Leopold was overbearing — relentless in his demand for perfection. But thankfully, his commitment to excellence nurtured the most prodigious and prolific musician of all time. — Listen to the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Think about his father. Leopold was overbearing — relentless in his demand for perfection. But thankfully, his commitment to excellence nurtured the most prodigious and prolific musician of all time. [i]

We’re living at a time of unprecedented phallic comfort. — A lot of people think that it’s a hard time to be a man. But the truth is we’re living at a time of unprecedented phallic comfort. Just consider men’s underwear. Innovative technical fabrics are designed for extreme coziness, maximum stretch, and anti-microbial moisture-wicking. Tencel and Modal are made from…

Recognize that parents are on the front lines of gender socialization and commit to doing it better. — People often ask me what it means to be a Feminist Dad. I tell them that if they want to understand, first they need to acknowledge that the image in their head of fatherhood is like a piece of art. It’s a collage created in a kindergarten classroom, cut from…

Check your math, Andrew. Men feel wounded because they’re not prepared to navigate a culture that’s actively shedding its old sexist inclinations. — Andrew Yang is the latest high-profile addition to a long list of folks who think that it’s an especially hard time to be a man. In a recent opinion piece for the Washington Post, he cites familiar statistics. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and they’re dwindling…

There’s no right age to introduce technology. So, start early. — Every time people ask me what’s the right age to give a child a smartphone, I struggle to answer without being obnoxious. I’ve been writing and talking about kids and screens for a very long time. At this point, some questions just irk me. Recently, I gave an interview to…

The poet Robert Bly — who died on Nov. 21, at the age of 94 — was best-known for his controversial work of archetypal psychology, Iron John: A Book About Men.

The entire world is organized in a way that makes teen girls feel bad about their bodies. Instagram is not the problem. — “I believe that Facebook’s products harm children,” said whistleblower Frances Haugen, as she testified before a Senate panel earlier this week. She claims to have inside information proving that Facebook’s social media products, which also include Instagram and WhatsApp, are “generating self-harm and self-hate — especially for vulnerable groups, like…

Competing against your kids can be another way of dominating them — It’s so easy for every day, run-of-the-mill parenting practices to pile up — one small misstep stacks atop the others — reinforcing problematic cultural conventions. Fatherly intentions are often pure, but we inadvertently teach our kids to conform with a sexist status quo. Especially when it comes to the familiar…

It’s never easy to acknowledge one’s own problematic behaviors, especially when it comes to courtship, romance, and sex. We’ll gaslight ourselves right out of self-reflection. — I told a former lover that I wrote a book about being a feminist dad. “I’ll read it,” they said. “But I don’t know if I can take it seriously. I remember what you were like when you were younger.” It’s true, I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my…