ABSTRACT
Conferences on fathers and fathering are quite often highly politicised affairs. Gender wars are waged. Moral panic is in the air. People’s personal histories get into the process. Tradition is assailed by innovation and vice versa. All go a little crazy due to media interest and there are sometimes demonstrations and counter-demonstrations taking place outside the meeting hall, and a good deal of stress and anxiety inside the hall. When the father—or men—is the theme, there really is a coming together of the political and the personal. At such moments, we can see clearly something that is usually hidden: developmental psychology and mental health perspectives on family process implicated in political dispute over “the family” (see Samuels, 1993, 2001). That may be why Jesse Jackson threatened (on an open mic) to squeeze Barack 124Obama’s nuts in 2008 when the then candidate seemed to pillory African-American fathers and families.
