Men are the new Gays

[elfs]

Is it really that bad for men out there? If the critics reviewing the fall TV line-up out there are right, it apparently is. I've read five different reviews about the new season of television, and so far every one of them has the same reaction: The new line-up is full of shows about how men are idiots.

There are seven TV shows in the line-up that have male leads, and 14 that have female leads. Tim Allen plays a manly-man trying to survive in a world of pomegranate-scented bodywash. Another depicts a man as "gifted" because the ghost of his ex-wife guides him through his apparent testosterone-poisoned failings. Yet a third puts two men into the same apartment, one a prissy Niles Fraiser clone and the other a mancave-reeking meathead, with the theme that, to get the girl, they both have to learn from each other-- except that our Neanderthal is depicted in the opening as "a real man." Real men read sports scores. Real men work out not for their health, but because "adult men" apparently look like Conan the Barbarian.

Look, I'm a firm believer in manly virtues that overlap with, but are distinct from, basic human virtues. I do not believe that the two poles of human sexuality are absolutely congruent. Being a great husband and a great father are distinctly different behaviors from being a great wife and a great mother. I believe in manliness.

But most of the "men" depicted on sitcoms these these days lack the manly virtues. His resoluteness is the single-mindedness of the bull. To the extend that he has a sense of honor, it is an entitled, indignant sort, unwilling to compromise or understand an alternative. His industry is pointless: if he has a job he hates, he's a loser for staying; if he has a job he loves, he's a loser for not being rich enough to leave it behind. His courage is a farce. Self-reliance must be ineffective and shown up.

Linda Holmes, the NPR reviewer, says it exactly right:

Where, on television, are the men who both like football and remember birthdays? Where are the men who can have a highly insightful drink-and-talk with friends? Where are the men who are great dads, great husbands, great boyfriends? Where are the men who are dedicated to important jobs? Where are the men who aren't seeking reassurance about what it means to be men? Where are all the men I rely on in my day-to-day life?

Admiral Adama was probably the last real man I saw on television.

"Steel True, Blade Straight." That's the inscription on Arthur Conan Doyle's headstone. It seems as fitting a motto as any. None of the men I've seen on TV recently could begin to understand it.

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

The best sitcom father I've seen recently is Robbie Ray from Hannah Montana (God help me). Completely supportive and loving to his daughter (he basically dumped his singing career to support hers!), but willing to lay down the law when she oversteps the boundries he's set up. Though admittedly undercut a bit by his relentless tormenting of his son, who admittedly earns it more often than not.