Showing results for "Daddy" in Gender Studies

In this beguiling, incisive book, critically acclaimed writer Katherine Angel examines the place of fathers in contemporary culture with her characteristic mix of boldness and nuance, asking how the mixture of love and hatred we feel toward our fathers—and patriarchal father figures—can be turned into a relationship that is generative rather than destructive.

The Daddies is a love letter to masculinity, a kaleidoscope of its pleasures and horrors. The question “Who’s your Daddy?” started showing up in mainstream cultural references during the 1990s. Those words can be spoken as a question, or a challenge, as a flirtation, a joke, or a threat. It’s all about inflection, intention, and who’s asking. Apparently, we have so much shared cultural meaning about “Daddy” the speakers and listeners can simply intuit meaning and proceed to laugh at the joke, or experience the shame, as appropriate.

If John F. Kennedy, Tip O’Neill, or even Bill Clinton were to run as Democrat candidates today, their own party would cancel them in a heartbeat. If the Joe Biden of 1992 were to run today, MSNBC would label him “MAGA Joe.” How did JFK’s party of Catholics and union workers become...