Tired of Hollywood's Blurring of Manly Roles
I am raising two girls and am sick and tired of every movie/TV show, whether and action movie all the way down to a kids' animated movie/TV Show, having to show that a woman can do everything a man can do. The princess does not need a prince to rescue her. They portray women as just as strong, smarter and heroic as any man. It is sometimes done ad nauseum. I feel for those raising boys as writers and producers have continued to minimize the necessity of men and devalued male character, strength and wisdom. Does anyone else see this going on as well?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alex on
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I respect women just as much as I do a man, but let's illustrate your point in a better way:
The person who trained me to weld was woman. She was 4'10" and weighed a mere 105 pounds. She originally hired me as a go-for and eventually taught me how to weld. Her welds are just as good as any man's I've ever seen, and it takes to suit up and be behind the mask laying down TIG beads for 12 hours a day. However, she couldn't lift 100 pounds, hence where the man was required. However, she filled the niche of confied space welding (think of welding inside of storage tanks, pipes, etc.) which requires your balls be screwed on real tight.
Women are good at different things than men, and by that I don't mean "Get back in the kitchen" differences.
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Permalink Reply by Stephen Cooper on -
I see the evidence of the "ban the man" and "anyone but the boy", that has eroded the educational system in the last twenty years, everywhere. Since when did it become a sin to have quiet strength? If you look back, for the last fifteen or so years, the overwhelming theme in advertising has been the "stupid dad" commercials. They cannont do the "stupid mom" commercials, so, what sells? Thanks Madison Avenue.
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Permalink Reply by Native Son on
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The trend of the clueless dad ad has been around for a whole lot longer than 15-odd years.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Stevens on -
The trend has been about 25 years. Being a kid of the 70s and 80s the majority of the shows that were produced at that time held the father as a role model. He exhibited wisdom and led his family and was respected. Have you ever watched The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Eight is Enough, The Cosby Show, Happy Days, etc? The early 70s and prior had many more like Batchelor Father, Hazel, The Donna Reed Show, Leave It To Beaver, Family Affair, Courtship of Eddie's Father, Hazel, Bewitched, My Three Sons, Andy Griffith Show, etc. Nowadays, the Dad is a bumbling idiot.
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Permalink Reply by Native Son on
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@ Rick Stevens,
You might want to watch a few episodes of I Love Lucy. The husband, Ricky, once removed from his business life, was portrayed as an excitable, clueless dope in a whole lot of episodes. That show is from the 1950s.
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Permalink Reply by Nick H on -
I think they don't do the clueless mom (or more appropriately, the helpless woman) because tv from the 50s onwards has beaten that horse to death.
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Permalink Reply by Nick H on
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With the exception of that new Pixar flick called Brave and maybe Mulan, I think every child's movie ever made by Pixar, Disney, and other similar companies have done the complete opposite. Heck, look at Snow White. That chick manages to live like a lumber jack while still keeping her makeup on yet ends up getting punked by an apple and then saved by 7 midgets and a guy whose only real talent seems to be "can ride a horse pretty good". Heck, basically we could have cut the number of rescuers needed from 8 to 1 if they simply replaced the lot with an axe-welding jockey.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Stevens on
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Watch Pocahontas, Anastasia, ABC's Once Upon A Time, Numerous Disney Television shows and you will see more than just Mulan and Brave.
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Permalink Reply by Nick H on
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You left out Little Mermaid. But still, let's look at these more closely. Despite having the woman character in the title, Dimitri saves Anastasia (twice actually if you consider the backstory in the beginning) and John saves Pocahontas (who should have been the hero for the way she goes to prevent John from being executed but gets the hero title taken by her lover when he, being the man, takes a bullet for her).
And now let's look at the Little Mermaid. First the original story. The story starts the same. Mermaid saves man from drowning, falls in love, makes deal with witch to trade voice (which would get her man no problem) for legs (mind you, in the original these feel like walking on swords all the time which is pretty badass), and both involve her needing him to fall in love with her. In the original he ends up falling for some temple girl (who he thought saved him from drowning earlier instead of the mermaid). In the orinigal, she is now screwed yet her sisters bring her plan B, the witch gave them a knife. If she kills the two-timing bastard, she will get fins back, and she can go back to her old life. But, being the hero in this non-20th century, non-Ihatewomendisney world, she turns it down. She chooses to let him live and marry the temple tart, knowing that doing so will be the demise of her (she will turn into sea foam). A true hero's sacrifice. Now let's get back to the mysogynist folks at the magic kingdom. In this version, we get the whole debacle with the witch coming back transformed into a tart, and get the big climatic moment when the witch grows huge and gets ready to kill everyone. Luckly the Little mermaid saves the day...oh wait, that's not what happens at all. Actually, here I will just cut and paste the ending from wiki...SPOILER ALERT...As Ursula attempts to destroy a trapped Ariel in the maelstrom, Eric runs Ursula through the abdomen with the ship's splintered bowsprit, killing her. Well thank God we have a man around to save the day. So a lesson ladies, if you're going to mess with a witch, better be sure a man is around to save you.
Unless of course, this is the 1940s and your name is Dorothy. Damm uppity dames, thank God the 1950s put them in their place eh?
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