Misandry In Popular Culture & The Death Of The Real Man - Via The Prism Of TV

[Dead kate moss]

I wrote this a few years ago, so excuse the dated references here and there. But I'll share it here as a serious attempt to analyse how men's portrayal on TV has changed over the last few decades.


Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?
During the recent Celebrity Big Brother International Incident, Dirk Benedict contended that his armed-vigilante kids' show The A-Team was the last truly masculine TV series, featuring Real Men unashamedly indulging in Real Man activities like building things and blowing other things up, without need of female approval. 'And women loved to see that' he reckoned.

Benedict also recently said of Battlestar Galactica 'you can't have a character like Starbuck today -- a cigar-smoking, drinking, womanizing lovable scoundrel. The feminist movement got rid of those guys.' In the new series of Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck is female.

And why not? Women have been improbably kicking butt on the small screen since Emma Peel and if that makes the little poppets feel empowered where's the harm? It's not like The A-Team was grittily realistic in the first place.

Feminist Plot

But as BBC's 'Life On Mars' and 'Beefcake – A Very British Sex Symbol' both illustrate, the TV tough guy is a rare beast today, and the charming rogue all but extinct. So is Benedict just a bitter old has-been cranky that the playing field is now even, or could he possibly be a bitter old has-been who's onto something? Where have all the cowboys gone? Has a feminist plot to banish everything fearlessly macho from our screens brainwashed a generation of boys into becoming subservient, spineless *****-men? And whatever happened to the other guy out of Battlestar Galactica?

Certainly the TV screens of yesteryear were awash with enough testosterone to kill a horse. The Professionals, The Sweeney, The Knight Rider The Magnum, their lives a rich tapestry of solving mysteries, destroying property, having moustaches, women, being the unknown stuntman that made Eastwood look so fine, and women. It was an age of innocence and amiable violence.

But this glorious Machotopia was doomed. Women were not best pleased with how they were being treated on TV, or anywhere else much, and invented Girl Power (or feminism as it was then known). Now some might say that as television was invented by a man, women should go make their own viewing device. Instead, out of a mix of guilt, fair-play, and hope for a little peace and quiet, men agreed to try this 'New Man' idea that was going around.

Satan

As the Patriarchy was a-crumbling, the homoeroticism of The Professionals and its kind were laid bare by The Bull****ters, Ben Elton hectored men to be more sensitive and proud of their 'fartyness' and comics who dared suggest that women might not be made of sugar and spice, like Sam Kinnison or Jerry Sadowitz, were shamed as misogynists.

Cheers forced unreconstructed alpha male Sam to deal with the independent and liberated Diane, and later his intellectual and sensitive rival Fraser. The battle seemed unwinnable all round. After years written as a happy bachelor, new-fangled political correctness meant Sam eventually learned his womanizing was a mental illness. Diane fared no better and ended up an unfulfilled Hollywood hack. Fraser got his own show.

Borderline Retarded

Friends' Ross and Chandler reflected 90's man as mostly confused and emasculated, and Ross even had a symbolically lesbian ex-wife. Only the borderline-retarded Joey was allowed to be confident with women.

Meanwhile in the real world, many women were suffering buyer's remorse. Somehow the old-fashioned Real Man (or even the 'Bad Boy') seemed more exciting and challenging than the eager-to-please new model. To quote George from Seinfeld '"She thinks I'm a nice guy. Women always think I'm nice. But women don't want nice. Why is nice bad? What kind of a sick society are we living in when nice is bad?"

See also South Park when Satan is torn between Nice Guy Chris and Bad Boy Saddam Hussein. Like Satan, the modern woman just can't decide what she wants. Unlike Satan, the modern woman has invested decades of effort nagging men to shape up, and she's not about to throw it all down the drain because of one weeny-little unforeseen problemette. Consequently, she has decided not to disseminate her findings with modern man, who can figure it out on his own if he's so bloody clever.


Mockney geezer-wagon

The Loaded-reading 'New Lad' defied female authority by acting like a naughty boy, but attempts to ride the post-Lock, Stock mockney geezer-wagon into the nation's living room with an execrable tv adaptation, alongside reheated versions of The Professionals and Minder, failed to ignite much interest. At least you could get away with calling women 'birds' again, providing as it was a bit ironic or you were working-class and hadn't noticed feminism much anyway.

Today, the fate of the man unable to define himself outside of the creaking feminist model is clearest between programmes. It's here that women punish and humiliate the weak and pathetic Un-Men, bumbling simpletons laughed at by mother and child alike, of use only to parrot what She Who Wears The Trousers has already decided about the household finances and bringing joy only when he falls down the stairs or impales himself on a rake.

The archetype of this beaten generation of men is the lanky blond guy from My Family, whose BT ads chronicle a bleak life of humiliation, fear and best man speeches that inexplicably turn ugly, like Kafka with some stuff about wireless internet access thrown in.

Cathartic Mass Orgy

Two current ads buck the trend though. In the Coke Zero ad a mob of confident young chaps rail against sugary pop, jobs, and controlling womenfolk in a cathartic mass orgy of maleness (women presumably banned from the streets in this cola-based fantasy world).Meanwhile Burger King's anti-'chick-food' (m)anthem, is even more proud and atavistic. Are men, through the medium of junk-food commercials, reclaiming masculinity from the false dichotomy of Nice Guy/Bad Boy? And will the media arm of the TwoRonniesian Matriarx allow this to happen?

For a clue, lets go back to Celebrity BB. During the national shame-fest over Shetty's persecution, there was one issue that went unexamined in the media - that as in previous series it was the females that proved incapable of playing nice for two minutes without reverting to playground bitchiiness and bullying. Where were the Real Men then, unafraid to metaphorically put the spoiled brat that is Modern Woman over their collective knee and give her an allegorical spanking? As the unemployed Face-Man might say, the feminist movement got rid of those guys.





Since writing this, the character of Gene Hunt became very popular, and the macho protagonists of Mad Men have fans of both sexes. Perhaps TV culture is ready for a few more cowboys again.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

whatever happened to the other guy out of Battlestar Galactica?

He was in the new version.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Misandry

Where?

[NoSleep]

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=123269

[Dead kate moss]

Where?

Just find me one ad or sit-com where the man is the capable, long-suffering one and the woman is the bumbling (probably fat and ugly) idiot that keeps making a huge mess that the other needs to sort out.

[Dead kate moss]

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=123269

Yes I have previously posted it there. And?

[NoSleep]

Fuck off back there?

[Johnny Yesno]

Christ! Dirk Benedict's a tit, isn't he? While The A-Team was reasonably entertaining for much of it's time, it got cancelled because the final season was atrocious. Even Robert Vaughan couldn't save it. Benedict's idea that some women stopped other women from "enjoying an armed-vigilante kid's show" they "loved to see" is absurd.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Just find me one ad or sit-com where the man is the capable, long-suffering one and the woman is the bumbling (probably fat and ugly) idiot that keeps making a huge mess that the other needs to sort out.

Hollywood blockbuster do you?



But that's neither here nor there - the definition of masculinity evolving over the last 30 years or so isn't misandry.  And neither's anything in your..er..blog.

[Mythical Wet Patch]

Just find me one ad or sit-com where the man is the capable, long-suffering one and the woman is the bumbling (probably fat and ugly) idiot that keeps making a huge mess that the other needs to sort out.

You mean find you a sitcom were a woman has been written a funny role rather than the character of po-faced, bland, reaction shot tutting at the man's ludicrous, amusing, popular-with-the-audience antics?  Yes, it is difficult isn't it. I blame misandry for this rather than the heavily male-centric comedy industry.

[Buchstansangur]

Just find me one ad or sit-com where the man is the capable, long-suffering one and the woman is the bumbling (probably fat and ugly) idiot that keeps making a huge mess that the other needs to sort out.

Gimme Gimme Gimme

[hpmons]

Keeping up Appearances?

[Dead kate moss]

Fuck off back there?

No?

[Dead kate moss]

Gimme Gimme Gimme

They're both idiots. Like The IT Crowd, women can be written as hopeless ditzes as long as all the men are too.


hpmons - I'm only vaguely aware of Keeping Up Appearances, but you may well have a good example there.

[Dead kate moss]

You mean find you a sitcom were a woman has been written a funny role rather than the character of po-faced, bland, reaction shot tutting at the man's ludicrous, amusing, popular-with-the-audience antics?  Yes, it is difficult isn't it. I blame misandry for this rather than the heavily male-centric comedy industry.

Not really, but I see your point. And Terry & June was written a long time ago, so it's nothing new either. I understand that comedy often works when an authority figure is made to look silly, and that carries over into domestic sit-coms. The truth is nowadays (and probably most of the time in yesteryear too) the woman is the one most likely the authority figure in the house. Constant belittling of men is annoying. The lack of GOOD strong males is a shame. Look at soaps - all the men are laughable wimps, the only strong men are bastards. Meanwhile 99% of the women seem from a higher species. With this, or most man-bashing TV ads, you could not reverse the sexes without it looking very ugly and getting thousands of complaints.

As has been pointed out, I have posted this elsewhere, and trust me lots of women were also angry to see men constantly portrayed as incompetent half-wits most of the time too.

[Johnny Yesno]

Well, it's all fixed now. The advertising industry think we're all cunts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ZZreXEqSY&feature=related

[Dead kate moss]

Hollywood blockbuster do you?

But that's neither here nor there - the definition of masculinity evolving over the last 30 years or so isn't misandry.  And neither's anything in your..er..blog.

Can't argue with Bridget Jones.

Can argue with the idea that masculinity 'evolving' hasn't led, via buyer's remorse on the part of many women and many men reading 'new man' as 'throw away your backbone', to much misandry in the media.

[confettiinmyhair]

You could argue that somebody like 'Omar' from The Wire represented the evolved kick-ass 'Real Man' on television. In that his attitude transcends his sexuality.


The idea of 'The Real Man' is dated, and if it does exist it probably fits in with somebody like The Situation from Jersey Shore, that guy oozes machismo, but is an heart a sensitive Momma's Boy who puts on one hell of a front.

[Small Man Big Horse]

The lack of GOOD strong males is a shame.

You need to watch Crank. And Crank 2. :)

[hamble]

Stop being such a whiny ass little bitch,Dead kate moss,and lets have a look at your dick.

[Dead kate moss]

You could argue that somebody like 'Omar' from The Wire represented the evolved kick-ass 'Real Man' on television. In that his attitude transcends his sexuality.

The idea of 'The Real Man' is dated, and if it does exist it probably fits in with somebody like The Situation from Jersey Shore, that guy oozes machismo, but is an heart a sensitive Momma's Boy who puts on one hell of a front.

Well-written TV series about cops, are one of the last places you will still find strong masculine men that are not ridiculed.

Jersey Shores is another part of the trend of making 'macho-men' ridiculous. I've only seen it once, but I don't think it portrays the women much better either.

[Jake Thingray]

And why not? Women have been improbably kicking butt on the small screen since Emma Peel

Since Cathy Gale, actually. And arguably Hedda Tell in WILLIAM TELL.

Personally, I don't blame women or PC for increasing male wimpiness on TV and sneering at THE SWEENEY, THE PROFESSIONALS, MINDER et al, but DOCTOR WHO and its fans.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Personally, I don't blame women or PC for increasing male wimpiness on TV and sneering at THE SWEENEY, THE PROFESSIONALS, MINDER et al, but DOCTOR WHO and its fans.

Second time I've wheeled this out today:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1315061/The-Seventies-The-decade-men-stopped-men.html

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Just find me one ad or sit-com where the man is the capable, long-suffering one and the woman is the bumbling (probably fat and ugly) idiot that keeps making a huge mess that the other needs to sort out.

Miranda

[Dead kate moss]

Miranda

I've not seen it.. the synopisis says

Miranda is desperate to fit in, but can't. Her public school background and posh accent make her a misfit down the pub. She has never fitted in with 'the girls' (not least because she's a foot taller than them) and due to years of agoraphobic tendencies she doesn't know how to behave socially or how to avoid embarrassment, especially around men.

She's a constant disappointment to her mother Penny, who's desperate for her to get a proper job, or even better, a husband, but Miranda's happiest playing with and making up silly games in her joke shop.

Lacking any real capacity for business, Miranda employs her childhood friend Stevie to manage the shop. Stevie tries to run the business like she's competing to be Alan Sugar's apprentice, but her principal task is keeping Miranda's childish absurdities under control.

You'll have to tell me if there's a strong capable man in the cast rolling his eyes and cleaning up her mess, in quite the same way as the challenge asked for. Maybe there is, or she is often making a fool of herself in front of normal men, in which case it's a rare exception, like Bridget Jones.

But like much of Bridget Jones and many a Sandra Bullock comedy, there are shows and movies with ditzy, pratfalling women, though usually the embarrassment comes from looking silly in front of rival/other women. Also Bridget Jones is a romantic comedy too, so there is going to be a couple of rival alpha males in any of those (though both are made to look silly in BJD too, just in case).

But really, it's the ads that annoy me most. Almost every advert aimed at a woman's purse involves a man's humiliation, degradation or childification. I can't find it on YouTube, but it's the one I reference in the first post. Some woman with her daughter are sorting out the insurance, while daddy is upstairs looking for the child's toy or something. She closes the deal, he falls out of the attic, mother and daughter have a good chuckle. That's not the same in ads aimed at men. We wouldn't find it funny, but for many women it seems man-pain is the most hilarious thing in the world.

Admittedly that beer one a page earlier does succeed in degrading both genders equally.

[Zetetic]

I personally suspect that modern masculinity has largely been eroded by phrases like 'Via The Prism Of TV' and the 'By Means of the Hosohedron of Digital Radio'.

[Dead kate moss]

I personally suspect that modern masculinity has largely been eroded by phrases like 'Via The Prism Of TV' and the 'By Means of the Hosohedron of Digital Radio'.

There was a character limit so I had to change 'medium' to 'prism.' Otherwise, you're wrong, it was like what I said.

[Mythical Wet Patch]

But really, it's the ads that annoy me most. Almost every advert aimed at a woman's purse involves a man's humiliation, degradation or childification. I can't find it on YouTube, but it's the one I reference in the first post. Some woman with her daughter are sorting out the insurance, while daddy is upstairs looking for the child's toy or something. She closes the deal, he falls out of the attic, mother and daughter have a good chuckle. That's not the same in ads aimed at men. We wouldn't find it funny, but for many women it seems man-pain is the most hilarious thing in the world.

This has turned into a rant and it probably deviates from issues you've addressed and into flat-out opinion.

I agree there's a fairly demeaning depiction of men in adverts aimed at women. But I don't think that indicates any sort of overarching cultural misandriac impulses. Adverts infantalise the people they target and play upon any base notions that can hook you in.  Adverts aimed at men sexualise and champion acting like a bit of prick in the name of a 'laugh', like the WKD and Coke Zero adverts (my references may also be dated since I seldom watch live TV). Female adverts treat women patronize in similar ways, i.e  playing on body image or the Loose Women 'Men eh girls! What they like!' mentality, which actually evokes this idealised period of raw masculinity you seem to be wistful about by basically throwing that seventies man down the pub truism of 'Blood silly Women eh, can't live with them. Can't live without them' back at us. It's not brilliant, no. It dosen't go anyway to furthering anyone's cause in the battle for gender equality. But it's a tactic used by an industry that condescends everyone. It's not the news.

I don't buy into this 'real man' argument either, gender equality has meant there's been a necessary shift in attitudes and thus men have lost a lot of that swaggering machismo that only nurtured repression and oppression anyway. Thank fuck. Being a man is not about investing yourself into a false sense of pride about your own manhood, it's about individual actions, deeds and conviction and setting your own criteria that establishes your own self-worth. Not some bullshit set of values thrust upon you by the current set of circumstances.  It may have been fashionable to sleep around , drink heavily and patronize women. And if you want to do that now, fine. But do it for yourself not for an illusory communal notion of masculinity. And don't bother complaining about misandry. There is still an indelible streak of misogyny in a great number of men, branded on them. Anytime I've heard a woman express genuine hatred of men it's been in a moment of intense vulnerability. We've got the edge on hating the opposite gender and let's not pretend otherwise.

As for sitcoms depicting men as idiots, if it was the opposite way the men would complain the women were getting all the funny roles. You may have a case with drama, I don't know. But sitcoms are generally about people being funny, if the man is flailing about being funny and the woman isn't that's usually because the writer hasn't bothered writing her anything funny to do, not because she's been elevated to be the barometer of virtue through who we judge all the other characters. If you talk to many female performers they'll complain about female roles in sitcoms too.

[Dead kate moss]

This has turned into a rant and it probably deviates from issues you've addressed and into flat-out opinion.

Disagree that it's a 'rant.'

I agree there's a fairly demeaning depiction of men in adverts aimed at women. But I don't think that indicates any sort of overarching cultural misandriac impulses. Adverts infantalise the people they target and play upon any base notions that can hook you in.  Adverts aimed at men sexualise and champion acting like a bit of prick in the name of a 'laugh', like the WKD and Coke Zero adverts (my references may also be dated since I seldom watch live TV). Female adverts treat women patronize in similar ways, i.e  playing on body image or the Loose Women 'Men eh girls! What they like!' mentality, which actually evokes this idealised period of raw masculinity you seem to be wistful about by basically throwing that seventies man down the pub truism of 'Blood silly Women eh, can't live with them. Can't live without them' back at us. It's not brilliant, no. It dosen't go anyway to furthering anyone's cause in the battle for gender equality. But it's a tactic used by an industry that condescends everyone. It's not the news.

Can't disagree with anything you say there.

I don't buy into this 'real man' argument either, gender equality has meant there's been a necessary shift in attitudes and thus men have lost a lot of that swaggering machismo that only nurtured repression and oppression anyway. Thank fuck.

Women find a certain swaggering machismo sexually attractive. That's worth understanding for both men and women, many today are still in denial about this, but the evidence remains.

Disagree that it only ever led to repression and oppression - care to back that assertion up?

Being a man is not about investing yourself into a false sense of pride about your own manhood

Why is it a false sense of pride? Why can women feel proud to be a woman but men cannot likewise?

, it's about individual actions, deeds and conviction and setting your own criteria that establishes your own self-worth.

Yes, the two should be complimentary.

Not some bullshit set of values thrust upon you by the current set of circumstances.  It may have been fashionable to sleep around , drink heavily and patronize women. And if you want to do that now, fine.

Women are sleeping around, good luck to 'em. Same with boozing. I don't recommend patronizing women, but lots of them love being teased, in the right funny way - as opposed to being put on a pedestal and treated like a princess, as many modern men think is what they want, until they lose her to someone who knows how to say 'No' to her occasionally.

But do it for yourself not for an illusory communal notion of masculinity.

Yes do it for yourself. But why would or should any notion of communal masculinity be illusory?

And don't bother complaining about misandry. There is still an indelible streak of misogyny in a great number of men, branded on them. Anytime I've heard a woman express genuine hatred of men it's been in a moment of intense vulnerability. We've got the edge on hating the opposite gender and let's not pretend otherwise.

This is where I disagree most. Women mock men far more than men mock women. I don't think many men hate women (though some of course do). I think many women hate men. Of course they hate other women too, so it evens out a bit.

As for sitcoms depicting men as idiots, if it was the opposite way the men would complain the women were getting all the funny roles. You may have a case with drama, I don't know. But sitcoms are generally about people being funny, if the man is flailing about being funny and the woman isn't that's usually because the writer hasn't bothered writing her anything funny to do, not because she's been elevated to be the barometer of virtue through who we judge all the other characters. If you talk to many female performers they'll complain about female roles in sitcoms too.

I think if you re-read my examples of famous TV sitcoms over the years in the first post, you can definitely trace the gradual un-masculinising of men, intertwined with what was happening in the real world.

And my main point is - women don't want this. They want the real men back. They don't want wife-beaters, they don't want stoopid, but ask some of them if they want a strong, confident manly-man or a nice guy new man and get back to me.

[shiftwork2]

Interesting that the last but one poster invoked the horror of Loose Women as the show is (I think) sponsored by Maltesers, using book-ended 'sponsored by' ads portraying men as little more than wimps and pricks to be bullied and humiliated while the lady scoffs her chocolates.

I keep seeing it as mythical pet watch which I like better.

As you were