Are “daddy issues” all bad? How growing up without a father can have a silver lining.
THE PAIN Growing up without a father in a man’s world as a young girl and woman, can be an extremely painful experience. Besides the obvious abandonment wound, it can also mean not knowing how to maneuverer safely in a world that continues to be dominated by men and that still treats women as objects and subservient beings. Yes, we have made many strides in the world of gender equality, but you have to be truly blind or caught up in your male privilege to believe all is well for women – we still are not treated with the respect of being autonomous individuals. Autonomous = having the freedom to govern oneself or control one’s own affairs. If you’ve seen the recent news from Afghanistan to Texas, women are still not given this very basic respect that men have always been given. You see it in the “body count” gender wars, and the double standards around sexuality. You see it in workplaces where it’s still much easier for men to climb the corporate ladder and end up on huge...