This morning, a video clip of the BBC interviewing a man wearing a suit and seated at his desk at home went viral after children hilariously sneaked into the background, to the mortification of the pundit and his children’s caretaker.
Less hilarious: the inevitable hot take. A New Statesman blog by a self-described “killjoy spinster aunt” pronounced that the video, “is NOT FUNNY” because “it’s the patriarchy in a nutshell.”
The unnamed blogger, who refers to herself as “Millie Tant” or “Moley Tant,” says that the video is an illustration of how easy men have it.
“Mr. Pundit shoves the kid back with the easy reassurance of someone who knows that another person is going to swoop in and deal with the kids,” she speculates. “This, you feel, is the kind of guy who refers to looking after his own children as ‘babysitting.’”
(Robert E. Kelly, the dad/pundit in the video, didn’t respond to our request for comment, sent via Twitter.)
She then suggests that TV is full of male pundits “because women are doing the behind the scenes work needed to make that feasible,” adding that “true equality will not have been achieved until we see a father desperately clawing at a baby wheeler while a woman talks about the rising threat of nuclear war.”
So this viral video, which has already garnered more than a million views on Youtube, isn’t an endearing glimpse at parenthood. It’s proof of the patriarchy and “the unequal nature of caring labour,” the New Statesman obnoxiously insists.
She also writes, “Here’s the problem: I can’t enjoy it. This makes me feel so alone.” Wonder why…
— Jillian Kay Melchior writes for Heat Street and is a fellow for the Steamboat Institute and the Independent Women’s Forum.
