Dads need to be dads

As we celebrate Father’s Day this weekend, we know the role of fathers in our lives can be profound and multifaceted. They should be our teachers, protectors, and confidants, guiding us with love and wisdom.

Good fathers help shape our character, build our resilience, and nurture our dreams. Their loving presence enriches our lives, providing a foundation of support and security that we carry with us always.

While we may use this time, and this holiday, to reflect on our individual fathers, we need to use it to help restore the role of dads in our society. As society is saying boys and men can use women’s bathrooms or other private space, or can play on women’s teams, dads need to know they can speak up and defend their daughters. This is their duty.

What can dads do?

Understand that testosterone is not a social contract. Parents should feel empowered to pull their kids out of competitions that allow pubescent or post-pubescent males to participate in girls’ sports. They should insist that schools provide safe same-sex bathrooms, locker rooms, and dormitory spaces. They should insist that children not be exposed to porn in our libraries or radical DEI curricula in our schools. Acceptance doesn’t have to be compliance. We are grateful Mississippi lawmakers passed the Fairness Act in 2021 keeping boys and men out of girls sports and that they passed the SAFER Act this past session keeping boys and men out of girl’s safe spaces in education buildings. But we have more work to do.

Fathers don’t have to accept the government’s increasing insistence to co-parent and tolerate its power over their children. Yet men often view heroism with reticence due to our culture’s current demonization of masculinity.

Fathers should be empowered to help their children become the best versions of themselves, rather than be forced to accept whatever radical narrative bureaucrats and corporate media choose to support.

We know the messages that the federal government, media, and popular culture want to send to dads—they are not needed. We also know, unfortunately, how many dads have fallen for the traps and are not even present in the lives of their children. It is not a coincidence.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. For everyone to be better off, society needs to celebrate fathers and masculinity. And dads need to be dads.