This a revised blog entry from our myspace account in 2008. ¿What do an olympic skating champion, Hall of Fame NFL quarterback, and a NYC politcal candidate have in common? All where raised in a single-father household.The blog title is the title for our documentary. We in pre-production, doing research on the subject of single-fathers.
We know so little about single-father families that they are treated as being non-existant.If you are a single-father or are being raised or have been raised in a single-father household, please reach out. AfterDark CATV PRO is interested in presenting case studies for the documentary. We ask that everyone be open minded and progressive.
It took me a while to get the wording correct and evoke thought but, let me begin by sending my condolences to the (Eddie) Levert family. That's Eddie Levert of the O'Jays.
The grief of losing not one but two sons by the age of 40 has to be especially hard. It is difficult enough to lose your children and live with only memories. ¿What if those memories were erased instead, like in the movie, BACK TO THE FUTURE? ¿Does this seem like a cruel question to ask? ¿Bias? Maybe. ¿Sexist? Coming from a man, some would say it is.
If you wish to look at this question from a different prespective, then try this. Being the sibling in question (Marty McFly), would you rather be given birth and raised by either (single) parent or would you perfer to have been aborted as per the decision of only one?
(Sean) Levert's death, in the Spring of 2008, brought up one of those social topics that are taboo and kept in the closet. On a lighter note, "BACK TO THE FUTURE" does as well, but, it presents the very moment where anyone, being McFly, has the chance to decide their future, birth or abortion. Remember, you can't have both. It wasn't in doubt that Michael Fox's character wanted to have been given birth to. Tragic ending aside, I don't doubt the the Levert parents would rather have had the experience of having their sons with them for the too short forty years. Yet, there are those who would charge that one partner, not both, should have sole proprietorship of reproduction. It doesn't make a difference who the one partner is, the consequences are the same, birth and single-parenthood or abortion.
Here is my opinon. Irrespective of which sex the privilege is bestowed upon it remains a medieval and sexist notion that birth and abortion are the exclusive right & privilege of one sex partner and one sex partner only. In school, I learned, I'm sure you did as well, that procreation is an adamant necessity for both sexes. As a species, if it doesn't procreate, the species, including humans, simply dies out. Each sex plays an equally vital part in the process. Women do that voodoo that only they do (so well) and men do theirs. ¿So why propose an exclusivity clause on procreation and putting at risk human existance, the birth rate, ratio between the sexes, and what genetic traits are past on?
Let's be poistive here. Besides all the negative consequences that have arisen from obligating an unwilling sex partner into parenthood the agruement for exclusivity seem, to me, bias and abusive.Where unprotected sex is the voluntary decision of both sexes, both sexes should be privileged to the choice of becoming a parent and accept the obligations and responsibilities of the consequences of their decision and action. It can't be said that a woman, choosing to use her body in the act of voluntary unprotected sex doesn't know, through her physical senses, that the man she chose to have sex with is...unprotected. I can' imagine her not knowing as much of herself, either.
Unfortunately, we shouldn't assume that Sean Levert's death is a first of its kind. What is more probable that his is the first case many have heard of. Financial support, detachment from children, I believe, is a knee-jerk response to not having any say in determining the birth or abortion of children that they will be held accountable for.
Since men don't bear (carry) children and avoid the medical risks associated with pregnancy and child birth, they are thought of as being the "wrong sex". It sounds alot like being...an illegal human, or the wrong color to sit in the shade of a tree, or the wrong race to whistle at a woman you think is attractive. Science doesn't support the notion that only men have unprotected sex and there isn't anything other than bias that says that children can't or shouldn't be raised by a single-parent man.
It takes a village to raise a child AND two to create one.
I'll end this thought by giving you more food for thought on the issue of single-fatherhood. ¿Which of the following best describes the situation by which you became a single-father or were raised in a single-father household? Is it:
1. The death of the maternal parent
2. The incapacitation of the maternal parent
3. The imprisonment of the maternal parent
4. Custody battles during divorce proceedings.
I can only wish single-fathers and their off-spring would come out from the proverbial closet and give public testimony as to their experience.
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