In a blog post for PluggedIn Online, Meredith Whitmore says A Good Man Is Hard to Find ... on TV.
Men are mentally dim. On TV anyway. From Everybody Loves Raymond, to The Simpsons to the new show Gary Unmarried men are idiots and often not-so-good or even horrible fathers.
In Gary Unmarried, Gary is divorced after 15 years from Allison and they have two kids and shared custody. "The women in Gary's family think he's an idiot - and usually treat him as as such. Sticking to the script, he lives down to their expectations," Says Whitmore.
What bothers me most about this show is what shows like this do to our expectations. What happened to the great, strong, loving TV fathers from not too long ago? Hey, even Tim Taylor on Home Improvement while being a bumbler apologized to his wife, tried to treat her with the respect she deserved (though he often failed) and was generally a great father. Whitmore discusses this as well. She compares it to a child's knowledge of a mousetrap. Her father put a mousetrap with cheese out in the open.
Smirking at his utter lack of judgment, I said, "But Dad, mice are too smart for this. They'll see right through it." His response was right on the money: "Spoken like a girl who's watched too many cartoons."
Are these shows affecting boys' understanding of the men they are supposed to be? You might say that would be hard to prove, but this combined with other cultural changes may leave us with some messed up American dads. Let's hope and pray the next generation stands against this kind of content.
