On our first date after the birth of our twin daughters, my husband and I went to see the movie Toy Story. We enjoyed it, but then my husband asked, "Where's Dad?" At first, it seems petty to criticize an entertaining family movie because of a small problem. However, the more I think about it, the more I think it is an obvious negligence. Not only was Dad not around, but he was not even mentioned-despite the fact that there was a baby at home, Dad couldn't have been gone that long. It seems that the existence or non-existence of father is a small detail, and it doesn't even need to be explained.

This is just an example of the tendency of the media to marginalize his father, which reflects the great social changes in the United States. David Blankenhorn called this trend the concept of "unnecessary father" in his book America without a father.

We are bombarded by the story of the struggle of working mothers (I think it is relative to non-working mothers). At the same time, a large part of media reports about fathers focus on abusive husbands or idle fathers. It seems that the only time fathers are worthy of attention is when they are criticized for not helping with housework adequately (anyway, I think this statement is suspicious, because the definition of "housework" rarely includes cleaning drains, changing oil in cars or other jobs usually done by men) or when they die. When Mr. Damblin Kenhorn investigated fathers' understanding of the word "family-oriented man", many people replied that it was a sentence they only heard at funerals.

One exception to the "unnecessary father" syndrome is that stay-at-home fathers have received extensive media attention. I'm not saying that stay-at-home dads shouldn't be supported. I just want to point out the double standards at work. While stay-at-home fathers are praised, stay-at-home mothers and breadwinners are rarely recognized culturally.