Blog post # 9 - Coltrane

When it comes to child care, society believes that the mother is always best. Even though that may not always be true, men don't help prove that. When a father and a mother are together the family and or the children benefit from it, but what happens when the father is just there. Coltrane’s article “Fathering: Paradoxes, Contradictions, and Dilemmas” seem to prove that masculinity stands in the way of men being better fathers. Masculinity sometimes make men show preference to a child. "One of the most consistent findings is that men are more involved with sons than with daughters" (439). So being a man in this case affects the children because one is being treated better than the other. Another way masculinity gets in the way is that men tend to be more rough at everything. In the article it says "...Men are more likely than a woman to abuse children or to use inappropriate parenting techniques..." (440). Lastly men are most of the time physically and emotionally absent because they believe a man has to be a good provider to be a good father. That is true but that is why masculinity also gets in the way because they believe men don't need to be emotional. Overall, if masculinity didn't exist in people's minds men might one day be able to be better fathers or be looked upon just as capable as mother's to take good care of children.