In search of the appeal of the ‘DILF’

ABSTRACT

Contemporary culture has afforded a new sexualised identity to fatherhood. Fathers are often labelled as nurturing, dominant, and domesticated; attributes demonstrably appealing to females. Colloquially, the sexy dad has come to be referred to as ‘DILF’ (i.e., Dad I’d Like to Fuck), a concept popularised in the media since its debut online in 2011. DILFs are increasingly searched for by women on pornography websites, evidence of an increasing sexual interest in or awareness of the DILF phenomenon. As the DILF is reflective of shifts in popular culture pertaining to media, gendered parenting, notions of masculinity, and women’s sexual expression, this study explored whether women find DILFs more attractive than otherwise equally attractive men without children. Female participants were randomly assigned to one of two possible male profile conditions of the same attractive man (with children versus without children). Results revealed that women rated the male target with children as possessing more positive attributes relative to the male target without children. Follow-up analyses revealed more positive emotional attributes ascribed to the DILF target condition, whereas more positive social attributes were ascribed to the non-DILF target condition. Results are discussed in reference to the changing landscape of masculinity and fatherhood.

KEYWORDS:

• Fatherhood
• DILF
• evolutionary psychology
• masculinity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Given the lack of research on the DILF phenomenon, we opted to restrict our examination to one male target in order to simplify the interpretation of results in this novel exploratory study. Future research should include more diverse male targets in future studies with a variety of ethnicities, ages, body types, and clothing styles to establish a broader understanding of the DILF phenomenon.

2. Although the age questions are difficult to interpret among participants who are older than the target male, it should be noted that the majority (91%) of our sample was below the age of 45 (our target male).

3. ‘Rotation serves to make the output more understandable and is usually necessary to facilitate the interpretation of factors’ (Garson, 2018, p. 17). Specifically, direct oblimin is a rotation technique used in factor analysis (FA) which allows for components to be related with one another (see Field, 2013; Garson, 2018).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Flora Oswald

Flora Oswald graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley in 2018 with an honours degree in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. She received the prestigious Governor General’s Silver Medal for the highest academic standing of her graduating year. Flora also received the Psychology book prize, an award granted to an outstanding graduate from the Psychology department, as well as the Social, Cultural, and Media Studies Outstanding Achievement Award. Flora’s research interests relate primarily to sexual orientation, sexual health, and sexual and gender stereotyping. Flora is currently completing a dual title Ph.D. in the departments of Psychology and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Shelby Hughes

Shelby Hughes graduated from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in 2017 with a BA in Psychology and a Certificate in NGO/Nonprofit Studies. She received the prestigious Dean's Medal Award as well as the Governor General's Silver Academic Medal for the highest academic standing in her graduating year.  Shelby is beginning an MA program in Speech/Language Pathology at the University of Alberta in September 2020.

Amanda Champion

Amanda Champion graduated from the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology Honours program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (with distinction) in 2014. She showcased her honours thesis at the Association for Psychological Science Convention in San Francisco in May of 2014 and was the recipient of the 2014 Canadian Psychological Association certificate of Academic Excellence. Amanda is beginning her Ph.D. in Criminology at Simon Fraser University in September of 2020.

Cory L. Pedersen

Cory Pedersen earned her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 2004 and has worked in the Department of Psychology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University since 2005. In 2011, Cory founded the Observations and Research in Gender and Sexuality Matters Lab to further her interests in human sexuality, providing students an opportunity to gain valuable research experience. Since its inception, several collaborative projects with the lab have been presented at psychology and sexology conferences, and in publication.