Perhaps earlier sitcoms were reactionary. They responded to the social forces of the time during a period of validating feminine rights and capabilities. I certainly believe in every person’s potential as well as rights to equal opportunity, regardless of gender.
Being politically correct seems to be a fundamental part of American television. But what is the politically correct way to bring the ideas of equality & respect to mainstream? Do we put someone down to raise another up? What is the message that males receive? I guess if I weren’t a buffoon, I would’ve guessed the answer is that men are incompetent buffoons. Woman have it so drilled into them that the male species is so out of touch with their feelings and their emotions that books and talk shows on how to educate men have become a craze. God bless Oprah for guiding women down the path toward male redemption.
To be fair, many men are out of touch with what women need from their companion and so life experience has taught women to expect a man’s shortcomings (present company excluded). This coupled with reinforcement from TV, magazines & books has all but guaranteed the male inferior status.
Many women seem to have no problem pointing out failures due to lack of empathy. ‘Why wasn’t he there for me? Why didn’t he give me what I need?” These are common questions. I don’t intend to make excuses; he should have supported her the best he could. Maybe he needs to be told how her mind works, he is not a prophet nor is he perfect. Everyone has to work on developing his or her character.
Interestingly, those standards to which men are so rigidly held don’t seem to carry equal weight when applied to women. Granted women do empathize better sometimes. But there are certainly times when women have lapses in judgment, don’t think before they speak, or even are guilty of the self-same insensitive behavior that men are accused of. Does she comment how sexy another guys butt is while on a date with her boyfriend. Does he share a point of interest and she does not validate it (or possibly even mock it)? Perhaps she doesn’t realize it because he doesn’t want to hurt their feelings by pointing out a ‘flaw’ in his partner. Who is being sensitive now? Or just maybe communication and dialogue between the sexes must improve.
The take home message is that both men and women are a subset of the species known as humans not buffoons. They both have feeling and flaws. They should be SENSITIVE to each other’s needs and most of all have mutual RESPECT for each other and for the other’s gender. No one is perfect but if our culture perpetuates such negative stereotypes, feminism will just become another form of chauvinism.
I must give credit to Bob for a lot of the ideas in this blog. So direct all hate mail to him!