Laura Tropp is professor of communication and media arts at Marymount Manhattan College. Janice Kelly is associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Molloy College.

• AcknowledgmentsLaura Tropp and Janice KellyIntroduction: Changing Concepts of the Good Dad in Popular CultureJanice Kelly and Laura TroppSection I: The Evolving Dad in Popular CultureChapter 1: The Culture of Fatherhood and the Late-Twentieth-Century New Fatherhood Movement: An Interpretive Perspective Ralph LaRossaChapter 2: Who’s Your Daddy: Sperm Donation and the Cultural Construction of FatherhoodLaura TroppChapter 3: Soldiers and Fathers: Archetypal Media Representations of Service, Family, and Parenting Laura C. Prividera and John W. HowardChapter 4: Decoding Comedic Dads: Examining how Media and Real Fathers Measure up with Young Viewers Janice KellySection II: Dads Across Popular Culture GenresChapter 5: Watching the Leisure Gap: Advertising Fatherhood with the Privilege of PlayPeter SchaeferChapter 6: Detecting Fatherhood: The “New” Masculinity in Primetime Crime Dramas Sarah KornfieldChapter 7: Magazine Depictions of Fathers’ Involvement in Children’s Health: A Content Analysis Justin J. Hendricks, Heidi Steinour, William Marsiglio, and Deepika KulkarniChapter 8: New Paternal Anxieties in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Protecting the Family against (Supernatural) External Attacks Fernando Gabriel Pagnono Berns and Canela Ailen Rodriguez FontaoSection III: (Representing Dads)Chapter 9: From Good Times to Blackish: Media Portrayals of African-American Fathers Shirley A. Hill and Janice KellyChapter 10: Queering Daddy or Adopting Homonormative Fatherhood?Lynda Goldstein 11. Paternidad, Masculinidad, and Machismo: Evolving Representations of Mexican/-American Fathers in Film Leandra H. HernándezIndexAbout the Contributors

Communication scholars Tropp and Kelly have compiled an important, in-depth collection that explores the ways in which contemporary media representations of fatherhood cultivate expectations about family life, fuel misconceptions about parenting, and promote complicated and contentious ideas about what being a father means. Contributors use literature reviews, audience studies, and content and textual analyses to examine topics such as the culture of fatherhood and the conduct of fathers; sperm donation and lineage; soldiers, military service, and family commitment; stay-at-home dads, caretaking, leisure, and manhood; masculinity in crime dramas and horror films; increased, yet domesticated, portrayals of gay fathers; and how representations of African American fathers in sitcoms and Mexican American fathers on film disrupt and perpetuate stereotypes about these men and groups. Taken together, the essays illustrate striking contradictions in representations of fathers by showing how these representations are progressive, subversive, and hopeful and also restrictive and harmful, among the latter especially those that offer tidy, uncomplicated depictions of fatherhood; reify patriarchy; and perpetuate traditional attitudes toward gender and parenting. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Laura Tropp is professor of communication and media arts at Marymount Manhattan College. Janice Kelly is associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Molloy College.

• AcknowledgmentsLaura Tropp and Janice KellyIntroduction: Changing Concepts of the Good Dad in Popular CultureJanice Kelly and Laura TroppSection I: The Evolving Dad in Popular CultureChapter 1: The Culture of Fatherhood and the Late-Twentieth-Century New Fatherhood Movement: An Interpretive Perspective Ralph LaRossaChapter 2: Who’s Your Daddy: Sperm Donation and the Cultural Construction of FatherhoodLaura TroppChapter 3: Soldiers and Fathers: Archetypal Media Representations of Service, Family, and Parenting Laura C. Prividera and John W. HowardChapter 4: Decoding Comedic Dads: Examining how Media and Real Fathers Measure up with Young Viewers Janice KellySection II: Dads Across Popular Culture GenresChapter 5: Watching the Leisure Gap: Advertising Fatherhood with the Privilege of PlayPeter SchaeferChapter 6: Detecting Fatherhood: The “New” Masculinity in Primetime Crime Dramas Sarah KornfieldChapter 7: Magazine Depictions of Fathers’ Involvement in Children’s Health: A Content Analysis Justin J. Hendricks, Heidi Steinour, William Marsiglio, and Deepika KulkarniChapter 8: New Paternal Anxieties in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Protecting the Family against (Supernatural) External Attacks Fernando Gabriel Pagnono Berns and Canela Ailen Rodriguez FontaoSection III: (Representing Dads)Chapter 9: From Good Times to Blackish: Media Portrayals of African-American Fathers Shirley A. Hill and Janice KellyChapter 10: Queering Daddy or Adopting Homonormative Fatherhood?Lynda Goldstein 11. Paternidad, Masculinidad, and Machismo: Evolving Representations of Mexican/-American Fathers in Film Leandra H. HernándezIndexAbout the Contributors

Communication scholars Tropp and Kelly have compiled an important, in-depth collection that explores the ways in which contemporary media representations of fatherhood cultivate expectations about family life, fuel misconceptions about parenting, and promote complicated and contentious ideas about what being a father means. Contributors use literature reviews, audience studies, and content and textual analyses to examine topics such as the culture of fatherhood and the conduct of fathers; sperm donation and lineage; soldiers, military service, and family commitment; stay-at-home dads, caretaking, leisure, and manhood; masculinity in crime dramas and horror films; increased, yet domesticated, portrayals of gay fathers; and how representations of African American fathers in sitcoms and Mexican American fathers on film disrupt and perpetuate stereotypes about these men and groups. Taken together, the essays illustrate striking contradictions in representations of fathers by showing how these representations are progressive, subversive, and hopeful and also restrictive and harmful, among the latter especially those that offer tidy, uncomplicated depictions of fatherhood; reify patriarchy; and perpetuate traditional attitudes toward gender and parenting. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Laura Tropp is professor of communication and media arts at Marymount Manhattan College. Janice Kelly is associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Molloy College.

• AcknowledgmentsLaura Tropp and Janice KellyIntroduction: Changing Concepts of the Good Dad in Popular CultureJanice Kelly and Laura TroppSection I: The Evolving Dad in Popular CultureChapter 1: The Culture of Fatherhood and the Late-Twentieth-Century New Fatherhood Movement: An Interpretive Perspective Ralph LaRossaChapter 2: Who’s Your Daddy: Sperm Donation and the Cultural Construction of FatherhoodLaura TroppChapter 3: Soldiers and Fathers: Archetypal Media Representations of Service, Family, and Parenting Laura C. Prividera and John W. HowardChapter 4: Decoding Comedic Dads: Examining how Media and Real Fathers Measure up with Young Viewers Janice KellySection II: Dads Across Popular Culture GenresChapter 5: Watching the Leisure Gap: Advertising Fatherhood with the Privilege of PlayPeter SchaeferChapter 6: Detecting Fatherhood: The “New” Masculinity in Primetime Crime Dramas Sarah KornfieldChapter 7: Magazine Depictions of Fathers’ Involvement in Children’s Health: A Content Analysis Justin J. Hendricks, Heidi Steinour, William Marsiglio, and Deepika KulkarniChapter 8: New Paternal Anxieties in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Protecting the Family against (Supernatural) External Attacks Fernando Gabriel Pagnono Berns and Canela Ailen Rodriguez FontaoSection III: (Representing Dads)Chapter 9: From Good Times to Blackish: Media Portrayals of African-American Fathers Shirley A. Hill and Janice KellyChapter 10: Queering Daddy or Adopting Homonormative Fatherhood?Lynda Goldstein 11. Paternidad, Masculinidad, and Machismo: Evolving Representations of Mexican/-American Fathers in Film Leandra H. HernándezIndexAbout the Contributors

Communication scholars Tropp and Kelly have compiled an important, in-depth collection that explores the ways in which contemporary media representations of fatherhood cultivate expectations about family life, fuel misconceptions about parenting, and promote complicated and contentious ideas about what being a father means. Contributors use literature reviews, audience studies, and content and textual analyses to examine topics such as the culture of fatherhood and the conduct of fathers; sperm donation and lineage; soldiers, military service, and family commitment; stay-at-home dads, caretaking, leisure, and manhood; masculinity in crime dramas and horror films; increased, yet domesticated, portrayals of gay fathers; and how representations of African American fathers in sitcoms and Mexican American fathers on film disrupt and perpetuate stereotypes about these men and groups. Taken together, the essays illustrate striking contradictions in representations of fathers by showing how these representations are progressive, subversive, and hopeful and also restrictive and harmful, among the latter especially those that offer tidy, uncomplicated depictions of fatherhood; reify patriarchy; and perpetuate traditional attitudes toward gender and parenting. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.