For the Record … (In Re: Caitlin Flanagan)
Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by Brian Reid.
Once upon a time, I took up a good amount of this blog with posts about Caitlin Flanagan, a talented writer with a disturbing and dangerous lack of perspective on how families worked in the real world. She penned provocative pieces, got a gig at the New Yorker and published a book of her perspective-lacking musings. And then she disappeared.
But in the spirit of keeping your enemies close, I want to note (belatedly) that she popped up earlier this year with a bizarre anti-school-garden rant in the Atlantic. For the record, her Atlantic bio says she’s still working on her book on prepubescent girls. So we’re not out of the woods yet.
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Two Great Things from Canada
Posted on 15. Mar, 2010 by Brian Reid.
Among the many wonderful things I missed during my hiatus was a thoughtful audio documentary that ran on CBC’s “The Current” program in December. The piece (it’s segment threein this link) is notable for three reasons. It is a a nice, well-rounded look at at-home dads. It was written, reported and produced by Cameron Phillips, an at-home dad himself. And Cameron was the only media person to actually attend the 2009 At-Home Dad Convention, where a lot of the interviews took place.
While we’re talking about Cameron, I should mention that he just launched a new business up in Vancouver called Bettermen Solutions. It’s dedicated to helping guys be better fathers and helping businesses be better about supporting the dads in their midst. I am more than a little jealous: I think this is a great business, the kind I would love to be a part of. I’ve been clear — mostly through my endless harping about the “daddy wars” — that the smartest, most productive companies of the future will be those that allow men (and women) to play a work role without compromising family roles. Kudos to Cameron for helping them get there.
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Al Jazeera (Really) on At-Home Dads
Posted on 10. Mar, 2010 by Brian Reid.
When the NYC At-Home Dads group pinged me a week or two ago about a request they’d received to help with a spot for the English-language branch of Al Jazeera, I was a bit flummoxed. I knew that Al Jazeera had been working to build a network that busted some of the stereotypes, but I had never had first-hand experience. How would a network best known as a powerhouse of the media world in the Arab world deal with at-home dads?
Pretty well, as it turns out. The piece below (a rough cut without graphics, etc.) is a nice, straightforward take on the subject, and one that isn’t wirhout its surprises.
My favorite bit? A quote or two from Audun Lysbakken, who is identified as the minister of gender equity in Norway. As it is, he is technically the head of the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion. Based on the existence of that office alone, Norway has jumped to the top of the list of places I would happily be an expat.