{"id":2652907,"date":"2026-09-01T08:58:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigneveryone-knows-father-absence-is-bad-so-why-does-designer-fatherlessness-get-a-pass\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:06:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:06:58","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigneveryone-knows-father-absence-is-bad-so-why-does-designer-fatherlessness-get-a-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigneveryone-knows-father-absence-is-bad-so-why-does-designer-fatherlessness-get-a-pass\/","title":{"rendered":"Absent Dads Are Bad, So Why Does Designer Fatherlessness Get A Pass?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigneveryone-knows-father-absence-is-bad-so-why-does-designer-fatherlessness-get-a-pass%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2652907&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article critiques a recent photo shoot featuring lesbian couple Lunden and Olivia Stallings celebrating the birth of their daughter, highlighting it as an attempt to normalize purposeful fatherlessness-an arrangement where children are deprived of their biological fathers on purpose. It questions why <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >society readily condemns male abandonment<\/a> but overlooks or justifies similar actions by women. The author argues that both scenarios harm children equally and emphasizes that loving homes or the desire for a child do not replace the role and importance of a father. The piece discusses the emotional and psychological consequences faced by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mandating-ivf-coverage-will-exploit-vulnerable-women\/\" title=\"Mandating IVF Coverage Will Exploit Vulnerable ...\">donor-conceived individuals<\/a> who lack a relationship with their non-biological fathers, citing studies showing feelings of loss and identity struggles. It addresses common defenses of these family arrangements, such as claiming children will be fine, or accusing critics of bigotry, and counters that consistent advocacy for children\u2019s rights should mean defending the presence of both a mother and a father in every child&#8217;s life, regardless of the sex of the parents. The overarching message is that society must uphold pro-child standards and recognize the double standard currently in play when it comes to same<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/big-fertility-is-just-modern-day-harems-for-billionaires\/\" title=\"Big Fertility Is Just Modern-Day Harems For Billionaires\">-sex parenting arrangements<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A photo shoot recently came across my Instagram feed when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DbtmjaelRsO\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Southern Living<\/a> introduced its readers to lesbian couple Lunden and Olivia Stallings, influencers who have, in the magazine\u2019s words, \u201ccaptivated millions\u201d with their classic Southern style. The reason for the post was the arrival of a baby girl, with photos of the two women in pastel dresses holding a sonogram beside a wicker bassinet.<\/p>\n<p>The whole shoot was a psy-op attempting to normalize what everyone typically recognizes as a horrible thing for a child: the loss of her father. But here it was glossy, edited, and branded for a magazine.<\/p>\n<p>I was under the impression that fatherlessness was something Americans still condemned unanimously. Barack Obama made it a signature theme, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2008\/06\/text-of-obamas-fatherhood-speech-011094\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">standing in a Chicago pulpit on Father\u2019s Day 2008<\/a> to declare: \u201cOf all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation.\u201d He carried this message of \u201cevery father\u201d into his presidency with White House fatherhood initiatives. So why, when two women manufacture fatherlessness on purpose, do they avoid scrutiny?<\/p>\n<p>Gay men, posing in hospital beds and acquiring unrelated children, have begun drawing appropriate scorn as of late. Thankfully, some people are waking up to the unnatural and unjust marketplace \u2014 buying and selling children like commodities while outsourcing gestation as a service, renting women\u2019s bodies to facilitate the transaction.<\/p>\n<p>But why is it that when the sexes flip they seem to get a pass?<\/p>\n<p>Last weekend revealed just how unrelenting adult self-interest can be, especially when coming from the female side of the LGBT community. I posted a screenshot of the photo shoot and called the image what it is: designer fatherlessness. I asked whether we are ready to hold women accountable for doing this to a child, or whether it\u2019s only wrong when it\u2019s two men shirtless in a hospital bed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DcYmtetkVID\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The post<\/a> drew several thousand comments across several platforms, mainly confirming what I feared: We are not ready.<\/p>\n<p>The pushback revolved around five pro-adult themes, and each one deserves a pro-child response.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>1. \u2018Why Don\u2019t You Go After Deadbeat Dads?\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>I do. Why can\u2019t we do both? A father abandoning his child is always wrong. But follow the logic of the objection: Because some men abandon their kids, and we all agree it\u2019s bad and harms the child, we should now encourage it and celebrate when it happens on purpose in a glossy photo shoot? Absolutely not. <\/p>\n<p>Abandonment is wrong not only because the family is missing Dad\u2019s paycheck. It\u2019s wrong because of what a father means to his child. And if that\u2019s true, it doesn\u2019t stop being true when two women premeditate and finance the abandonment before conception. The dad who walks out, and the dad who was never allowed in, leave the same hole in the same kid regardless of whether the fatherless child has a trust fund or cute clothes to wear. We should condemn both using the same standard.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>2. \u2018But It\u2019s a Loving Home. The Baby Is So Wanted.\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>No one needs to argue about whether two women can love or want a child. The core of the argument is that no amount of loving women can replace a father\u2019s love. Further, an adult wanting and loving a baby doesn\u2019t make you that baby\u2019s \u201csecond\u201d mother, and it doesn\u2019t replace that baby\u2019s only father. These are talking points adults use to justify depriving a child of someone she is owed.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>3. \u2018There\u2019s a Difference Between Losing a Father and Never Having One.\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The claim here is that abandonment wounds a child, but a father missing from day one leaves nothing to grieve \u2014 you can\u2019t lose what you never had.<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s impossible not to have a father. He was needed for the creation part. He may have abandoned you, but you still have one father.<\/p>\n<p>The donor-conceived child in the photo shoot has a father; she just isn\u2019t permitted to know him. And the people who have actually lived this arrangement say that the absence functions as loss. In <a href=\"https:\/\/thembeforeus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/My-Daddys-Name-is-Donor-Full-Study.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the largest study of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/by-pretending-surrogacy-is-a-right-adults-deny-the-rights-of-children\/\" title=\"... disregard ...&#039;s rights by falsely claiming surrogacy as a right\">donor-conceived adults<\/a><\/a>, 65 percent agreed that \u201cmy sperm donor is half of who I am.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/thembeforeus.substack.com\/p\/i-hate-my-conception\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ellie<\/a>, who was donor-conceived, describes what that half feels like when it\u2019s gone: \u201cThere isn\u2019t a handbook on how to rebuild your sense of self when you discover that your non-identifiable father sold you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nearly half of these adults think about their conception at least a few times a week. Seventy percent wonder what their donor\u2019s family is like, and 69 percent wonder whether the donor\u2019s parents would want to know them. Forty-five percent say the circumstances of their conception bother them. Just as many are bothered that money was exchanged to conceive them.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The study\u2019s most telling comparison answers this objection directly. Forty-eight percent of donor-conceived adults feel sad when they see friends with their biological fathers and mothers, compared to 19 percent of adults who were adopted. Fifty-three percent hurt when other people talk about their genealogical background, versus 29 percent of adopted adults.<\/p>\n<p>In both cases, donor-conceived and adopted, children lost something. In one of those cases, the adults the child is living with planned and financed the tragedy. To the child, the distinction between losing a father and never being allowed one collapses. It is the same absence. The only difference is who caused it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>4. \u2018I Grew Up Fatherless and Turned Out Fine.\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Some version of \u201cthe kid will be fine\u201d or \u201cit could be worse\u201d is what the adults say when the harm they\u2019re inflicting isn\u2019t bad enough to make them stop. When a father leaves, everyone calls it a tragedy, and rightly so. It\u2019s another thing entirely when two women plan his absence, pay him to walk away, and all of society tells the child she\u2019s lost nothing, celebrating her pain as progress.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>5. \u2018You\u2019re a Bigot.\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The classic. Turns out it is homophobic to say every child has a father. Why? Because to make such a claim discriminates against all those adults who cannot create a child with their same-sex partner. But this isn\u2019t fundamentally about same-sex relationships. It\u2019s about any adult acquiring a child and depriving her of her father on purpose. It\u2019s wrong whether it\u2019s a straight couple, two men, or three women. Every child ever created came from one man and one woman, and no child should be intentionally deprived of those people so adults can get what they want.<\/p>\n<h2>The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>Lunden and Olivia Stallings are getting a pass, and it is a double standard. When two men do this, we\u2019ve started calling it what it is. When two women do it, we call it a \u201cfamily,\u201d even though the child loses the same thing in both cases.<\/p>\n<p>The antidote is pro-child consistency. Defend a child\u2019s right to her mother and father, regardless of the sex of the adults.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Josh Wood, @j_k_wood, is the executive director of Them Before Us and contributing author of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Pro-Child-Politics-Cultural-Economic-National\/dp\/B0D6LT3ZB3\">Pro-Child Politics<\/a>. He writes on Substack at Everyday Interpreter: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.everydayinterpreter.com\/\">everydayinterpreter.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lesbian couple&#8217;s photo shoot normalizes fatherlessness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3951,"featured_media":2652908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/stallings.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[84959,84960,52749,17459],"class_list":["post-2652907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-absent-fathers","tag-designer-masculinity","tag-fatherhood-2","tag-parenting"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/stallings.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3951"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2652907"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2652915,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652907\/revisions\/2652915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2652908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2652907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2652907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2652907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}