Interesting.

[velvetpage]

The dividing line between American and Canadian values can be seen in their reaction to the phrase: "The father of the family must be the master of his own house."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150321812620&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467

Fascinating.

Comments

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Oh wow.

Those numbers, if accurate, are a little worrying (though not necessarily surprising)

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

I've definitely noticed a creeping authoritarianism in America.

[paka.livejournal.com]

Eww. A household is a collaboration, no one person is the boss. I guess that makes me more Canadian, but both of us sort of knew that before.

[catarzyna.livejournal.com]

I know I didn't take part in this survey. I wonder who they asked, what part of the country/population. I'll tell you straight up most households I know are equal or the women are in control. Haha!

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I pity the moms who feel this way - they've abdicated any authority over their children. The "wait til your father gets home" approach to discipline is destructive to the family as a whole, but is harder on the mom than anyone else.

[catarzyna.livejournal.com]

I still want to know what cross section of the US they polled because if they only asked 100 people in the mid-West there might be vast differences than say the East Coast, West Coast or the Deep South.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Good point. A survey is only as good as its sample population, after all.

[dawn-again.livejournal.com]

My response exactly. "Who the hell did they poll?"

Because I personally dont know anyone who thinks that way. In aft most people I know would probably be offended by that statement.

[michellinator.livejournal.com]

This was my reaction, too. Was this a poll that only included MEN, maybe? "Master" has historically negative connotations in this country to begin with.

[melstra.livejournal.com]

If you enjoyed this article, go get "Fire and Ice" ---one of his more famous books. It's got even better examples and a lot more info (better written, too). Jeff and I have been telling people about this book for years (came out in 2004 I think). (It's in most libraries too).

Btw, Adams does some interesting statistical analysis on geographical differences in "F&I". New England (where I am from, and with a definitely more liberal population) scores more like Canada than like the US in most questions of ideology like this.

[melstra.livejournal.com]

P.S. I don't know anyone but my father who still believes a man should be the head of the house, so I find the results a disturbing too. Some of the other survey questions make the differences a bit more understandable though. For example, Americans tend to believe in success as an individual pursuit based on hard work (the "american dream"), while Canadians usually base their efforts on what is good for the greatest number of people. Yes, it's very general, but I find that roughly true.

[girlydoll.livejournal.com]

I guess they polled more in the middle of the states, where the family values run higher, more of the "All American Values" type of thing? Most of the Americans I know (family and friends) feel that family is not a dictatorship over lorded by one person, but run as a whole, a partnership of Mom and Dad.

It also depends on the specific questions they asked to ascertain these results. I mean, if they say on average who is the bread winner in the average family where one parent stays home, you would say the father, or who generally makes more it would be the father. If they also ask who might be the more disciplinary person within the family most would say the father again. I can't see them asking the specific question of is dad the boss of the house and all those answers being yes.

Short of interviewing the commune out in BC, I just don't see even 43% of Canadian households saying that Dad is the boss in the family. This interview is only as good as those who participated, and barring that, the questions asked. I also have to assume alot of single mother's were not interviewed here either, maybe single fathers LOL.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

Yes... and the Canadian reaction is the sane one: Hysterical laughter!

More seriously, I think this isn't the dividing line between Americans and Canadians, but between American conservatives and Canadian conservatives. Liberals on both sides of the border would probably be pretty repelled by the whole "master" thing.