a sure sign that your ideology is at odds with reality, and a life reevaluation is in order.

“I had never wanted a son,” Dunning continues, an admission that isn’t in itself damning; many parents start off preferring to have a daughter rather than a son, or vice versa. But Dunning’s unsettling reasoning is that a daughter would “fit in with my feminism better.” She admits to “dark moments in the middle of the night… when I felt sick with worry.” “In this patriarchal world,” Dunning worried, “how will I raise a son who respects me the way a daughter would? Who sees women as just like him? As just human beings?... How do you raise a white, middle-class boy not to think his own experience is the default experience of the world?”

Despite this disappointment, Dunning is determined to “raise a feminist boy... He will be immersed in feminism by a family who models it in their everyday life.” She ultimately concludes that “[b]y having sons, we do feminism a great service.”

Similarly but more hysterically, Elle magazine ran an article with a title that plunges into parody: “I'm Terrified of Raising a Boy in Trump's America,” which raises the burning question, “How can I explain to a little boy that the year he was born, the President of the United States was an admitted sexual predator?”

MTV’s Ridiculous New Year’s Resolutions for White Guys

For a network that has always either been, or striven to be, on the cutting edge of pop culture, MTV showed itself last week to be remarkably out-of-touch with the zeitgeist. Apparently the youth-oriented cable channel didn’t get the memo that there is a cultural backlash against political correctness in effect, and that half the country is mad as hell and isn’t going to take it anymore.

MTV released a stunningly tone-deaf PSA video Monday titled, “2017 New Years Resolutions for White Guys,” in which a gaggle of young people dispense insulting advice to “white guys” on how to “do a little bit better in 2017.” To the accompaniment of jaunty music designed to lighten the mood and make the offensive message more palatable, smug twenty-somethings lecture “white guys” about their presumed racism and sexism. 

The video goes off the rails right from the get-go when a young woman of color declares that “America was never ‘great’ for anyone who wasn't a white guy.” This is obviously a jab at President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” which resonated with those Americans who understand that this country has been a beacon of freedom and prosperity for countless millions of citizens and immigrants of all races and religions, whose lives were made immeasurably better here than wherever they left behind. This woman’s ignorance of that is a sad testament to the degree to which many young Americans have been indoctrinated over the decades to believe that their country is not history’s most successful melting pot, but rather a shameful bastion of white supremacy.

Mark on 'The Glazov Gang': The Left's War on Masculinity

My friend Jamie Glazov, editor of FrontPageMag.com and host of The Glazov Gang, honored me with a "Tapson Moment" for the show. I took the opportunity to speak for a few minutes about the radical left's "War on Masculinity."

Please check it out and remember to subscribe to The Glazov Gang's YouTube Channel and please donate through their Pay Pal account or GoFundMe campaign to help The Glazov Gang keep going.

No, Jerry Lewis’ Rude Interview Isn’t Funny

This week The Hollywood Reporter online posted “Creative Until You Die,” a series of interviews with ten legendary entertainers who are still going strong in their 90s. It included such beloved figures as Cloris Leachman, Don Rickles, and Dick Van Dyke. “Nine of the interviews went great,” THR stated. “One was a trainwreck.”

The trainwreck was a torturous, seven minute interview, if it can be called that, with comic icon Jerry Lewis. It consists entirely of Lewis glaring impatiently and defiantly at his off-screen interviewer Andy Lewis (no relation, hopefully) and spitting out terse non-answers as Andy struggled to get something from the man THR charitably called “the famously difficult comedian.”

Andy Lewis wrote that he had “a bad feeling” about how things would go the second he stepped into Jerry’s Las Vegas home. “He looked angry. I already knew Lewis' reputation for being difficult and acerbic with his audiences and in interviews. And he's a well-known control freak.”

“Throughout the photo shoot,” Andy continued,

Lewis complained about the amount of equipment in the house, the number of assistants and how the shots were set up. By the time we sat down for the interview about an hour later, Lewis had worked up a full head of steam, and it seemed like he was punishing THR by doing the interview but being as uncooperative as possible.

“Have you ever thought about retiring?” Andy began.

“Why?” Jerry shot back, unsmiling.

“Was there never a moment that you thought it might be time to retire or that you would –”

“Why?” Lewis interrupted forcefully. And the interview went downhill from there.

John Glenn, Rocket Man

American hero John Glenn slipped the surly bonds of Earth for the final time last Thursday in his home state of Ohio at the age of 95.

“John Glenn is, and always will be, Ohio’s ultimate hometown hero, and his passing today is an occasion for all of us to grieve,” said Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “As we bow our heads and share our grief with his beloved wife, Annie, we must also turn to the skies, to salute his remarkable journeys and his long years of service to our state and nation.”

Long years and remarkable journeys indeed. Even before the native Ohioan joined NASA in 1959 and made history as the first American to orbit the earth in 1962, he was already a distinguished fighter pilot in both World War II, flying 59 missions, and the Korean War (90 missions), earning six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen clusters to an Air Medal. After his historic space flight and work with NASA, he went on to serve as U.S. Senator from his home state for nearly 25 years, then once again made history by becoming the oldest human to go to space, at the age of 77.

Are We Overusing the Word ‘Hero’?

In the 1994 Robert Redford-directed Quiz Show, brilliant professor Charles Van Doren confesses in testimony before Congress that he had knowingly participated in the rigging of a TV game show which led to a shocking national scandal. The charming Van Doren, played by Ralph Fiennes, is so sincere and humble in his mea culpa that the investigative committee members are won over; one after another commends him for his “soul-searching fortitude” rather than holding him accountable for the deception he helped perpetrate against the American public.

That is, until one Congressman has the moral clarity to point out to Van Doren that “an adult of your intelligence should not be commended for simply and at long last telling the truth.”

I thought about this scene as I read a recent interview with actor Tom Hanks and director Clint Eastwood, who teamed up for Sully: Miracle On The Hudson. The movie is based on the real-life heroism of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who piloted a stricken passenger plane safely into New York's Hudson River in 2009, saving the lives of all 155 people onboard. (The film has already left theaters here in the States, but it opened in the UK this past weekend – hence the aforementioned recent interview on a British website.)

Eastwood said that Sullenberger deserves the label “hero” but that it has otherwise been devalued thanks to political correctness. “It's certainly different to when I grew up,” said Eastwood. “It's all in this sort of politically correct thing where everyone has to win a prize. All the little boys in the class have to go home with a first place trophy. The use of the word 'hero' is a little bit overdone but I don't think so in Sully's case. He went extra and beyond what was expected.”

Wednesday Morning Club: Victor Davis Hanson

I'm honored to introduce the indispensable classics historian and political analyst Victor Davis Hanson at the Horowitz Freedom Center's upcoming Wednesday Morning Club luncheon. The event takes place this Wednesday, December 7th, at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Details here.

Hanson's resume is too long to post here or anywhere without breaking the internet. Suffice it to say that if you aren't reading him regularly, you're missing out on a wise and unique perspective on politics informed by a deep understanding of history and literature.

Do Men Need Safe Spaces?

Imagine the howls of social justice outrage if a major university’s Men’s Studies Department (if that were even a thing) created a program for women to re-examine and deconstruct their toxic femininity, or if a White Studies Department (bear with me here) launched a program for blacks to rethink and dismantle their toxic blackness, or if the campus straight community hosted an event for LGBTs to reject their toxic sexuality, and so on. The architects of such offensive programs would be tarred and feathered.

A culturally acceptable version of these scenarios, however, is precisely what is beginning to spread on campuses across the country now. The Duke Men’s Project, launched this month and hosted by the Duke University Women’s Center, offers a nine-week program for “male-identified” students to address such “toxic” masculine issues as male privilege, patriarchy, the language of dominance, rape culture, pornography, and machismo.

One member of the Men’s Project leadership team said the goal is to create a safe space for male students in which to “critique and analyze their own masculinity and toxic masculinities to create healthier ones.” Another member of the leadership team said the program would help men “proactively deconstruct our masculinity.”

The Duke program is patterned after a similar one at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill – co-sponsored and supported by the Carolina Women's Center – in which participants are asked to consider how masculinity plays a harmful influence in their lives. The goal of that program is “to shift the culture of masculinity toward more non-violent norms,” suggesting that violence is the norm among men.

On the other side of the country, at Claremont College last week, a group called 5Cs Thrive hosted a “Masculinity + Mental Health” event. “Masculinity can be extremely toxic to our mental health, both to the people who are pressured to perform it and the people who are inevitably influenced by it,” say the workshop’s organizers, stating outright that masculinity is some sort of mental illness.