Portrayal of men in modern advertisement

No_Leather3994 · 2025-10-17T05:49:46+00:00

Not just ads.

Can't remember the last time a man was allowed to be smarter than a woman. For movies, tv books etc. The smart character is nearly all the time a woman or is a man who is a clear exception and smarter than other men and meant to be a genius type character.

In sitcoms the dad is always the dumb one.

I, 100% bet you if there is a sibling duo for whatever franchise the girl will be the smart one.

Zimi231 · 2025-10-17T12:00:47+00:00

This has been an issue for decades, not just the past 5-6 years. I cut the cord 10 years ago and asinine commercials and misandrist sitcoms were the two biggest reasons I stopped paying the cable company.

Fortspucking · 2025-10-17T06:34:12+00:00

Women make around 85% of the consumer decisions. While not all women are swayed by pandering, the ones simple enough to be the targets of advertisers are.

Honest-Weather8663 · 2025-10-17T10:58:24+00:00

More men are becoming misandrists and it's scary. I was talking to a guy and he said he has been a lot but he won't talk about mems issues he only cares about women because he has a sister and he was generalizing and saying that men deserve hate.. I tried to tell him that if you want men to change we need more empathy for boys n men but no.. He was still adamant. Mark my words. Not women but such misandrist men are our biggest hurdles

On a side note I hate the ads for men. Like those ads that tell mem that they need to look a certain to be attractive to women but if you tell women such things. There'll be an outrage. A disgusting ad said that a man who cannot satisfy woman in bed deserves to be cheated on.. Absolutely disgusting

thatusenameistaken · 2025-10-17T15:59:09+00:00

Portrayal of men in all modern ~~advertisement~~ media

NewMoonlightavenger · 2025-10-17T14:39:43+00:00

No. They're catering to people who feel good being told you are stupid. This is an important distinction.

thedisliked23 · 2025-10-17T17:07:18+00:00

Women buy things. Women control a significant portion of household purchases. Men have consistently been portrayed as dumbasses throughout my lifetime. Advertisers cater to their audience and it's primarily women. Nothing new about this and from an advertisers perspective it makes sense.

I always bring this up when people talk about portrayals of gender in the media. Almost every sitcom since the 70s has a dumb out of shape man who wouldn't be able to tie his shoes if his smart beautiful wife wasn't around to do it for him. And if they're not dumb and fat they're a jerk who has to be shown how to be sensitive. Certain types of women complain about their portrayal in the media but their portrayal is almost always "smart and beautiful". And ours is half "buffest most handsome man in the world" and half "bumbling slob".

It's also why historically movies that do well with men have male characters who take action in the world and movies that do well with women have female characters that either a)have something terrible done to them and get back at the perpetrators somehow or b)have multiple partners chasing them and get the "perfect" one. It's just what the genders want to see on screen. If it wasn't it wouldn't get made. Popular media is 99% money and 1% agenda.

antixwick999 · 2025-10-17T19:50:42+00:00

Buzz lightyear is huge example of this

Successful-Airline33 · 2025-10-17T15:38:54+00:00

Thanks for sharing this, i think you cant even call it ads anymore.

virtualhumanoid · 2025-10-17T16:00:16+00:00

There are more women than men in this planet. More women voters. Thus, the balance is now inclining towards catering to women, and it is showing in politics, in media, in social media, advertisements, movies, etc. The balance has turned the other way, and it is only natural I guess. There was a time when it was the other way around.

dougpschyte · 2025-10-18T12:40:18+00:00

"Man is like a zebra. In the wild, he is a beautiful wild animal. When domesticated, he is seen as a donkey in pyjamas."

Adam Leonas

MiddleGroundChr · 2025-10-17T12:13:26+00:00

I think it comes down to basic advertising logic. There's been a huge increase in the female ego in pop culture, and one characteristic of egotistical people is they think they're smarter then everyone else. They try to highlight a trend but inadvertently perpetuate it.

Which_Ad_3917 · 2025-10-17T05:41:53+00:00

I don’t think it’s necessarily a feminist plot to make men think they’re stupid. I think it’s more a case of they have to dumb you down to convince you to buy stupid things. Like take Gillette that you mentioned. I haven’t bought a razor blade in years, maybe a decade. But I’ve seen the ads where they try to convince me that shaving my beard off would get me more women (it won’t), that women don’t like stubbles (quite a few do), etc. That is the dumbing down in my opinion, they have to tell a story that I’m missing something in my life and that their product is the answer. When it isn’t. I don’t even need an answer for whether I should buy a blade, cause I already know I don’t.

Street_Conflict_9008 · 2025-10-17T06:00:51+00:00

How far back in media history?

Look at things another way:

Males are light hearted and funny Females are serious

Males can laugh at themselves Females cant

Females have it worse, they are not funny and cant laugh at themself. Being smart is just a consolation prize in entertainment!

Edit: The 3 Stooges, Abbott and Costello, The Honeymooners, Get Smart etc are feminist media tools of male surpression?

Internal-Sundae-3549 · 2025-10-18T03:36:17+00:00

stop crying bro

Title	Portrayal of men in modern advertisement
Author	Individual_Ad_4899
Upvotes	332
Comments	43
Date	October 17, 2025 5:25 AM UTC (9 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1o8swfh/portrayal_of_men_in_modern_advertisement/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/portrayal-of-men-in-modern-advertisement.1564293 https://theredarchive.com/post/1564293

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