“It’s just misogynistic”: Video comparing “girl dads” and “boy dads” has people pointing out how early gender bias starts

A viral video comparing “girl dads” to “boy dads” has reignited debate over the subtle ways sexism shapes parenting.

Men wish their daughters were different people, apparently

On Monday, X user @josh_uglyasf set on the path to getting over 25 million views with a video comparing “girls dads” to “boy dads.”

In the footage, men carrying baby girls and Barbie dolls or sadly letting their daughters put makeup on them gaze longingly at their fellow fathers carrying their sons’ PlayStations or soccer balls.

It got super interesting at the end with dads being careful and precious with their girls while tossing and tackling little boys like they were living footballs.

While the video got plenty of laughs, some found it impossible not to see the message as “having a daughter is bad.”

Commenter @lwtfinallyfree pointed out that there is “nothing but ur own stinking misogyny stopping u from playing sports and video games with your daughters.”

User @sleepi_me lamented that “men make this kind of content and think its so funny but its just misogynistic.”

Others felt for the girls who would grow up to see these videos, including @ruthkanda4ever who summed it up by writing, “come here five year old daughter we’re going to make a video about how much i f**king hate you and wish you were never born.”

Meanwhile, @niyeema38 noted how people also manage to target grown women when girl hate comes up.

“When that woman last month had that reaction to being pregnant with a boy y’all called her every name but the one she was given,” they said. “But girls get used in content about the misery it is not having a boy and it’s all laughs.”

Boys and girls are different because we treat them differently

Both the beginning and end of this video speak volumes about how we socialize kids based on gender. The first “girl dad” shown is carrying a tiny infant. You wouldn’t know her gender aside from the pink headband and what dad carries—a Barbie and her accessories.

A baby that young doesn’t know what a Barbie is, nor can she really play with it. In fact, that little bag might contain choking hazards for her.

Why did her dad choose this toy instead of something age-appropriate? Why not buy that five-year-old girl a PlayStation, or a soccer ball, or a toy truck?

The ending scenes highlight recent revelations into why girls and boys, and later men and women, appear to differ in terms of physical capability. The girl dads lift their daughters gently, as though afraid of hurting them. The boys get thrown across the pool or tackled onto the bed.

Studies in the 21st century have shown that this disparity in the way parents treat differently gendered kids is nearly universal. Researchers finally proposed that perhaps this has something to do with gaps in risk-taking tendencies and even physical strength between the sexes in later years, rather than automatically concluding that it’s just “biology.”

In one experiment conducted back in 2000, parents intervened to provide physical support to their daughters during a risky task 67 percent of the time compared to just 17 percent with their sons.

“Parents’ instructions to girls also emphasized injury vulnerability and cautiousness,” researchers reported.