Daddy Depp

Last night, when he was being interviewed on the red carpet on his way into the Golden Globez, Johnny Depp told whichever generic presenter was shoving a mic in his face that he came up with Willy Wonka’s voice while playing Barbies with his daughter. I thought that was the cutest thing ever (even though I’m not a particular fan of Barbies, for all the expected reasons). It’s not the first time Depp has talked about playing Barbies with his little girl, and although I know it causes all sorts of eye-rolling among certain people, I think his willingness to talk so openly and honestly about engaging his daughter through activities she likes—activities in which dads especially don’t tend to engage with their daughters—is really laudable.

Traditionally, dads—if they engaged much with their young children at all—restricted their interaction with daughters to high-energy activities like learning to ride a bike, sports, general roughhousing, etc. Now, I think dads are much more engaged generally with their children, but it’s still a shock (if a pleasant one) to hear a father talking about playing with dolls with his daughter.

It’s valuable for girls to have their fathers spend time immersed in their daughter’s interests, which generally happens more frequently with mothers and sons, as moms drive their boys to Little League games or attend chess club matches, whatever. A father showing an interest in a “girlish” pursuit is important not only to validate its worth, but to reinforce the notion that don’t have to suppress their own interests in favor of a male partners’ in order to spend quality time with him. A lot of girls learn from a very young age that male attention is held more easily if they do something a man enjoys, rather than the other way around. It’s no surprise to me that straight daughters raised by two parents of the same sex tend to show this inclination less.