Why are men in TV programmes and adverts always such fools? From supermarkets to home insurance, from booze to cleaning products, the theme is the same: men are stupid.

VortexCortex · 2014-03-13T11:25:22+00:00

There used to be ads that we would now consider sexist against women.

The portrayal of men is a result of pandering to the general predominant female purchasing demographic and the narratives concerning their opinion of men and women.

I don't get pissed at the media for doing it -- It's annoying and if bad enough I'll write an angry letter or five, but I'm not deluded enough to think that will change anything.

These representations of men are a symptom, not the problem. Reduce the sexist anti-male sentiment and these portrayals will be less prevalent. You don't see black-face in marketing now, eh? Marketing will adjust to what society perceives as acceptable / permissible. See also nudity in commercials / media from countries who censor sex less and violence more.

Whatever you do - Do not make the fallacious argument that the portrayals shape male self image or society's consideration of actual men. Violent video games do not cause violence. The sexist commercials do not create sexism. Don't be like the feminists who take products of society and claim them to be controlling society itself. As the writer says, he's not like those portrayals despite decades of being exposed to them...

I would hate to see ALL portrayals of bumbling males disappear like SJWs would have those of ignorant black people or subservient females. Variety is the spice of life. Censorship is evil. If bias exists we should advocate equalization of the portrayal to both sexes and all races, not eradication of a particular "stereotype".

Additionally: Beware of self selection. That is a form of confirmation bias. I suspect the men=stupid message is prevalent, but without at least an unbiased random sampling of male portrayals in media to compare against, I'm not going to claim for certain a strong message exists. This doesn't mean I don't believe the article, it means I hold the MRM to a higher standard than ideological SJW nitwits. Don't be Anita Sarkeesian. Do a damn study, collect some unbiased evidence, then we'll talk seriously and have the tools to create change: Science.

RainyRat · 2014-03-13T12:46:56+00:00

Everyone is a fucking retard in the late-nite infomercials.
That's equality.

"There has GOT to be a better way!"

Essemd · 2014-03-13T09:16:21+00:00

Ads, tv shows and general media is very inclined to reinforce gender roles. This is a point on the agenda, deconstructing the gender roles.

There are 2 main factors that come into play here.

.1 Portrayal of men as incompetent in any regard, indicates that it's a woman's job to do whatever the topic is about.

Supermarket: The woman buys food, the man has a job.
(Home) insurance: The woman, looks after/spends the money, the man earns it.
Booze: The woman spends money, has time to try all kinds of whatnots because the man has a job and works when he's not asleep.
Cleaning products: The woman looks after the house, because the man has a job.

.2 Showing women in a negative way (even if she and a man are both portrayed equally bad you're still going to get shit from everyone because it's hateful towards women) is no longer an option these days, so then the only way to make something look good is to show men negatively.

OneGirlArmy · 2014-03-13T14:25:24+00:00

I bring this up all the time to my friends and my fiancé.

Most of the commercials are the mother and her children ganging up against the father for doing something "stupid." The message is usually "Why did I let him do this, why didn't I do it myself? Next time I'll buy or do _______ so I don't have to deal with his incompetence again."

zenmushroom · 2014-03-13T14:39:35+00:00

The other thing is that Feminism has been such a success that demeaning a woman in any kind of way on television will lead to a media outcry. So instead, since women can't be the butt of jokes, men are the new butt.

d3gu · 2014-03-13T16:00:55+00:00

I noticed this a lot when I was younger - a female child noticing it!

Really annoys me. In a way it's quite funny, because it's obviously targeted towards a female audience... in the middle of the day... hence assuming men are at work and the women aren't.

Just do what I've done and turn the TV off. Watch netflix. No stress.

reali-tglitch · 2014-03-13T16:31:36+00:00

The Lysol wipes are the ones that piss me off the most, depicting the father as purely stupid. In one, he is having serious trouble with a baby while the house is basically in shambles, and in the worst one: he walks in, says 'toilet's fixed', and triumphantly sets the freshly used plunger right on the table. NO ONE with any kind of sense would ever do that.

Fokillew · 2014-03-13T17:51:24+00:00

[permanently deleted]

RaxL · 2014-03-13T12:40:57+00:00

I would really like to see a list of TV shows where men/husbands are bumbling idiots vs a list where women/wives are bumbling idiots.

A comparison or something...

AnotherDrunkenBum · 2014-03-13T12:55:53+00:00

I don't watch much tv, except comedy, but are the guys on CSI, 24, and other serious shows hilarious overweight buffoons?

Or are they only that way in comedies?

bear_sausage · 2014-03-13T13:34:10+00:00

Because women respond positively to such cues and it helps the companies' bottom line. Sad but true.

cuteman · 2014-03-13T12:03:37+00:00

Women watch the majority of TV now. They are the target demographic advertisers are after. Commercials in question are simply low brow attempts at appealing to women since they also buy the majority of household purchases.

alkyjason · 2014-03-13T16:41:10+00:00

Not only are men portrayed as bumbling, stupid, clumsy, oafish buffoons, they are also often portrayed as porky, overweight fatasses. Take the following list, for example:

Homer Simpson
Peter Griffin
Dan Connor
Tim “ToolTime” Taylor
Gilligan
Fred Flintstone
Al Bundy
Doug Heffernan

Now, take the wives, or females of those shows. They are the complete, exact opposite. They are any or all of the following: slim, attractive, sexy, smart, witty, etc.

Obviously this isn't a new or recent trend as some of these TV shows go back to the '50's. In fact, in my memory I can only recall one TV show where a man was allowed and portrayed to be a man: I Love Lucy. Ricky Ricardo never took any shit from Lucy and for lack of a better phrase, he often put her in her place. That is why we have never seen a character on TV like him ever since.

Sherlock--Holmes · 2014-03-14T00:16:18+00:00

Correction: White Men

bbpgrs · 2014-03-13T12:46:52+00:00

Its because if you show women being stupid it'll turn into a sexism female slavery conspiracy.

jimmybrite · 2014-03-13T12:25:35+00:00

Watch the Misandry in the media series by Vinnie Mac.

He's right about it and it's enlightening, I have noticed it before watching his series but I notice it a lot more now.

Funcuz · 2014-03-13T14:34:25+00:00

The thing I don't understand is how television executives have come to the conclusion that men don't buy anything.

I mean , if the argument is that women make most of the purchases or somehow hold all the cards (which is a conundrum in itself since according to feminists and the hordes that actually believe them , women make so much less money than men) why would you still go out of your way to insult a demographic that still constitutes some double-digit percentage of buyers ?

Makes no economic sense really. I wouldn't cut myself out of %20 of my sales just to appeal to the other %80 when I don't have to make that choice.

I don't think we need to ban all portrayals of men that reflect poorly on us. I'd just like to see a little balance now and again.

Smithers66 · 2014-03-13T15:28:14+00:00

Check out Disney TV programming, some of the worst I have seen. Not just men but parents in general.

cerialthriller · 2014-03-13T15:52:54+00:00

because women are the ones buying the shit. I'm not going to the store looking to buy a swifter wet jet, my wife is the one that buys that shit. im not saying i dont help out and mop the floor, but i dont give a fuck, i'll dump soapy water on the floor and throw a roll of paper towels down on the floor and move them around with my foot. i dont need to plug some glade plug in things in my bathroom because my shit smells, i flush the toilet and just avoid that floor of the house if i have to.

TheresanotherJoswell · 2014-03-13T17:10:57+00:00

Stories in which the protagonist outsmarts a fool allow the audience many different things. If you see somebody in an advert use a certain website to get better insurance than someone who is portrayed as stupid, the audience may think:

"Hey, I'll be as smart as them if I use that particular insurance website".

An audience will usually feel positively about a character who "outsmarts" their peers, ad agencies and producers use this to get the audience to associate that positivity with a product.

So how do they show one character outsmarting another in a way which will gather the most positivity from the highest number of people?

They show a dumb male getting things wrong, and a smart other character (often a woman, but it isn't always) getting things right.

Gothiks · 2014-03-13T19:22:21+00:00

Pretty simple stuff really. Men are at work, not watching TV. Women are home watching TV. The solution is to make ads that speak to the insecurities of women.

edit: Grammaaaaarrr

Double edit: really, all genders should be offended.

towmeaway · 2014-03-13T20:12:52+00:00

In nine months it will have been 25 years, an entire generation, exposed to the myth of the stupid and lazy man that is Homer Simpson. Desensitized conditioning of what to expect of men by anyone female or young. I enjoyed watching it until I realized the poison pill that came with it. When everyone else expects us to be idiots and treats us like idiots, guess what, a lot of us will just go along with the program. Trying to recondition everyone around us can seem overwhelming.

remyroy · 2014-03-13T15:32:17+00:00

It sells products and services to women.

joedude · 2014-03-13T16:38:42+00:00

Men in the media are either demi-gods, or useless morons.

U_R_Shazbot · 2014-03-13T18:44:33+00:00

Well I think there are two reasons.

They are so afraid of being offensive, they don't want to make women look dumb. More importantly, women do most of the shopping so they don't want to offend them, better off making them laugh.

Actually, men are for the most part, funnier than women. Necessary for having an actor be funny in a commercial

CAinCa · 2014-03-13T19:41:30+00:00

This may be a bit of an aside for this subreddit as it relates more to the portrayal of races (although the portrayal of different races was discussed in the column) on television but this discussion by comedians Nick Dipaolo and Patrice O'Neal is salient to the discussion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BV5H-BFnmQ).

I think it is notable to point out, as they do in the clip, that it is predominately white men who are making these commercials and sitcoms. It is a stretch but could this then be the product of the soft bigotry of low expectations? As in "Ha-ha, other demographics can't take a joke like we (white males) can so we'll just make fun of ourselves and no special interest groups will get upset."

JayBopara · 2014-03-14T00:17:08+00:00

Finally an article in the MSM talking about the cultural misandry (he even uses the word misandrous) so prevalent on our TVs. Hooray, somebody states the obvious.

windynights · 2014-03-13T13:21:32+00:00

It's part of the media agenda to marginalize men. Note too ads like the one for taking online magazine subscriptions as an online package - the young woman's in bed with her partner and steps on his head to reach a magazine. Would that have happened if the shoe was on a different foot?...People have to got to wake up to what big media is doing. Now that we've had massive consolidation in the industry a lot of bad people are doing a lot of bad things.

SrJulioSchlongenburg · 2014-03-13T16:26:32+00:00

Thanks Obama

foyamoon · 2014-03-13T17:19:12+00:00

Women buys 80% of the products for the household and they probably enjoy these strawmen of men = sales go up

IS44 · 2014-03-13T09:01:50+00:00

Vote with your wallet. If you are offended, Do not buy their products.

I would never buy a KFC, or a Peugeot car. Any others?

MisterTrucker · 2014-03-13T17:10:46+00:00

Possibly because women are more offended by it when it is them. Unless its the dumb blonde and then only some blondes get offended. And who cares - "some blondes", is not a big enough group, while the rest of the females may defend the insult or just laugh it off.

discjockitch · 2014-03-13T13:31:37+00:00

Reminded me of this....http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-FqEaU5Qg

2014-03-13T18:47:40+00:00

In the advent of mass communication, there have been several phenomenon that ultimately lead to the bumbling idiot character.

1) With the popularization of radio, the trope of the boy genius came into play. This is because radios often came in DIY kits that children could put together. This resulted in a wave of boy genius adverts.

2) When the television came into popularity in the 50's, children nor the average man could repair or maintain a television set. This brought about the TV repairman and the bumbling idiot trope.

3) Advertisers have preyed upon baser instincts (the seven cardinal sins) Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. These themes can be spotted as the driving motivation in almost all advertising in some way or another. (They can really be used in EVERYTHING EVER, but for sake of argument, they're woven into adverts)

So men looking like idiots can play off of women's pride or wrath. If you can pick a hero, antagonist, and motivation, you've got a story. When you've got a story, you can get the audience to empathize.

Here's Brian Regan's take on it.

Gaming_Loser · 2014-03-13T21:32:51+00:00

It really began with Archie Bunker. Now I know this is satire and his racist views were meant to be made fun of. (as they should) But the other things he did. He was protrayed as a idiot. This really came to a head with Homer Simpson (a lesser extent Fred Flinstone). Homer was made to make fun of the sterotypical father figure. He has been around so long and did so well, it has become the standard. Now multiple generations view the father as a caring moron. Gone are the days where a man is considered the leader of the family. I rarely see any positive father figures potayed anymore in tv or movies. They have even taken it to the extreme. Tony Saprono and Mr. White come to mind. It just doesn't make for good advertising or characters anymore. The joke has become the reality.

pastafarianprez · 2014-03-13T21:42:28+00:00

Because 70%+ of ads are targeted towards women. The gender that stays home more will watch more tv. Ads were never high brow to begin with and marketing plays to gender roles because they're easy.

FlamingFreedom · 2014-03-13T22:08:59+00:00

Because women control most of the buying power?

MerfAvenger · 2014-03-13T23:54:22+00:00

Actually, something I can put forward (although not British) for both strong male and female leads is Castle.

In this case, strong female lead wouldn't solve a lot of the cases without Rick Castle being there. Bright, successful and a pretty good role model because of it.

On the other hand, the whole adverts thing is starting to piss me off. Make up your mind. Why would they have it one way round and not the other, fucking misandrist hypocrites.

Miathermopolis · 2014-03-13T23:59:39+00:00

Remember that both men and women work on the panels that create these ads!

Bartab · 2014-03-14T01:48:28+00:00

Frank Gallagher (Shameless)

I never watched the British original, but the US version is a particularly bad example of a show for their point. The show has examples of both dirtbag men and women, as well as the people who step up to handle the problems of such dirtbags in their lives.

The mother of the Gallaghers is worse than Frank.

Fokillew · 2014-03-14T01:53:49+00:00

After the advert, comes the show -- where men are portrayed as stupid, maladroit, craven and/or evil.

scanspeak · 2014-03-14T05:18:35+00:00

Also note how often men are slapped or somehow wounded in commercials. Women - never.

TheWheatOne · 2014-03-14T06:04:41+00:00

If you want to see examples, look no further

AnalyticalMind67 · 2024-05-27T14:20:27+00:00

Everyone in TV commercials are complete morons. It's not just the men. TV commercials now days are so stupid that I'd like to strangle most of those people. It's mind boggling how stupid they are, and how the idiots in the ads don't seem to care that they are making a complete ass of themselves.

EeeeeeevilMan · 2014-03-13T14:08:43+00:00

Wow.

Scrolling through the comments here, it's really depressing there's so many guys here who are apparently full-on blind and claim to doubt that men are portrayed much worse in the media than women.

If some of you guys can't even see something that goddamn obvious... Ugh.

I'm just going to pretend you're a bunch of feminist concern trolls because otherwise one would have to conclude the MRA movement is hopelessly doomed.

ttnorac · 2014-03-13T13:28:28+00:00

I always thought if the man was a fool, then the ad was targeted at women. If the ad was funny, it was targeted at men.

redsfan21 · 2014-03-13T21:43:35+00:00

I've definitely never been offended by this male portrayal. It's in commercials and sitcoms and everything else. I'm not an idiot so people don't treat me like one. I've never felt like this has been a type of sexism or male oppression

Popular-Uprising- · 2014-03-13T14:00:10+00:00

I don't really agree. This is probably true in most sitcoms and advertisements, but it's certainly not in the shows that I like. In TV dramas, it's absolutely not true. Think "Breaking Bad", NCIS, and reality TV shows.

In a sitcom, there needs to be funny situations and the ability to play off one another. This necessarily means that one or more of the main characters is going to be "bumbling" or less capable of dealing with everyday situations. While it's much more PC for this to be the man, the author conveniently forgets that is is still occasionally the woman. He even uses the example of Joey from Friends and forgets that Phoebe was just as stupid and bumbling in her own way.

I'd love to see the woman be the bumbling one more often and he's correct that it's a bad thing that it's more PC to portray the man as the incompetent person, but it's not as big of a problem as the author makes it out to me. We just need to keep exerting steady pressure to make it more equitable.

Nekrosis13 · 2014-03-13T20:09:28+00:00

It's all about marketing. When marketing to men, ads will play on a sense of superiority over women, or status symbols used to attract women.

When marketing to women, ads appeal to a sense of superiority over men, or play on the frustration that many women feel over men not doing enough chores, or obsessions with hobbies.

It just turns out that as a marketing demographic, women tend to spend slightly more than men on a weekly basis (according to some studies), so there is simply more marketing directed towards women.

Also: Teenagers. Teens tend to think their parents are stupid or out of touch, and this leads marketing to sometimes target that sentiment. Which tips the scales on what becomes the majority of portrayal in marketing.

DerekAcorah · 2014-03-13T20:32:03+00:00

I think this kind of thing in some way goes hand in hand with there being less female comedians.

Guys are thought of as big stupid kids anyway, so we can be silly and kind of get away with it since there's nothing to lose. Comedy is all about not taking yourself or life too seriously. If you're too serious and strung up on the thought of people thinking you're an idiot, chances are you're not going to be very funny.

I sometimes take my niece and nephew over to the local parks and climb on the climbing frames right along with them. Chances are that some of the other adults think I'm a complete idiot but they likely expect me to be so I don't care. I'd rather be thought of as an idiot while the kids have fun than just sit there on a bench and not even interact with them.

So, what I mean to say is, although these portrayals are sexist, there's a freeing side to people assuming you're stupid.

2014-03-14T06:41:02+00:00

Why are men in TV programmes and adverts always such fools? From supermarkets to home insurance, from booze to cleaning products, the theme is the same: men are stupid.

because the advertizers target women since women spend most of the money, dumbass.

twitoot · 2014-03-13T17:24:38+00:00

Suits, Elementary/Sherlock, Supernatural, Days of Our Lives, Dr Who, fuck even I dont watch much tv, what the shit do you mean?? Modern Family has Sofia Vergara as the idiot, Weeds has that main lady character, CougarTown has that paler skinned skand chick,

Comedy is known for taking a stereotype & blowing it out of proportion for the sake of snorts, chuckles, and giggles.

I know its rather bothersome, but take the article for what I see it as; It points out a social issue that is still out there. It just over states the issue.

Im ready for my circle-jerked downvotes whenever y'all are.

Title	Why are men in TV programmes and adverts always such fools? From supermarkets to home insurance, from booze to cleaning products, the theme is the same: men are stupid.
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	576
Comments	144
Date	March 13, 2014 8:57 AM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/20b1j0/why_are_men_in_tv_programmes_and_adverts_always/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/why-are-men-in-tv-programmes-and-adverts-always.1002802 https://theredarchive.com/post/1002802

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