Fatherhood and Masculinities: Intersections of Care, Bodies and Race (Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences)

Based on novel ethnographic research conducted in New York City, this book explores through the lens of intersectionality how gender impacts men’s experiences of full-time fatherhood, as well as how sexuality, race, class, faith, and so on result in unequal access to choices and opportunities as parents. Chapters analyze how perspectives on caregiving are complicated by varying cultural, gendered, and racialized stereotypes and representations that pull different fathers toward or push them away from particular models of fatherhood in an urban context. Additionally, the author interrogates how societal conceptions of men’s bodies also play a role in how men understand their experiences of fatherhood. This book will be of interest to scholars and students studying gender, masculinity, and fatherhood. Acknowledgments 7 Book Abstract 9 Contents 10 About the Author 13 Abbreviations 14 List of Figures 15 Chapter 1: Fathering Across Five Boroughs 16 Fatherhood in the United States: Care, Bodies, and Race 17 Fathers Through the Lens of Intersectionality 22 Fathering in NYC: Some Explanation of the Context 26 Introducing the Fathers 31 Study Methods 34 Book Outline 37 References 41 Chapter 2: Learning to be a Primary Caregiving Father 47 Care Trajectories 48 ‘Carers by Choice’ 49 ‘Carers by Circumstances/Necessity’ 53 ‘Heroes’ Versus ‘Anomalies’ 55 ‘Experts’ Versus ‘Apprentices’ 59 The ‘Experts’ 60 A Discourse of ‘Instincts’ 63 The Women as ‘Gate Openers’ 66 The ‘Apprentices’ 67 Frank: Between ‘Expert’ and ‘Apprentice’ 72 Conclusions 76 References 78 Chapter 3: Work, Caring Masculinities and the Work of Fatherhood 82 The Decline of the Breadwinner Model 84 The ‘Working Fathers’ 85 The ‘Work-from-Home Fathers’ 88 The ‘Break-from-Work Fathers’ 90 Giving Up the Breadwinner Identity 92 Ambivalent Feelings in Relation to Earning 95 Childcare as ‘Work’ 104 ‘Professional Dads’ 108 Conclusions 111 References 113 Chapter 4: Practices of Care: The Embodiment of Fatherhood 117 The Nature of Caregiving 118 Care as an Embodied Practice 126 Body Techniques 130 Daddy Doing Hair 133 Conclusions 147 References 148 Chapter 5: Fatherhood, Privilege, and Rac(e)ism 153 Racecraft 154 Race in New York City 158 ____ While Black 164 ‘A Matter of Life and Death’9 167 The ‘Talk’ 170 Parenting While Black 177 Conclusions 184 References 186 Chapter 6: Imagining (New) Fathers 191 At-Home Fathers, Whiteness, and Femininity 193 Black, Middle-Class, Single Fatherhood 202 (Imagined and Real) Parental Fears 209 Conclusions 221 References 222 Chapter 7: Painting a Diverse Picture of Fathers 227 The Issue of Whiteness 232 Rethinking the ‘New Father’ 236 Contributions and Relevance of the Study 239 Gender, Care, Bodies 241 Rethinking the “American Family” 244 References 248 Appendix 254 References 259 Index 283