I know from many women that “call me daddy” is a common request but, like you, I find it both incomprehensible and disturbingly repugnant. I didn’t care for it before I became a parent (one boy, one girl) and my distaste has only grown since fatherhood many years ago. One must assume that either (i) the men making the request have no real idea what emotional connotations the word carries, or (ii) they are merely mindlessly parroting popular culture, or (iii) they’re suffering from various insecurities.

None of the three reasons provides a compelling reason to go along with what is, in my opinion, a rather sad and unhealthy attempt at creating a twisted power dynamic.