Monday, April 10, 2006

Emasculated TV

No one has brought up this issue because I don't think anyone notices it, which is very sad. The issue is the emasculation of our media and of our society. I'm talking about how not many sitcoms on prime time television shows men in a good light. Most men should be strong, dominant, masculine, mature, and the supporter of their family. But most sitcom shows on TV show a man that's painfully immature, weak, whinny, lazy and stupid. Where on the other side they portray the women as the stronghold of the house. The breadwinner, the one who has to pick up after the mans mistakes. The alpha character. Now I'm not saying that women cant be those characters, but when all of the characters on the prime time lineup are like that there is something alarming there.

Example, "Everybody Loves Raymond". The character Raymond (played by Ray Romano) is a selfish, lazy, golf crazed sports freak who doesn't help out in the home and is the biggest pansy when it comes to his relationship with his wife and mother. He is always getting into trouble with his wife. In real life she would have divorced his sorry ass years ago, but for comedy sake their marriage has lasted many seasons. What keeps the comedy going season after season is his over-bearing, intrusive mother who he has a hard time setting boundaries with. The mother hates the wife (who is the strongest of all of them) and the mother is always sabotaging their marriage. Raymond is the worst male on TV that Ive seen! I would just love to kick him in the balls just to see if he has any. But instead show after show he makes some stupid excuse for his mothers actions and makes his wife really mad. Hahahaha, the audience gets a good laugh and its over. Now in real life is Ray Romano like that? I have no idea. But on the show he seems to have no problem making people think that hes an incompetent pussy. Sure there are things married people can relate to, but it'd be sad if someone could relate to everything on that show. If I were Raymond's character Id tell my mom on the show to treat my wife with respect or don't come over at all! That's what he should have done on the first episode. But yet again, I doubt they'd get any ratings. Pussy men get ratings.

I could list in detail all of the shows that emasculate men, but that would take forever. So here is a short list: "Malcolm in the Middle", "Will and Grace", "Two and a Half Men", "7th Heaven", "Darmah and Greg", "King of Queens", "According to Jim", "Scrubs", "Fraiser", the list goes on. In these shows the leading male characters are weak, submissive, and to immature to take care of their own problems so they need a woman to do it for them. Is there not something wrong with that?

By them showing all these weak male characters they are stating a social commentary that our society produces weak men who solely depend on women for everything. That is not true. My parents raised me to be a self-sufficient, mature, smart, hard working man, everything that's opposite of these characters. I'm not dependant of a woman to take care of me, though it'd be nice. To say that, or to show its disrespect to strong men allover.

But on the other extreme I'm not saying thought that there should be shows promoting the abuse of women by the male characters. That's very wrong. I'm just saying that I see nothing wrong with a male character that is strong and supports the family without whining, or being walked all over by a female or does what he has to do because that's what men do! Boys in our society today, a lot don't have a father figure in their home so subconsciously they turn to TV to learn to be a man. But when there are no strong male role models they will turn out be like what they watch. This isn't an exact science, but it makes sense. You learn what you observe.

I think that the shows of today are the product of either A: sloppy market research, B: feminist network executives, or C: A society that finds nothing wrong in emasculating men for laughs. I think C is a more probable answer. Its sad, but the days of I Love Lucy are gone. Those kinds of shows were funny and yet didn't resort to demeaning the male characters, well, maybe Fred. Now given the shows I have listed are sitcoms, not dramas. There are a lot of TV shows that portray men in a strong light, i.e.: CSI, Navy NCIS, The Unit. But still the comedies of our time need to change. Id like to see next season a sitcom show that has a leading male character that is funny, but not weak or immature. But I doubt well see that on any of the major networks. I don't know.