What does it mean to be a dad? WashU’s Phillip Maciak studies modern fatherhood

But really–who is your daddy?

Phillip Maciak teaches literature and American studies at Washington University in St. Louis and pens TV criticism for The New Republic, but his current academic interest–and the subject of his upcoming book–is the role of the dad in popular culture. This semester, he’s teaching a seminar called Dad Culture Studies, in which he and his students consider the American dad in all his forms–from the 19th century to Tim Walz and JD Vance–as well as important cultural artifacts like the “dad hat,” which Maciak wore to this interview. (It was purple and said “Eve Babitz.”)

How did you become interested in studying dads?

After my oldest daughter was born in 2015, I started to be self-conscious about [being a dad] and thinking about it in critical terms. I was learning things from watching depictions of fatherhood on TV, and what I was being critical about was how those depictions worked and what kinds of cultural ideas they were drawing on and how they reflected the cultural or historical moment. The prospect of presenting these observations I was having about representations of dads in popular media to students was interesting to me. I wanted to hear from them.

What did they have to say?

The more I’ve studied this topic, the more I have come to terms with the fact that it is a very generational phenomenon. The conversations I’ve had with my students so far lean toward the idea that they really think of it as an adjective, as a way of describing things.

Like the dad hat?

“Dad bod” is a really big phrase for them. And “dad friend.” There are different interpretations of that. The dad friend is the person in your friend group who is enthusiastic but needs a reminder about stuff you’re doing. But I’ve also heard it defined as the really responsible friend who is super-competent and will take charge of a situation. The description is different from person to person. And that’s part of what I think is really interesting about this subject as a whole, that it’s both this huge, ubiquitous cultural phenomenon, but it’s different for everybody.

How do you think people interpret the concept of being a dad today?

I was thinking a lot about different stereotypes about dads, and I think it’s two things: what popular culture is telling you a dad is like, and that’s influential and changes over time. But on the other hand, it’s always also your dad or the dad you wish you had. It’s as much about your personal experience as it is about your cultural experience. The dad is a figure of adaptation, meaning the dad is the image that we produce culturally that either reflects or helps us understand how men or male parents need to adapt to the state of the domestic sphere at a given time.

How has the cultural idea of dad-ness changed over time?

The standard of dadhood was that it was like a softening of the era before. And there’s a lot of flexibility I think to it in the present moment. This always runs the risk of generalizing, but in my experience among dads, the thing I notice is that there’s a real expectation now of involvement in kids’ lives. But I’ll say as a caveat that my oldest child is 9 years old. So I’m embarrassing, but my kids are still kind of OK with that.

What about bad dads or dads who aren’t there?

There’s a whole archive of cultural representation that’s all about that. I think the figure I most associate with that is Steven Spielberg, who, as you know, makes all his movies about absent fathers. You learn a lot from Ward Cleaver or Cliff Huxtable or Danny Tanner by seeing what they do on screen as fathers. But you also learn about what that role is supposed to be or what people expect that role to be in representations of dads who aren’t there.

How would you describe a St. Louis dad?

Part of what I tell my students about dad culture is that it works just like all other pop culture works, which is that it’s both this big general thing and also it is very specific in its expression of the particular space that you’re in at a given time.

I think there are things that are St. Louis-specific, but they’re also iterations of big general categories. So, [for example], St. Louis dads wear dad hats, but they’re Cardinals hats or Blues hats. I do think there’s an aggressive positivity to St. Louis sports dads. They identify themselves as “real” fans who have an ethics to their fandom, but my friend says they’re like doomsday preppers waiting for the wheels to fall off.

What would you describe as the portrait of modern dad-hood?

This:

Ethan Hawke embarrassing his son at a basketball game
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