--- title: Cincinnati Zoo: Why Is the Dad Not Blamed? description: In the days following the Cincinnati Zoo incident, attention has been focused on the mom, but what about the baby's father? canonical: https://time.com/4355125/cincinnati-zoo-mom-dad-sexism/ author: Robin Hilmantel article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-02T18:37:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:38.408Z og:title: Everyone’s Bashing the Cincinnati Zoo Mom. What About the Dad? og:description: What our reaction to the incident says about sexism in society og:url: https://time.com/4355125/cincinnati-zoo-mom-dad-sexism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbfd6bc959318b54/698896010b72e31d036e9aac/gorilla-death-dad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: The entrance to the Cincinnati Zoo's Gorilla World exhibit is closed in Cincinnati, Ohio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Everyone’s Bashing the Cincinnati Zoo Mom. What About the Dad? twitter:description: What our reaction to the incident says about sexism in society twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdbfd6bc959318b54/698896010b72e31d036e9aac/gorilla-death-dad.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Everyone’s Bashing the Cincinnati Zoo Mom. No One’s Talking About the Dad > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Robin Hilmantel](https://time.com/author/robin-hilmantel/) ## Robin Hilmantel Jun 2, 2016 6:37 PM UTC  The entrance to the Cincinnati Zoo's Gorilla World exhibit is closed, two days after a boy tumbled into its moat and officials were forced to kill Harambe, a Western lowland gorilla, in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 30, 2016. The entrance to the Cincinnati Zoo's Gorilla World exhibit is closed, two days after a boy tumbled into its moat and officials were forced to kill Harambe, a Western lowland gorilla, in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 30, 2016. William Philpott—Reuters by [Robin Hilmantel](https://time.com/author/robin-hilmantel/) ## Robin Hilmantel Jun 2, 2016 6:37 PM UTC In the days following the [Cincinnati Zoo incident](http://time.com/4352233/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-dragged-child/), in which zookeepers shot and killed a 420-lb. gorilla to save a 3-year-old boy who had fallen into his enclosure, many have taken to social media to criticize the boy’s mother, Michelle Gregg: > [](https://twitter.com/andieiamwhoiam/status/737177544571518976) > [](https://twitter.com/msjwoods18/status/737656445727035392) > [](https://twitter.com/AJDelgado13/status/737335727181074434) Another woman named Michelle Gregg who lives in Weston, Ohio, says [she’s even received several hate emails](http://www.fox5dc.com/news/151828726-story) in the wake of Saturday’s events. Granted, part of the reason Gregg has been in the spotlight is because it was her voice on the [frantic 911 phone call](http://time.com/4354330/gorilla-911-call-harambe/). The criticism of Gregg became so extreme that [she took to Facebook to defend herself](http://time.com/4351781/mother-of-toddler-in-cincinnati-gorilla-incident-defends-herself/), saying, “As a society we are quick to judge how a parent could take their eyes off of their child and if anyone knows me I keep a tight watch on my kids.” (She has since deleted the post.) But Gregg wasn’t the only parent present at the zoo that day. Deonne Dickerson, the father of the 3-year-old boy, was also there—yet he has received only a fraction of the scrutiny that Gregg has. Many have made the (valid) argument that [the parents shouldn’t be shamed](http://time.com/4352116/cincinnati-zoo-gorilla-harambe-mother/) this situation. But the fact remains that, when blame has been doled out, it has been disproportionately directed at the mother. If mommy-shaming must be a thing, could daddy-shaming perhaps also exist? Is it too much to ask that, when we criticize—and praise, too—we view men and women as equal partners in parenting? Or must we keep men and women trapped in their metaphorical enclosures? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4355125/cincinnati-zoo-mom-dad-sexism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4355125/cincinnati-zoo-mom-dad-sexism/"},"headline":"Everyone’s Bashing the Cincinnati Zoo Mom. 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