Do you believe male bashing is rampant in media today?

Question

‘Man bashing’ is so prevalent everywhere. More and more TV programmes and commercials portray men as imbeciles.

hmmm i think there was a reversal i remember lucy was secretly sexist

lucy was portrayed as an idiot (atleast to me)

hmm men are portayed as imbeciles and women as sex objects


fair?


comments welcomed

brother happy thats quite interssting

since men watch these shows isnt that in some way subconciously reinforcing anger and aggression in males?

if being equal means my kids have to watch tv shows that show males as mostly negative then screw equality

sorry women

but that doesnt mean i want it to be women are bashed either

unfortunatley its our sick sense of entertainment that allows these things to happen

Answer 1

My God, yes. It is so prevalent it is ingrained to to most and downright sickening to those who notice it.

Portraying women negatively is just as bad but it is not even near as common as misandry in the media. Women are actually portrayed sympathetically these days. Even women who murder. Great example, just the other day there was a story about a woman who murdered her child. The first paragraph said something along the lines of:

"A woman who killed her child was a victim of domestic violence and had no previous record of abuse of her child."

Instant sympathy right out of the gates trying to excuse her for what she did. And the domestic violence incident? Her husband pushed her back when she was swinging a hammer around the house. Suppose he should have just let her cave his head in

Men on the other hand are portrayed like scum. Watch any sitcom (Simpsons and Everybody Loves Raymond are good examples) and you will see the man as a bumbling idiot. Meanwhile the woman is right about everything and puts up with the man's stupidity.

The recent Trojan commercial shows a bar full of good looking women and pigs. Can you guess who the pigs are supposed to be?

There is a whole book on it called Spreading Misandry. Worth a look if you are interested in the subject.

Answer 2

It's true watch any sitcom.

According to Jim
Everybody loves Raymond
King of queens
Still standing

They all have idiot husbands with pretty intelligent and often ditsy and oversexed wives. While this is pretty sad i still find all these shows funny.

Also I don't think Lucy was an idiot she was just eccentric and rebellious quite a contrast to other women on television in those days sure she was sometimes submissive when Ricky was really mad however all in all she was her own person and often put Ricky in his place when needed :P

Answer 3

Yes! I see it on TV, hear it in conversations, I see it in schools, I hear it on the radio.
And yes, I've come into contact with men who are chauvinists. I want equality for women.
But I'm primarily a mom. And I see that the world is in some ways tougher on my sons then it is on my daughters. The pendulum has swung too far the other way.

Answer 4

I think that expectations of gendered behavior are very prevalent in the media. that is where a good deal of people on this forum get their rediculous assumptions about males and females.

there is the obvious negatives that you mentioned, but there are also things that are seen as "positives" that are just as dangerous to the mental development of males and females.

Answer 5

Yes.It's part of the elitist's agenda to destroy the family unit,and it has worked in less than 50 years.I beg to differ on Lucy.She was far from being an idiot.All the characters got into dicey situations.She was wiley and clever.The revisionist view of her and all female role models of the past is that they were downtrodden and oppressed.Untrue.The gender roles were cleary defined,and that is intolerable to Feminazis.

Answer 6

I believe there is just a bunch of people bashing in the media. Neither men nor women are portrayed in a positive manner.

Answer 7

Well you want to laugh dont you. I dont see fault with male bashing, I see fault that everybody gets his panties in a twist when it comes to female bashing. Its supposed to be ENTERTAINMENT you cant blame a sitcom for not getting respect. It sure aint the fault of sitcoms women suck at engeneering or as firemen.

Answer 8

Yes.

Answer 9

In my 50+ years of Observation, I think Women really HAVE become more empowered over time... And I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing what "happens" to issues between men & women- if a Woman rises to the Presidency in next years Election. But I DON'T think guys are really getting "bashed..." -I think they're just slowly getting used to their NEW roles- as being "Equals"... :)

Answer 10

Yes.

An extensive content analysis of mass media portrayals of men and male identity undertaken for a PhD completed in 2005 through the University of Western Sydney focusing on news, features, current affairs, talk shows and lifestyle media found that men are widely demonised, marginalised, trivialised and objectified in non-fiction media content that allegedly presents facts, reality and “truth”.

The study involved collection of all editorial content referring to or portraying men from 650 newspaper editions (450 broadsheets and 200 tabloids), 130 magazines, 125 TV news bulletins, 147 TV current affairs programs, 125 talk show episodes, and 108 TV lifestyle program episodes from 20 of the highest circulation and rating newspapers, magazines and TV programs over a six-month period. Media articles were examined using in-depth quantitative and qualitative content analysis methodology.

The research found that, by volume, 69 per cent of mass media reporting and commentary on men was unfavourable compared with just 12 per cent favourable and 19 per cent neutral or balanced. Men were predominately reported or portrayed in mass media as villains, aggressors, perverts and philanderers, with more than 75 per cent of all mass media representations of men and male identities showing men in one of these four ways. More than 80 per cent of media mentions of men, in total, were negative, compared with 18.4 per cent of mentions which showed men in a positive role.

The overwhelmingly negative reporting and portrayals of men in mass media news, current affairs, talk shows and lifestyle media was mainly in relation to violence and aggression. Violent crime, including murder, assault, armed robberies and attacks such as bashings, accounted for almost 40 per cent of all media reporting of male violence and aggression, followed by sexual abuse (20.5 per cent), general crime (18.6 per cent) and domestic violence (7.3 per cent).

Other major topics of media coverage of men were fatherhood and family, male sexuality, work and career, and men’s social behaviour. In all of these categories, men were predominantly reported and portrayed mostly negatively.

Fatherhood was also a prominent subject in relation to men, discussed in 361 media articles and features during the period of the study. Some media coverage positively discussed men as fathers, pointing to increasing recognition of the importance of fathers in children’s lives. However, along with recognition of the importance of fathers and the depth of many men’s emotional connection with their children, discussion contained an almost equal number of criticisms of men as “deadbeat dads”, “commitment phobic” and as perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual abuse within families.

Despite evidence of violence and abuse committed by women, such as a National Family Violence Survey in the US which found women just as likely to commit violence against men as men are against women, and a US National Incidence of Child Abuse and Neglect report in 2000 that found “where maltreatment of children led to death, 78 per cent of the perpetrators were female”, men are almost exclusively portrayed as the perpetrators of domestic violence and child abuse.