Jaada Stewart 1

The father role that men played in human evolution was to be

the protector and the provider for women and children. In past times,
families that didnt have a leading male were highly vulnerable. Even
today mean are expected to be the breadwinners of the house hold. If
the children hear a noise down stairs the father goes and checks it. If
something in the house is broken, daddy is supposed to fix it. Fathers
have fixed roles inside a house hold. Growing up in a fatherless family
is very difficult. The children depend mostly on their mothers for
everything. From my personal experiences growing up with a single
mother wasnt easy. Fathers can play a huge role in a childs life.
Fathers bring an array of positive influences to a child; unique and
irreplaceable qualities that women do not ordinarily bring. Everyone
has different opinions about fatherless families because it is a
controversial topic, and many different situations can result from a lack
of a male figure in a childs life, both positive and negative. The United
States is a very sexist, gender bias country and children need to know
that everything is not fair. A man would teach a child that lesson better
then women could. There is a lot of different stereotypes that talk
about the effects of not having a father. There are also plenty movies
and articles that argue whether they agree or disagree with those
same stereotypes.

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Holiday Heart, is a dramatic film appropriate for ages 17 and
older. It addresses the stereotype that says Not having a father
causes girls to become promiscuous. This movie was aimed toward
the African American culture being that it is an African American film
played mostly on B.E.T (Black Entertainment Television). Promiscuity
does not have a specific race; depending on experience, anyone can
relate to this movie. It is a very emotional film, and every gender, race,
culture and ethnicity should understand the message. In this movie a
middle-aged drag queen name Holiday, still dealing with the loss of his
longtime lover meets a 12-year-old girl Niki who has no home. Touched
by her plight, the drag queen takes in the girl and her mother Wanda, a
talented writer who has fallen into a cycle of drug abuse. With his help,
Wanda and Niki try to rebuild their lives, but they have trouble
breaking their ties with a drug dealer named Silas who has been the
mother's supplier and confidante. After seeing this movie a person
would agree with the stereotype that not having a father causes girls
to become promiscuous.
Because adolescents reared in single- parent households may
have parents engaging in sexual behavior with parents to whom they
are not married, the children may be more likely to view nonmartial
sexual intercourse as normative. (Mendle et al., 2009) In the movie,
Niki saw her mother have multiple men come in and out of the house,
so in her mind she would assume that its okay for her to have multiple

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men as well. Her mother never sat her down and told her the rights
and wrongs about sex so she did not understand that sex came with
maturity. Niki also caught her mother in the act of being a prostitute so
after seeing that, a child can change thoughts completely. At the age of
12 children have so many questions, and being that her mother was
not around, she just followed her mother, thinking it was okay. In the
climax of the movie, Holiday caught Niki in the house alone with a
teenage boy about to engage in sexual activity. According to the
article: Associations Between Father Absence and Age of First Sexual
Intercourse Two parents may more closely monitor their childrens
activities and social networks, reducing opportunities for sexual
activity. Alternatively, it may simply be more difficult for adolescents to
challenge the limits set by two parents rather than one. (Mendle et al,
2009) Nikis mother was hardly around, and holiday was doing what he
could. There was not always someone around Niki to watch her and
make sure she was doing the right thing. Maybe if she had two parents
around, she would not have been caught with the boy because she
would have known that this was wrong.
Juno (2007) is a romantic dramatic comedy for ages 13 and older.
This film addresses the stereotype that says, Not having a father
brings a greater risk of teenage pregnancy. Teen pregnancy is such a
big topic because its happening in this new generation so often, some
children think its okay to get pregnant at the age of 13 and 14. There

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is a lot of research going on trying to find the reason why being
pregnant at a young age is so popular, and where most of these
pregnant teens come from. Greater exposure to father absence was
strongly associated with elevated risk for early sexual activity and
adolescent pregnancy. (Bruce, J et al., 2003) In this film a teenage girl
named Juno is faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Juno may seem
wise beyond her years, but after sleeping with classmate Bleeker, the
pregnant teen quickly realizes how little she really knows about life.
Thankfully, Juno has been blessed with parents Mac and Bren, who
trust their daughter's judgment, and a best friend named Leah, who is
always willing to help out in a pinch. With a little help from Leah, Juno
soon comes into contact with Mark and Vanessa, a suburban couple
who have been unable to conceive a child of their own. Mark and
Vanessa seem like they would make great parents, and are eager to
adopt Juno's unborn child. Now, as adolescent Juno is faced with a
series of very adult decisions, she will draw on the support of her
family and friends in order to discover who she truly is, and discover
that one bad choice can have a lifetime of consequences. After seeing
this movie a person would disagree with this stereotype and think that
teen pregnancy could happen whether if you grew up with a father or
not. Juno had both parents present when she decided to have sex and
encountered this unexpected pregnancy; they did not have anything to
do with her decision.

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A study done in the United States and New Zealand that
attempted to answer the question, Does Father Absence Place
Daughters at Special Risk for Early Sexual Activity and Teenage
Pregnancy? (Child Development, 2003). Authors collected data as a
part of an ongoing child development project and, longitudinal study of
socialization factors in children and adolescent adjustments. One of
their outcomes was that early father absent girls have the highest
rates of both early sexual activity and adolescent pregnancy, followed
by late father absent girls, followed by father present girls. Although
this study found results supporting the stereotype that not having a
father brings greater risk of teenage pregnancy, the correlation does
not imply causation. Meaning other circumstances could have
happened to those girls causing them to have sex and get pregnant at
a young age. Juno had a good relationship with her father, it was a
typical father and daughter relationship. I noticed she was not scared
to tell him she was pregnant as some teenagers are because of the risk
that they think that theyll get kicked out or disowned.
In the Pixar/ Disney animated series of Toy Story movies, the
main character Andy was never really analyzed. The movie is based
around Andys toys and their adventures; not many people realized
that Andy never had a father. The humans that are talked about
throughout each movie are Andy, Molly (Andys Sister) and Andys
mother. In the latest movie Toy Story 3 (2010), Andys toys are faced

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with the dilemma that Andy is going off to college. This film addresses
the stereotype that fatherless children are high school dropouts or
dont go to college. This movie has flash backs of Andys life as a boy
when he used to play with his toys every day, then shows different
years as he grows up from a teenager. Finally a young adult ready to
go off to college. Because the first two movies were solely based
around the toys, and not really humans, anyone could have assumed
Andys father was on a business trip, or always at work but the third
movie confirmed that his mother was indeed a single mother. As Andy
packed for college there is a picture on his wall of Andy, his mother and
his little sister at Andys high school graduation. This film goes against
the stereotype that fatherless children do not graduate or go to
college, because Andy did both.
In a webpage article Toy Story 3' and the Triumph of a Single
Mother the writer says But their house is so nice, I thought, looking
around at the rented apartment my son and I outgrew years ago.
Andy's mother seems so together. She's never hustling him out the
door to day care. His birthday party seemed so organized, that trip to
Pizza Planet so peaceful and easy. There are no scenes involving her
sprawled on the couch, too tired to lift the wine glass sitting on her
chest, a sink piled high with dirty dishes awaiting her in the kitchen...
(Pols, n.d) Even other single mothers who watch the Toy Story series
praise Andys mom for being so well put together and successfully

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raising a son. The single mother that Mary Pols was talking about in her
article is usually a mother that is stressed out and does not know how
to handle it all at once.
The fact that a father is not in a childs life creates stress upon
the mother but is not the only thing causing them to not finish school.
The lack of having a father can reduce the mothers efforts in pushing
her child to finish school because there is so many other things that
need to be done. Some mothers push away from education and push
them toward independence so they can get help around the house.
Husbandless mothers often have low income and live in poor
neighborhoods; and with these circumstances it can restrain, and even
depress, valuing education and educational achievements. (Popenone,
2009)
Father hatred is another popular stereotype dealing with
fatherless families. Most of the time children will not allow their mother
to move on because they do not want to accept the step-father in
their life or they just want their mother to be with their biological
father. They would normally just hate the new guy or try everything in
their power to break it up. Step fathers are less likely to be
committed to the childs welfare than biological fathersRather than
assisting with the responsibilities of parenting, stepfathers sometimes

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compete with the child for the mothers time, adding to the mothers
and the childs level of stress (Popenoe,2009)
Are we there yet? (2005) is an adventurous dramatic comedy for
ages 10 and up. It is about a man named Nick Persons, a dealer in
sports collectibles who has fallen for beautiful executive named
Suzanne Kingston. However, Nick discovers he has a bigger task than
just winning her over. Suzanne is a divorced mother with two children,
Lindsey and Kevin, and the kids do not believe any man besides their
father is fit for their mother to date. Even though Nick does not care
much for kids, he is eager to win Lindsey and Kevin over in order to
score points with Suzanne. When business commitments threaten to
strand Suzanne in Vancouver without her children for New Year's Eve,
Nick volunteers to escort them. But when Nick is bumped from an
airline flight due to a corkscrew in his pocket, he is forced to drive the
kids to Canada. Lindsey and Kevin see this as a golden opportunity to
make life very difficult for Nick. Throughout this movie Nick dealt with
multiple obstacles the children put him through, trying to get them to
accept him.
Up (2009) a Disney/Pixar film is about a man named Carl
Frederickson. He meets a young adventure spirited girl named Ellie.
They both dream of going to a lost land in South America. As their
friendship grows stronger, they fall in love and get married. 70 years

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later, Ellie dies before Carl could keep his promise to take her to South
America. Then, when he inadvertently hits a construction worker, he is
forced to go to a retirement home. But before they can take him, he
and his house fly away because he ties hundreds of balloons to the top
of it. However, he has a stowaway on the front porch of his home, an 8
year old boy named Russell a cub scout, who is trying to earn an
assisting the elderly badge. Together they embark on an adventure,
where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain, and a rare bird
named Kevin.
The movie, Are We There Yet agrees with the stereotype of father
hatred, the movie, UP disagrees with it. The two children Lindsey and
Kevin had their mind set that they didnt want any new man in their
life, only their father: Lindsey, you really think Dad's coming
back?...Any day now. But until then, we have to keep Mom available.
Sometimes the parents have to explain to the children that there Is a
separation and make sure they understand that there father is not
coming back; otherwise they will do things like what Lindsey and Kevin
was doing. In the movie UP, Russell was so eager to get an assisting
the elderly badge because he knew there would be a ceremony and all
of the scout fathers come and stand next to their sons. He associated
the collection of the badge, with his father coming to see him. At the
end of the movie, Carl stood next to Russell when he collected his
badge and Russell had no problem with that. Throughout the movie

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Russell was trying to get closer to him, he was looking for a father
figure in Carl and he got one. Not all children push men away, some
seek attention from males when they do not get enough attention from
either of their parents.
Every fatherless home experiences different things. Times have
changed, and gender fixed roles are switching as well. These fatherless
stereotypes are based mostly off of peoples opinions and studies.
There are more movies out there like Holiday Heart, Juno, Toy Story 3,
Are We There Yet? And Up that show the different views of these
fatherless stereotypes and show whether they agree or disagree with
them. Having a father in a childs life and always a plus because the
child needs everything they can get; but not having one isnt the end
of that childs world.