Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers by Michael G. Long

Author:Michael G. Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611645699
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Published: 2015-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

A model of male sensitivity, Rogers often used his program to teach boys and girls that they could act in ways not typically associated with their gender.

Chapter 9

“I’m Tired of Being a Lady”

Tough Girls, Sensitive Boys

Although it’s impossible to find the words feminist or feminism in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, there’s no doubt that Fred Rogers used the program to teach and celebrate feminist principles and practices. True to form, he did not join picket lines, marches, or demonstrations seeking equality for women. Rogers was no Pauli Murray, Betty Friedan, or Bella Abzug. But in his own quiet way, he taught girls and women that they did not have to be tied to the identities typically associated with their gender. At the same time, he encouraged boys and men to adopt qualities not normally identified with their gender, especially tenderness, sensitivity, and love. Doing so was Rogers’s way of helping boys and girls combat inner turmoil and achieve an inner peace essential for human flourishing. It was also his way of showing that peace on earth required gender equality, of seeing boys and girls as equal in value and refusing to discriminate against either because of their gender.

Early Gender-Bending

Fred Rogers was the opposite of macho. He showed no hint of physical brawn; his chin was weak, his muscles toned but underdeveloped, and his face eternally smooth. A model of male softness and sensitivity, Rogers cut a striking figure on and off television. He was not aggressive in any way. He talked softly and carried no stick; his spirit was gentle and tender, patient and trustworthy, and receptive and loving. He truly loved children, and loved connecting with them on their own level.

Just the thought of a middle-aged man coming into a child’s home in the middle of the day was countercultural in the 1960s. Most adult males were absent from their homes at that point; they were at work, talking about adult things with other adults. But there was Mister Rogers, taking time before his own workday, or so he told us, to come to his television house and spend thirty minutes of quality time with boys and girls across the nation. Also striking, given the customs of the day, was Mister Rogers’s depiction of himself as the children’s “television friend.” He wasn’t a teacher, and they weren’t his students; he was their friend, and they were his. That’s no small point, and it was directly subversive of gender-related expectations of its day.

The first week of the national edition of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood included another jolting image—that of a woman leading a campaign against King Friday’s preparations for war. Male-dominated institutions executing the Vietnam War were an integral part of the context of that first week. From the White House, President Johnson, an alpha male like none other, directed packs of male soldiers at the Pentagon. Even the major personalities behind the mainstream peace movement were men—Martin Luther King Jr., Benjamin Spock, William Sloane Coffin Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and George McGovern.

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