Representations of Fatherhood and Masculinity: Content Analysis of Models and Patterns in Three Contemporary Picturebooks

Abstract

Taking into account, on the one hand, that children’s literature serves as a powerful medium for communicating socio-cultural expectations that influence children’s belief system, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as for either deconstructing or perpetuating stereotypical

perceptions, and on the other hand, the multiplicity of meanings and constructions of gender identities, this article aims to examine how contemporary children’s picturebooks portray the father figure and what perceptions and, potentially, expectations -either intentionally or unintentionally- they create regarding masculinity and fatherhood. The framework is based on the content analysis of representations of parenthood and specifically of representations of the paternal model in English picturebooks. The hegemonic, the cooperative, the subordinate, the marginal and the soft masculinity are pre-defined as masculinity patterns. The absent father, the involved father-caregiver and the empathetic father are posited as fatherhood patterns and father-son relationship motifs. The verbal and visual modes used in the narratives are critically approached to identify the patterns and motifs of masculinity and fatherhood that either reinforce or deconstruct dominant ideologies and social representations. The discussion that emerges from the analysis of literary works highlights the changing social construction of masculinity, which evolves the model of fatherhood by multiplying its manifestations. The most important finding of the present study is the perspective that this small sample of picturebooks reflects, the perspective of expansion and diversity that the binary model of masculinity-fatherhood can take in the modern era where children -still- see the world through the meanings-windows that children's literature opens.