So the question is: when exactly did every father figure portrayed in family comedies turn into a meandering, useless, half-witted putz?

Now, I don’t intend for this to be an assault on women in any way. Clearly, there is still a rather gaping disparity when it comes to decent female roles in movies, and sexism against women definitely endures in all forms of entertainment. But if we’ve learned anything from years of gender studies, it is that images in the mass media have a significant influence on how we view women. So, what about the dudes? …

Misandry is the sexist counterpart to misogyny and it has only recently been recognized as a serious cultural problem. Basically, it refers to the theory that men are becoming defined by a set of negative stereotypes in the media, whether it be in the form of dehumanizing or demonizing men, or just turning them all into dim-witted daddies. Sound familiar?

In their book, Spreading Misandry: The Teaching of Contempt for Men in Popular Culture, authors Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young argue that misandry in all forms is largely tolerated in our society. In fact, in the movies, sexism in the form of misandry is considered “politically correct,” they write, creating a double standard among the genders.

Dumb daddies may send a subtle message of misandry, but it is still pervasive. Because even though we’re dealing with entertainment, young people surely take their cues from the big screen and TV…

And that is the real issue here. If kids today are only seeing images of fathers haplessly falling down stairs, unable to work simple small appliances or just pathetically submitting themselves to being the target of some little kid’s upchuck, how are they going to respect the job when they grow up?

Source: Toronto Star, Canada
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/250101