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Daddy Day Care (Feminism Unbound)
After the class on Thursday I’ve been trying to understand "feminism unbound" and applying it to my everyday life. From my understanding “feminism unbound” views feminism without it being attached to a goal. I tried to watch this movie through a "feminism unbound" lens and realized that it may be an example of "feminism unbound." Daddy Day Care is one of my favorite childhood movies. The little children making a mess and the friendly competition between the head of the private school and Eddy Murphy always amused me. The idea of child caring is usually the job of the mother. 
She stays home, takes care of the children and makes sure the house is kept tidy. In this movie the roles are reversed and men are taking on the role of being nurturing and taking care of the children. They are criticized for this and called losers repeatedly throughout the movie. Their combatting the stereotype that men should only be the "bread winners." They’re also taking away that anxiety about men being harmful to children. The main character Eddie Murphy is now the caregiver while his wife, a lawyer, is working and paying for the bills. Usually in society today this couple would be criticized. The woman in this situation would be judged for allowing her husband to not go out and get a "real job." Or she'll be judged for not playing her role as the nurturing loving parent. The man in this situation would be judged for doing a "woman's job." Eliminating all the stigma, judgment and gender norms for a second we are able to see the world through a "feminism unbound" perspective. Unpacking feminism and having it be viewed without an end goal makes it easier to apply it to everyday life. We are able to stop dwelling on stigma and start view things in a pragmatic way based on individual circumstances. This movie is applying feminism unbound to parenting.
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Comments
feminism unbound and gender
I'm so happy you posted this example of feminism unbound! I've also been having a hard time finding a concrete understanding of it, but this example really helps. How I have been (sort of) understanding it, feminism unbound means feminism that isn't centered around women or giving women more power. It's very open and is simply a movement to give equality to everyone, regardless of gender, and looking past gender and sex completely. I think one of the things this entails is changing the way society treats gender. Gender can be a wonderful personal identifier for individuals, but society places so much importance on other people's genders. Obviously, people are treated in vastly different ways just based on their gender. I think ideally, what feminism unbound may strive for is, in a sense, a society where gender exists and is a personal identifier, but society doesn't feel the need to put people in a box or define their gender for them. That may make no sense...I'm trying to figure out a way to put into words the concept I'm thinking of but it's really hard! Basically, I guess I'm talking about a culture where gender doesn't matter to anyone but the individual, so your personal gender changes absolutely nothing about how you are viewed or treated in society.
I totally understand what
I totally understand what your saying which is what i was trying to get at in my orginal post about the movie. Its that gender isnt being applied to everything its something used to identity us. Our gender isnt determining our actions or our roles. I hope our interpretation of feminism unbound is correct lol
In agreement with Taylor11, I
In agreement with Taylor11, I am also still confused about defining unbound feminism. I love your example of Daddy Day Care, especially because I grew up with a stay at home father and a breadwinning mother, although I wonder if this scenario is till well-bound to sex and gender. I'm finding it quite dificult to understand feminism when I strip it of sex and gender. Does such feminism exist?
Ive been having trouble
Ive been having trouble trying to invision feminism without a goal and looking past sex and gender. From my understanding of what feminism unbound means I think this movie does it well. It looks past gender and sex and focuses more on parenting, caregiving and a pragmatic life style. Although I may be completely wrong lol But this was how i interpreted what feminism unbound means.
Base on the movie and your
Base on the movie and your interpretation of "feminism unbound", feminism unbound is the idea of switiching up stereotypical gender roles but not viewing them with the lense of stereotypes?? I am trying to understand what exactly feminism unbound means and appyling it to something. I also really enjoyed this movie when I was younger and found it helpful applying the idea behind the movie in understanding feminism unbound.