Men In Media: They Can Tie Their Shoes Too

In the past, women in movies and TV were portrayed as weak, subservient, ditzy, and unintelligent. At some point, the makers of media realized they needed to change this and they did. Now, women characters in movies and TV are strong, capable, independent, and very impressive. That is great. Thank you. But what did you do with the male characters? Why are male characters now so often portrayed in media as idiots who can’t tie their shoes?

I wanted to equalize society between men and women. I did not want to push men down. I did not want to strengthen women at the expense of men in media. Men have excellent qualities that we need. Their testosterone gives them nerve that we need in a crisis and to muscle through really tough and scary situations. And when they want a woman, assuming they can detect whether an advance is wanted (which most men can) their strong libido makes relationships exciting. Why did we neuter them? We could have just told them to stop if we ask them to stop.

I would like to ask the media to make one more tweak. Keep the women characters strong, but show the men characters as strong too. They are good at different things. Let them work as a team. Show us what it looks like

for a man and a woman to work together each showing their strengths. Think of what they can achieve if they are each at their best.

Life is not a zero sum game, where if women are competent, men can’t be. Both can be great at the same time. If you need a villain character for entertainment purposes, have one, but make sure there are also strong women and men characters to show us the best in both sexes.