'I notice more and more
that my girlfriends speak to their husbands and boyfriends in a
derogatory manner, as if they are somehow inferior.'
- There is something dishonourable about portraying men as useless
- In Friends the male characters are well-meaning but ineffectual geeks
- The female characters are far more worldly and well-rounded
- Gavin Henson was praised on Strictly for working his assets
- Such comments would be unacceptable if made about a woman
- Jo Brand jokes about men that wouldn't be acceptable about women
- Last year, there were 40,000 more female applicants for university places
- Women outnumber men by three to two in many universities
By
Melissa Kite: Watching a recent episode of the female detective drama Scott And Bailey, I suddenly felt deeply uncomfortable.
The
heroines of the ITV show — two gutsy, senior, women police officers
—were discussing how to solve a crime, while their bumbling male
counterparts sat around, gawping helplessly.
Whenever
the men managed to get a word in edgeways, it was to suggest a course
of action that was utterly stupid and they were put in their place by
their female superiors.
Yet the more
I flicked through the channels, the more I realised that, increasingly,
almost everything on TV — from comedies to reality shows, murder
mysteries and even adverts — now features women as the heroines,
equipped with a fine brain, while men are depicted as thoughtless
buffoons, aggressors, or ineffective idiots.
Take
a recent KFC advert. A dad and his two offspring are sitting at a table
in one of the chain’s restaurants, waiting for Mum to bring their order
over. Both children remain engrossed in their phones, as Dad
unsuccessfully attempts to get their attention by suggesting activities
for the afternoon.
When Mum
returns and makes the same suggestions, naturally both kids answer
immediately, leaving Dad looking like a twit. It gets a cheap laugh and
might be easy to shrug off, were it not for the fact that any advertiser
who tried to achieve sales by belittling women wouldn’t be tolerated.
It’s
the same story in TV comedy. In the really big hit shows, there seems
to be a pretty set formula, whereby the male characters are idiotic, if
endearing, fools, saved from themselves by the women.
In
Friends, for example, the male characters, Ross, Chandler and Joey,
are, respectively, two well-meaning but ineffectual geeks and an
unthinking lothario, while the female characters, Rachel, Monica and
Phoebe, are far more well-rounded and worldly.
From
Everybody Loves Raymond to Two And A Half Men, the most influential
U.S. shows feature flaky men who won’t be serious, or take
responsibility for anything.
The
formula persists in popular British TV. In Gavin And Stacey, buffoonish
Smithy, played by writer James Corden, veers between sentimental fool
and drunken idiot and is, apparently, incapable of growing up. He’s
constantly wrong-footed by his on-off love interest, the formidable
Nessa (co-writer Ruth Jones).
In
family comedy Outnumbered, Pete is the blundering dad who is constantly
befuddled by his children. His wife, Sue, is exhausted and
long-suffering, but far sharper, shrewder and more capable.
The
trend begins early. In the wildly popular children’s cartoon show Peppa
Pig, the family’s father, Daddy Pig, is a hapless bumbler, while it’s
clear Mummy Pig is the boss of the household.
What all of these shows have in common is that they exaggerate the uselessness of men.
But
it’s the insidiousness of this socially-acceptable sexism that’s most
concerning. For it’s not overt hatred of men, rather the casual
denigration of them, so often done for comic effect.
It
seems belittling men barely registers any more, yet making fun of women
— especially joking about violence towards women — is something we’d
never stand for.
Consequently,
comedienne Jo Brand is able to make jokes about men that would never be
deemed acceptable the other way around. For example: ‘What’s the way to
a man’s heart? Straight through the chest with a kitchen knife.’
And
don’t laugh, but there is also an alarming trend for men to be
portrayed as sex objects. Gone are the days when a half-naked woman
could come on stage in a skimpy, lamé two-piece, smiling inanely, as a
magician’s assistant.
But
the amount of male flesh on display in shows like Strictly Come Dancing
is staggering. Yes, the women wear skimpy costumes, too, but when the
camera lingers over the naked torsos of dancers like Pasha Kovalev, the
whoops from the audience are reminiscent of the Roman amphitheatre.
When
Gavin Henson danced the Paso Doble topless in series eight, head judge
Len Goodman congratulated him on ‘working your assets’, while Alesha
Dixon declared: ‘Your body looks amazing, which helps.’ They would never
get away with it if they leered over a woman’s physique so blatantly.
Is
it all harmless fun? I don’t think so. In Spreading Misandry: The
Teaching Of Contempt For Men In Popular Culture, Katherine Young and
co-author Paul Nathanson warn that this patronising of men is now so
pervasive in movies, TV, comic strips and even greetings cards, that it
could have ‘disastrous consequences’ for society, and eventually provoke
a serious backlash against women.
Since
the mid-1990s, they argue, men have been increasingly portrayed as evil
or inadequate. They have gone so far as to say there is now a culture
of ‘misandry’ — literally ‘hatred of men’.
‘Our
hypothesis is that, like misogyny once upon a time, misandry has become
so deeply embedded in our culture that few people, including men, even
recognise it,’ they write.
Feminists
have rightly fought for an end to men putting women down, but we will
surely never improve relations between the sexes by ushering in a new
era of sexism that consists of women constantly traducing men.
Once
you are aware of it, you start noticing how this culture of misandry
seems to permeate everything. As I had lunch with a friend recently, she
snatched up her ringing phone and began barking a tirade of abuse into
it.‘What do you mean, you can’t find their football kit? I don’t have
time for this! Show some initiative. I can’t nursemaid you. Don’t call
me again.’
I
assumed she was having bother on the nanny front, but no — it was her
husband, a man who works tirelessly, in a highly-pressurised career, to
support her and their children. He was off work that day and had offered
to stay at home with the kids so she could go to lunch with me.
I wish I
could say her diatribe was an isolated incident. I notice more and more
that my girlfriends speak to their husbands and boyfriends in a
derogatory manner, as if they are somehow inferior. Needless to say,
they then complain that they are not ‘manly’ enough in their attitude,
or in the bedroom.
I
have to confess that I’m not altogether innocent. My boyfriend, Will,
and I were in Pizza Express the other day, when I snapped at him to
hurry up because he couldn’t decide what to order. He walked out, which
was hugely embarrassing for me.
But
I wouldn’t have put up with him talking to me in this obnoxious way, so
why should he? I count myself fortunate to have a boyfriend who is an
unreconstructed, traditional — even macho — male.
What’s
particularly worrying is that a lot of my friends do not hesitate in
putting their husbands down in front of the children. Surely, in doing
so, they teach their daughters to denigrate and disrespect men and make
their sons feel emasculated and demoralised.
Is
it any wonder girls are now outperforming boys at GCSE and A-level?
Girls are already ahead in most subjects by the age of five and the gap
widens as they get older, the latest research shows.
Last
year, there were 40,000 more female applicants for university places
than male, while women outnumber men by three to two in many
universities. There are also more young women entering the top
professions such as medicine.
Research
also suggests a quarter of UK women are now the family breadwinner —
five times more than at the start of the Seventies. Female earnings have
soared 44 per cent since then, compared with 6 per cent for men.
Psychologist
Mark Sherman, author of Boys And Young Men: Attention Must Be Paid,
says relegating men to supporting roles, such as stay-at-home dad or
house-husband, is damaging.
‘Weren’t
under-education, under-employment and relegation to the home among the
major motivators for the modern women’s movement? Are we parents of sons
simply supposed to sit back and say to our boys, “College isn’t
essential, but if you do go, maybe you’ll meet a future doctor or
lawyer; in fact, maybe you could be her secretary. And, listen, there’s
nothing wrong with being a house-husband!”
‘Did women
working far below their true abilities turn out to be a good thing?
Obviously not. Then why should we expect it to be a good thing for men?’
Ultimately,
if the background noise of our lives is banter about male inadequacy,
while leering at their biceps, it is in no one’s interests — least of
all women’s.
One
of the unintended consequences of belittling men is that we women end
up with the sort of men we really don’t like, if truth be told. For,
when we are not lampooning men for being idiots, we seem to be attacking
them for not being manly enough.
We
only have ourselves to blame. If we want our men to be in any way
exciting, gallant, high-earning, swashbuckling, or, indeed, protective,
we have to allow them to keep their dignity and self-respect.
Running a man down never turned him into Clint Eastwood.
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