A new line of shirts for dads is offering a refreshing perspective on fatherhood.
This month, dad and Huffington Post blogger Mike Reynolds launched a line of T-shirts and sweatshirts featuring phrases that combat harmful stereotypes about masculinity and fatherhood. The messages on the shirts, which are for sale on his website, include, “Dad who cries when Bing Bong dies,” “Strength has no gender” and “Not my body, not my choice.”
Reynolds told HuffPost he was inspired to create the product line after noticing shirts that read “Dads Against Daughters Dating” gaining traction on social media a couple of years ago.
The dad said he was struck, not only by the shirt but also the many positive responses to it. “I wondered why so many people thought that the best relationship a dad could have with his daughter was one where he treated her like a possession,” he explained.
Reynolds has two daughters, 6-year-old Leah and 4-year-old Charlotte. He believes the message of the “Dads Against Daughters Dating” shirt is not representative of his relationship with his daughters.
“We do science projects together, we make up bedtime stories about giants who play hopscotch, and we talk our bodies, how they are changing, and about anything they’d like to ask me,” he said, adding, “I think this is a relationship a lot of dads have with their daughters but they’re told they should be protecting their daughters with their physical strength instead of building trusting relationships with them.”
Reynolds wants to redefine what masculinity means, to show boys growing up today that there is no one “right” way to be a man. Whether you fix cars or paint your nails, whether you cry watching movies or don’t shed a tear, whether you dress up as a princess or a superhero for Halloween, anyone who identifies as male is “doing it right,” he explained.
Reynolds believes the messages of his shirts are particularly important at this time in our society. “When you see some of the discussions that have taken place during the recent United States election cycle, you get a better idea of just how prevalent rape culture is,” he said.
“You see people explain away sexual harassment with ‘it was just a joke’ and it is infuriating,” he added. “When you have hundreds of thousands of women sharing their stories of how they’ve been impacted by rape culture, you better think long and hard about how you can help change this as a man and as a dad.”
The dad told HuffPost he’s hoping to donate some of the profits from the shirts to organizations like White Ribbon, which works to end men’s violence against women. He also plans to add more messages to the T-shirt line as he thinks of them.
“I want dads, and really, all men, to feel comfortable showing everyone that their version of masculinity is perfect ― that they aren’t less of a man because they don’t want to fight the people their daughters might choose to date,” Reynolds explained. “I want people to show other men that words aren’t ‘just words’―-that talk about sexual assault isn’t funny.”
The dad especially wants men to stand up to those who still believe the “daughter-as-possession mindset” is appropriate or funny.
“Men need to challenge other men when their ideas on raising kids and on being a man are in conflict with respecting women and with raising young girls ― as well as boys ― to be comfortable being who they want to be,” Reynolds said. “A T-shirt is a pretty straightforward way to do it.”
Visit Reynolds’ site, Everyday Girl Dad, to learn more about his fatherhood journey and line of shirts.