Actually, I thought *I *summed it up nicely.
To be clear, I’m not talking about every father out there. I’m just saying that the ones who make jokes about needing to fend off their daughters’ dates with a baseball bat, and don’t make the same kind of jokes about their sons’ dates, are implying that they feel their daughters need more protection. If they did make the jokes about all kids, boys *and *girls, then it would just be a joke about being an overprotective parent.
I’m not saying it’s malicious or misogynist, or that these dads think girls are less awesome than boys. On the contrary, they’d probably say their daughters kick ass, and they love them more than anything in the world, and that’s *why *they make the jokes about the baseball bats: it’s their way of saying they’d do anything to protect them. That’s sweet and wonderful. But surely they also love their sons, right? And would do anything to protect them, too? Then why no jokes about *their *dates? The only conclusion I can come to is that they feel their sons don’t really need to be protected in the same way.
But again, I really don’t want to hijack. This really seems like a totally separate thing from the OP comment (which is totally innocuous and appropriate). If you’d like to tell me I’m wrong, or that I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, or that I’ll certainly never need a bat to fend off anyone, start a thread or ask me to start one, and we’ll have a go at it.