Writer Jef Otte chronicles his experiences as a stay at home dad for the magazine FYI of Southwest Michigan. In his most recent “Family Man” column, Otte writes about the condescension he feels sometimes from women. Otte calls this experience being “Momdescended.”
Otte says the column came about from being “patted on the head” by women when he was with his young son. He says it felt like he was “patronized” or to use another term he coined “matronized.”
Jef Otte started writing the Family Man column when FYI Southwest Michigan launched in August. The magazine focuses on families and children. Otte whose wife, Tiffany Fitzgerald, was the editor of FYI until recently, has been the primary care giver for his three year old son.
In his I've Been Momdescended column, Otte says women have a legitimate complaint about systemic gender discrimination. He says those problems, such as pay disparity, are much bigger than the occasional patronizing comment that he hears. But Otte says the attitude that men are fish out of water when providing child care has its roots in the same type of tired gender stereotypes.
