CROUSE: Sacrificing boys to promote girls

By Janice Shaw Crouse

Pop culture is producing male losers

Casual observation of popular culture reveals that boys and men increasingly are being portrayed negatively, in contrast to women, who invariably are seen as more competent, efficient, successful and in charge. Television and Hollywood movies are producing a tsunami of negative stereotypes depicting guys as losers. The typical male portrayed in the entertainment media is clueless, socially inept, irresponsible and immature. He invariably disappoints the women around him and makes thinking people grimace with his callous, self-centered behavior.

 

Both Huggies and AT&T have received complaints about their advertising featuring fathers as incompetent and bumbling.

 

With girls and women, though, the stereotype is of a smart, witty, take-charge leader who is never at a loss for words, acts appropriately and can be counted on in a crisis. In the movie “Brave,” the three female characters in the movie — the heroine, her mother and a witch — are smart, well-spoken and resourceful.

 

In contrast, every man in the movie is depicted as an unthinking doofus — impulsive and incapable of reason.

Television sitcoms offer evidence of the historical devaluation of male traits in American culture.

 

In the 1950s and 1960s, male characters were strong, yet sensitive to the needs of others. They were men who treated others, including women and children, with respect — men like Fred MacMurray in “My Three Sons,” Robert Young in “Father Knows Best” and Andy Griffith in “The Andy Griffith Show.” The qualities of the heroic men in those shows are quite a contrast to the cluelessness of Homer Simpson in “The Simpsons,” the ignorance of Carroll O’Connor in “All in the Family,” the degradation of “Two and a Half Men,” the stupidity of George Clooney’s “Men Who Stare at Goats,” the crudity and childishness of “The Hangover,” and the mockery of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”

Children, teens and many adults are, of course, influenced by such stereotypes. They see trendy and popular stars and celebrities as role models from whom they learn and whom they imitate in their own behavior and interactions with others. Decades of such indoctrination have had an effect.

 

thank you MDS

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