Rules of a Feminist Father

The supportive father of a 20 year-old girl from Cherry Hill, NJ was photographed wearing a t-shirt displaying the rules for dating his daughter, and the pic has gone totally viral.

Wow. Her body, her rules. I kind of love that.

The man's daughter, college student Kristin Speare, proudly posted this photo to her Tumblr account, where it's been liked and shared over 215,000 times. Speare had this to say about her Dad, restaurant owner Chuck Speare, on Twitter:

"He's very supportive of me and the decisions I make for myself; he cares so much about me and my passion for feminism. He completely agrees with the shirt's message."

Of course, like anything that contains the word feminism, this dad's philosophy had gotten a bit of flak. Some parents argue that kids need boundaries set for them, and that if we let our daughters make the rules, we are opening them up to predators and victimization.

Still, there's been plenty of online support for Speare's Dad too. One father of a 16 year-old girl commented on Facebook that he gave his daughter's new boyfriend a similar speech when he asked for permission to date her.

"I trust her to do the right thing, and she trusts me to back her up."

My favorite dating rule is #3. She Makes the Rules.

I just love the idea of empowering girls who've begun dating–a time in their life when so many of them lack self-esteem and feel pressured to let boys do certain things with them, just so they will be liked. Telling girls that they're in control will only help them act that way.

It's a much better sentiment than the message my overprotective brother used to give to my teenage boyfriends a couple of decades ago when they would pick me up for a date:

"You touch my sister and I'll kill you."

The Feminist father t-shirt is available on Zazzle for $48.90.

Overprotective Brother t-shirts, thankfully, aren't available anywhere.

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