So, You Think You Can Parent

Twitter Users’ Responses to Single Father Tropes in Television’s Single Parents

Bibliographic Data

ID7919986
AuthorsLaurena Bernabo (0000-0001-9399-5075, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA, corresponding author), J Turchi (0000-0001-7098-6256, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA)
Year2023
Volume26
Issue2
Pages251-269
Publication date2023-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMen and Masculinities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1097-184X • E-ISSN: 1552-6828
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1097184x231155893
OpenAlexW4318941846
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited32

As the U.S. single-father population expands, we explore how fans of Single Parents (ABC, 2018–2020) responded to its three single-father characters, each of whom evoke a distinct trope. Viewers use Twitter to engage television programs, and so their tweets provide insight into societal expectations surrounding evolving gendered parenting norms. Using qualitative content analysis, we analyze viewers’ tweets ( N = 834) and explore the ways viewers addressed these characters’ relationships with children, with their fellow single parents, and with romantic partners. Fans celebrated the new millennial approach to fatherhood and challenged the traditional trope of “inept father,” yet hoped the single fathers would re-couple and therefore cease to be single parents. We conclude that Single Parents fans embraced modern, expanding cultural norms for fathers and caregiving while ultimately demonstrating a preference for two-parent households

Art · Developmental psychology · Literature · Population · Preference · Psychoanalysis · Romance · Single mothers · Sociology · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Social Psychology

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