¶ … 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...
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…
