WTF? How did 2 click become responsible for what women were treated like X years ago? That image of women in most of the world, was abandon over 40 years ago.
Despite the smiley, you sound a mite bitter.
C’mon guys, we can be pretty stupid from time to time. Most of us still can’t figure out What Women Want. Far more complicated than the car’s engine or power tools. 
"I’m a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and braun. That’s what kind of man I am. Your just a woman with a brain a third the size of us men. It’s science. "
-Ron Burgundy
Basically the formula of fat stupid man with smart attractive wife, skinny stupid neighbor sidekick with smart attractive wife has been arround since the beginning of movies and television. TV male family heads mostly come in a handfull of flavors:
Fat stupid working class dad with (relatively) sensible wife
Ralph Kramden
Fred Flintstone
Dan Conner (Rosanne)
Al Bundy
Homer Simpson
Sean Finnerty (Grounded for Life)
Doug Heffernan (King of Queens)
Stupid white collar dad with (relatively) sensible wife
George Jetson
Darren Stevens
Hal (Malcome in the Middle)
Raymond Barone (Everyone Loves Raymond)
Gay head of household with female comic roomate
Will (Will & Grace)
Major Nelson (I dream of Jeannie)
:eek: Major Nelson was gay?
That explains alot…
Those new rules in full;
Two wrongs = right
Son = guilty of his father’s sins
Let’s face it, there’s a lot of humour used in adverts and the like where men are the butt of the joke that wouldn’t get made if the roles were reversed. Sloppy and lazy advertisers have decided that what unites their target female market is having a good laugh at men. Fair enough, I say. But why is the reverse taboo? And it seems to me that this is just as insulting to women. They are not a homogeneous group that are defined just in terms of their relationships with men.
The question for the “fat stupid man with smart attractive wife” formula is why is it funny in a way that “fat stupid woman with smart handsome husband” isn’t? I would suggest that it is a reversal of the most extreme of traditional, stereotypical relationship roles. The underdog out smarting the boss is always popular. However, if we are moving towards a point of gender equality (as is to be hoped), has this particular joke not had its day? Is it really so funny anymore?
But to disagree with the OP, I’d say that the reverse is true. It is not an increasing trend. There certainly was a period where PC idiots seemed to think equality for women meant to humilation for men, but there are signs that things are levelling off. It is possible to be treat both genders equally and fairly.
Have you noticed that all of the complaints are directed towards shows that have one thing in common? They’re comedies. Point out the silly incompetent male on Law & Order. Or 24 (Edgar notwithstanding). Or ER.
The thing is, dumb males are funny. Partly because they’re unusual. Notice the prevalence of some other funny stereotypes:
Horny old ladies
Horny old men
Smart-mouthed kids who know more about life (read: Sex) than their parents.
Slutty neighbor
Hispanic actor wearing bee costume
I thought size didn’t matter.
Is “stupid man, intelligent woman” really the dominant presentation of gender roles in advertisments these days? I’ve never noticed that one, but I’ve noticed some other trends:
[ul][li]Advert for sexy underwear. Man (wearing only underwear) standing with his arms crossed, gazing sternly at the camera, looking as if, as soon as he’s finished dressing, he’s going out to conquer the world. Woman (wearing only underwear) reclining, pouting her lips, looking as if she’s saying: “Take me. Now.”[/li][li]Those stupid shampoo, washing powder, chewing gum etc. etc. adverts, where a smiling woman is demonstrating how happy she is with the product, then she’s replaced with some quasi-scientific graphs while a male voice gives a quasi-scientific explanation of why this product works so well.[/li][li]And my favourite example, because it’s so very glaring. This one, I saw at cinema a few years ago. Shower soap. Woman’s version, pink bottle, we see a woman in the shower. Starting with her soaping her neck, camera goes lower and lower, stops just before we see her nipples. Cut to soaping of feet, camera rises slowly, stops when showing the top of her tighs. A bit later, we see the men’s version, starting with a dark blue bottle, and I’m looking forward to a nice view. We’re treated to a view of his head and neck. Cut to feet. And that’s it. Disappointed :([/ul][/li]I suspect that as a feminist, I notice the adverts which are unfair to women, while the OP notices those which are unfair to men. It would be interesting to see some research on what kind of gender views really are dominant.
It’s been around long enough that it’s either had that effect or it hasn’t. I still don’t agree with your theory that it’s increasing.
That’s the exact opposite of the question I was asking. I’m not wondering about people imitating TV. You said you didn’t know any men who were naturally like stupid guys on television- do you know women who just happen to be exactly like female characters?
2 click twiddle flare, this trend has bugged me for years.
Commercials for new detergents always feature a happy wife/mom. New mop? New vacuum? Gee, Mom will be so happy that her work is now made easier. I don’t know how other people were brought up, but in my family everyone vacuumed/cleaned/cooked. In fact, my mom would care about lawn mowers more than mops!
Even more offensive is the recent ad for a Macy’s sale with an overwhelmed Dad looking after a toddler moaning “I wish your Mommy was here.” and they cut to Mommy in all her glory shopping.
Back in my college days, in my Women’s Studies class, we discusssed the phenomenon of “taught ignorance”. Boys, traditionally, aren’t taught how to cook, clean, or do laundry. So basically we’re training them to be ignorant and burdening the next generation of wives and mothers. This is the traditional way to raise boys and I’m sure many families didn’t adhere to it nowadays.
Like Americanmaid said, and unlike Johanna’s comments, I think this sort of image comes from the old stereotypes. Of course the man can’t do the laundry, or cook, or shop, or take care of the kids. That’s woman’s work, and we all know that that’s all that women are good for. In most of the shows that use this as a source of humor, the wife doesn’t have a job, and if she does, it’s “woman’s work”, usually some low paid service job. (I don’t think the wife in Everybody Loves Raymond works, Rosanne was a waitress, the mother in Malcolm in the Middle is a checkout clerk in a convenience store)
I’ve seen some t-shirts marketed with an outline of a rabbit, with slogans such as “Boys are stupid. Throw rocks at them.”
Where’s the humor in that? As the wife of a a man and the mother of a boy, I find such things extremely offensive.
The subject of the OP is an example of ironic humor. The irony is that it’s women who are generally considered stupid and incompetent, so turning the situation on its head is supposedly funny. It’s also ineffectual because it doesn’t take any risks, so that the best that’s elicited from the viewer is a kind of puzzled smirk.
A gifted comedy writer, such as Mr. Montague Python, would probably take the premise and apply it to something truly outrageous, such as a man changing a tire, or operating a backhoe. In this case, the form would suggest a stupid male routine, but the actual target would be the unimaginative use of said routine. Hilarity would ensue.
I hardly think that portraying men as incapable of doing the housework is equivalent to classifying them as stupid. Overall, the media still sells us an image of the most intelligent people, and the people with the best thinking skills, being men. For instance in movies like I, Robot and The Day after Tomorrow it’s a few male characters who realize the looming danger to the human race, while the great unwashed masses, male and female, are in denial about it. So what the media is really telling us is that there are only a few smart people on the planet and a whole lot of dumb people; because it’s what the audience expects, the few smart ones are usually male.
As for the lazy men in advertisements, it’s not trying to convince men (or women) that men are naturally lazy or should be lazy, but rather that it would be really nice if you could sit back and be lazy, which is supposedly what the product being sold will allow you to do. Let’s face it. The idea of not havng to dirty your hands with housework is becoming part of the dream of an ideal modern life. We have more and more house cleaning services, carpet cleaning services, you can pay someone to wash, dry, and fold your laundry, people eat out more and cook less than they used to. The job of advertisers is to convince us that it’s worth paying for all this stuff, which is done by telling us that it would be nice if we could all slack off a whole lot.
Anyway, if you’re really worried about the stupid male meme on television worming into your subconscious then do what I did: stop watching TV.
Are you asking do i know woman who are naturally the same way as the ones portrayed on television? Not really… However, Given that the what i am asking is “will watching this rubbish on TV cause people to beleive and act the same as what is presented”, i would say people imitating television and integrating its views into their daily lives, falls into the category of “women who just happen to be exactly like female characters”, by choice. Which may indicate they ARE seeing these views, and taking them seriously.
I think the “clueless husband-capable wife” motif is harmful to both men and women. The audience gets bombarded with the message that housework and child-rearing are Women’s Work; men don’t have the natural skills to do it. This message reinforces the kind of restrictive gender roles that the feminist movement was supposed to break down. It basically says “Men are hopelessly irresponsible and immature when it comes Women’s Work, so thank God there are women around who can do this stuff for us”. Not only does it portray men as imbeciles but it is rather patronizing to women.
The worst of the commercials is the one for JC Penny that someone mentioned previously. Look at the poor helpless man, forced to be at home taking care of his own kid while his wife has the audacity to shop. I HATE that commercial.
Don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not, but on the off chance that you’re serious, that’s exactly part of the problem. I really hate the phrase “Take it like a man”. The idea that men, only by virtue of their gender, should be expected and required to “take” things differently than women, is insulting to both men and women.
I’m gonna assume that you were joking, though, because I shudder to think you would seriously accuse groups who have a legitimate compliant of being discriminated against of being “wimpy”.
I don’t think there’s any direct correlation between gender and responsibility. Some people are responsible, and some people aren’t. In most of the relationships I’ve had, I have taken responsibility for contraception. I have had encounters where, had I left it up to the woman, we would not have used contraception at all. But I certainly wouldn’t be so rash as to assume that women can’t be trusted.
The man is legally just as responsible for taking care of his children as the woman. And add to that the fact that, once the child is conceived, the choice of whether to have the child at all is left entirely to the woman, with the man legally having no say whatsoever.
I’d be willing to bet it’s entirely dependant on who’s being pitched to.
Good advice, I hardly ever watch TV, but my partner likes to watch it so i cant avoid it sometimes. I see what you are saying, and i do agree the comical adverts where the men cant operate a dryer or whatever are relatively harmless. I do think it extends a little further though, i can think of 2 Ads we have on television here, where it is portrayed as FUN and COOL for woman to cheat on their partners. The viewpoint that men are usless/disposable and deserve to be cheated on i find quite disturbing. If the genders were reversed, the man would be “A PIG” “A BASTARD”, not portrayed as clever and respectable, as the cheating woman are. In the end you have a man who cant remember things, cannot help with the housework, is unatractive, and cannot figure out his partner is cheating on him. And a woman who is smart, sexy, and allowed to cheat because of it.
Not viewpoints i would like my children to see portrayed on a daily basis. Again, great advice…“dont watch TV”
Do you think this comedic device would be as acceptable if it were turned around? Would it still be seen as ‘just comedy’ if women were the overwhelmingly helpless and stupid butt of a majority of jokes?
How about movies like White Chicks which feature two black actors who dress up in ‘white face’ and then commence to making an obviously stereotypical performance of how stupidly white women behave for two hours?
Marley23 said:
Although it does come from truth to an extent, if you think about who the burden is usually on when it comes to birth control.
[/quote]
The one who puts the condom on? Yes, I know that birth control pills are available for women and this means it’s the women who ‘have to’ (if they so choose) take them. However, a lot of the reason for the absence of a male birth control pill is that lowering the level of testosterone a man has, or supplying him with estrogen, has far nastier side effects than changing the level of estrogen a woman gets. If they could’ve made a safe, effective male birth control pill forty years ago, you don’t think they would’ve?
If you exclude things like lawn mowing, cleaning the gutters, changing oil in the car, unclogging toilets, cleaning the sink trap, hauling out the garbage, etc from ‘housework.’
I remember hearing about a teacher (Barbara Wilder-Smith from Boston) who responded to these shirts by printing up shirts for the boys in the class that said ‘Boys Are Good.’ and that she was suspended from her job for it.
That made me sick.
Wasn’t in The Day After Tomorrow where the woman researcher joined the team of paleoclimatologists to predict the weather model that showed the impending doom and the woman doctor who risked her life to save the little kid with cancer?
No it isn’t. Men are different from women. We handle things differently. We take jokes differently. We handle emotions differently. We handle stress differently. We handle depression differently. We handle pain differently We’re different dammit!
Personally I think we should all drop the pretense of being insulted at every little thing. Get off the high horse and enjoy a joke, so long as it’s in good fun and not mean spirited.