Thursday, November 14, 2013
Project Proposal: The Father I Want to Be
For my project, I am choosing to write an illustrated essay on fatherhood. More specifically, I want the essay to discuss what is the ideal image for a father to present to his children, with the target of the essay to be young men who are in their early 20's and not yet fathers. When I say the image a father presents, I really want to narrow in on the image of societies view on fathers versus feminist views on fathers, in the hopes of finding a way to direct men towards an image that will produce strong, loving fathers who are supportive of their children regardless of their sex and who will teach their children through their own positive example. I am choosing this topic for a multiple of reasons, the first of which is that it will affect me personally. I plan on being a father in the future and pray to God to be a good one. Secondly, I think that men my age are living in a changing world, with thoughts and ideals changing rapidly, however while the world is changing the image of the fathers is not, thus hindering the future generations we will raise. It is important that all man be given help in how to raise children adjusted to this new world, and ideally my essay will be part of that help and thus raise a more enlightened and sophisticated generation. After all, children always represent the future. Now for the technical information on my project, I have chosen to make my presentation in the form a photo slide show. I want the slides to contain pieces of art, both fine and modern media, with small captions to guide the presentation. I hope to pitch this presentation in a way, that at the very least, drives other males to at least start to examine the kind of fathers they hope to one day be. As for the research part of this project, I plan on using Bell Hooks and socialist Claire Wallace, and perhaps others who I may stumble upon while researching. While they will make up most of the theory behind my paper, I still need artist. For the media parts of the art, I will use both Family guy and the Simpsons, But the project still requires fine art to round out the essay. So far the fine art has been a challenge, it easy to find paintings of fathers and their children, but I am searching for more than that. I need pieces that express a fathers education or teaching their children, because in the end the most important job a parent does besides loving their child is teaching them.With these final pieces my project should be able to come to life and hopefully help educate the world.(Or at least the guys I know)
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I recommend that you read the "Why Have there been no great women artists" article to expand your perspective. The article gives you something to think about in terms of the white Western male viewpoint of fatherhood. I would also suggest you take a look at the historical context of patriarchy in this country, and its view of women to incorporate into your paper.
ReplyDeleteI suggest reading Judith Butler's essays on gender as a performance for a better understanding of why fathers may act a certain way as fathers. Masculinity is a part of fatherhood, especially when it comes to "protecting" daughters and teaching sons how to be "men." I think some of the questions you should be asking yourself are, "what is fatherhood?" "what is masculinity?" and even, "what defines a male?" All of these questions pertain to fatherhood from a feminist perspective, but are questions that should be thought about. Fatherhood has a lot to do with men's roles in society and what kinds of roles those men are passing down to their children. Most of those have to do with patriarchal ideas, so I think it's important to read up on some feminist theory for this.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Family Guy and The Simpsons, you can look at popular movies that also depict fathers interacting with their families. An example being the movie Taken where Liam Neeson goes above and beyond to save his daughter. Even though this isnt the most realistic example, take it in a figurative sense and really look at his morals and values instead of all of the car chases, gunfights, and explosions.
ReplyDeleteYour topic is really intriguing to me, as I am married and plan on having children in the near future. I think it's extremely important to teach children at an early age to develop a moral compass that will guide them for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe only suggestion I have that could make things easier for you, is to use art works to illustrate the issues that your children will have to eventually deal with. For example, if an artist calls gender roles into question in a particular piece of work, then you should address what the issue is, why it is problematic, and how you would advise your children in navigating the topic.