Literature analysis and interpretation

¶ … Beyond the Cult of Fatherhood" is a bracing challenge not only to both conventional gender norms but the way childcare is valued in our society. Osborne assumes the readers of his essay will have clear ideas of what it means to be a father and what it means to be a mother. A father is a masculine figure. Masculinity is defined as being strong and stalwart. A man is the economic provider for his children. A mother is a feminine figure. In our society, femininity is associated with the home and with nurturing and caring for children on a daily basis. Osborne states in his essay that his status as a virtual househusband powerfully upsets both of these norms and has revealed to him how little childcare in the home is valued because one cannot put an easy economic price on it.

Over the course of his essay, Osborne outlines the first the underlying circumstances and then the details of how his son Nick has become the center of his life. Strictly speaking, he is "not a house husband." (281) Osborne is a professional writer. However, because his profession enables him to stay at home and work, he assumes the bulk of the primary, daily care for his child. Thus, he admits, his lifestyle is "close" to that of a househusband and admits to the status of a "nontraditional' father" (283).

It is interesting that, even in defense of nontraditional gender roles, there is a certain level of defensiveness in Osborne's own explanation of what he does all day. This has his roots in the societal attitudes Osborne is subjected to as someone whose child is not cared for in the standard way by parents in conventionally accepted gender roles. A father is supposed to be an economic provider rather than a nurturer. A father is supposed to be outside of the home and come home at night, rather than the child's mother. Even though Osborne clearly works, because he is able to labor in the conventionally female realm of the home, his work is supposed to have less value in the eyes of society. He feels he is considered to be less manly because he is able to care for his child in the context of his work and because he does not provide the bulk of the family's salary.

This is not to say that Osborne's work as a writer is not made difficult by the responsibilities of caring for his child. Another poignant aspect of Osborne's essay is that his sacrifices for his child go unrecognized not only by people who view gender norms through conventional eyes, but also through a feminist lens. The title of Osborne's essay recalls common feminist references to an over-reverence for the status of motherhood as a 'cult.' Osborne's sacrifices go unrecognized because they are not even made by a woman who must chose constantly between the career she adores and the child she loves. A woman, the author implies, who constantly felt that she must chose between writing in a room of her own and her children would be seen as being subjected by a patriarchal society. However, a man feeling the same dilemma goes unrecognized. A woman is oppressed in such a situation. By doing the same childcare work that is not economically valued by society, a man is merely 'sponging' off his wife or is a 'deadbeat dad.'