Father-of-daughter privilege?

Fandom loves its Daddies. Whether Jack Bristow, Keith Mars or Mr. Bennet: they're prepared to do all for their daughters, and two out of three are doing that very ruthlessly at other people's expenses, and are dearly beloved for it. It did occur to me that this dynamic somewhat depends on the child in question being a daughter. In Alias, it's hard to imagine either Jack Bristow or Arvin Sloane behaving as they do if Sydney had been a son, or for that matter Nadia. There still would have been protectiveness, I suppose, but a lot more open display of anger and blame during disagreements if the disagreeing child was a son. And not only less love in fandom for the dynamic, but also less tendency to forgive the Daddy in question every single action because of the "all I did, I did for *insert name of daughter*" justification.

My proof for this? Compare and contrast the examples just named to Angel and Connor on AtS, and Michael and Walt on Lost. Angel makes the proverbial Faustian deal to save Connor at the end of season 4, which includes, among other things, a mindwipe for his colleagues, and of course Connor himself. Michael sells out his friends and ends up killing two people to save Walt, after spending much of the season endangering his friends on earlier attempts to save Walt. Lost pretty much makes it clear that Michael was in the wrong and having a selfishness of two thing going there; AtS goes for a "it was a morally wrong but impossible to make otherwise decision" approach and ultimately gives it narrative justification as Connor's symbolic function changes from embodiment of the sins of the past to symbol of hope (of which there are few left by the end of the story). This didn't stop a lot of fans, notably Wesley fans, for wishing there had been more negative consequences for Angel once the mindwipe was reversed.

Now, given that the earlier named gentlemen who have daughters as opposed to sons do regularly endanger and sacrifice other people for their girls, and do just as appalling things to people who trust them, but still end up being unrestrainedly adored by fandom and with a narrative that does not offer the same kind of censure the fathers-of-sons get, either, I can't help but conclude it's the gender of the offspring which does it. Make up your own mind whether there is some inherent sexism at work, or the fact most lj fandom is female and has some identification going on; I just notice the phenomenon.

On that note, look what wee_warrior wrote for me!

Twenty things Mr. Bennet is not allowed to use as a rationalization for mindwiping his wife Sandra

Exactly.