Instapundit links to a story from Advertiser's Age highlighting something that's bugged me for a long time; the increasingly negative portrayal of men in general, and fathers specifically, in the popular media from the news to sitcoms. Like the two readers that Glenn cites in the updated post, I've also changed brands and refused to use both services and products because of offensive advertising.
When the hell did it become okay to default to portraying fathers as buffoons or the clueless straight man to a wise cracking wife? Even the Cosby Show used this gimmick, although I'll admit that Bill Cosby's version wasn't anywhere near as offensive as, say, the George Lopez Show or Everybody Loves Raymond (I'd rather stick a fork in my eye than have either of those inflicted on me).
The worst part about this kind of emasculation - and that's precisely what it is - is that somehow it's seen as okay. The article I linked to above makes mention of this phenomenon - journalists doing a story on male-bashing ads and entertainment are "astounded" at men being offended by this sort of thing. Why is that?
The only thing I can figure is that somehow, gently poking fun at the stereotype lost its humor along the way and became simple mean-spirited bashing. You don't have to go far online to find whole websites devoted to this radical sort of feminism, which I think is pathetic and sad. Remember Amanda Marcotte? No? Do a Google search on her, or look at the Wikipedia page....and she's by no means the most frothing-at-the-mouth type out there. She simply had a bigger megaphone. It's a simple and straightforward case of women-as-eternal-victims that has come full circle to the man being the target of what is, if one were to turn it around and make a woman or a minority the target of it, obviously offensive pandering to our worst natures.
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