← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · yummybear
Thread ID: 10093 | Posts: 14 | Started: 2003-09-28
2003-09-28 21:54 | User Profile
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/arts/television/28STAN.html?th[/url]
[B]On TV, Men Are the New Women[/B] By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: September 28, 2003
he effect of 30 years of feminism on television is a little like an old folk legend: a crippled peasant asks God to make both his hands the same and awakens to find that both are shriveled.
Women on television are still sometimes squeezed into demeaning caricatures (or at least inappropriate clothing: surgeons, homicide detectives and high school teachers all wear low-cut tank tops to work). But increasingly, so are men. The new fall season shrinks the number of belittling stereotypes they may occupy to just two: cads or dads.
Recent genetic research suggesting that the Y chromosome is devolving ââ¬â turning men into what Steve Jones, a British geneticist, labeled the "second sex" ââ¬â has found support in prime time. From CBS to the WB, the fall shows depict men the way women were once depicted: as supporting characters propelled by their biological imperative. And perhaps because science has made it so much easier for women to conceive children without a partner, these television fathers do not know best.
The hottest new heroines have dads, and these dads are old, rumpled and in need of daughterly advice. On NBC's "Miss Match," Alicia Silverstone reprises her "Clueless" persona as a Beverly Hills divorce lawyer who is a matchmaker on the side. A gouty Ryan O'Neal plays her father as the un-Matlock: a sleazy divorce lawyer who is both a dad and a cad. Their relationship is not central, however. He mainly serves as a plot device to get a nice girl like Miss Silverstone into matrimonial law. The rest of the time, he is one of the many tiresome cellphone callers the heroine must humor. (The annoying cad boyfriend is jettisoned after the first episode, however.)
"Karen Sisco," an ABC crime drama, is based on the 1998 movie "Out of Sight," starring Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney. Karen Sisco, played by Carla Gugino, is a federal marshal, and inherited her passion for detective work from her father, a semi-retired private eye played by Robert Forster. As an actress, Ms. Gugino is daintier than Jennifer Lopez, but she is nevertheless cast as a tough, solitary sleuth. Her one weakness, besides Scotch, is a former lover, a married F.B.I. agent played by Peter Horton as a smirking, unrepentant cad.
In a father-daughter scene that would have been counter-intuitive only a few years ago, the two Siscos are trapped indoors, under machine-gun fire from hitmen. It is Karen Sisco who barks out their defense posture, and the dad who meekly backs down. ("Don't argue with me, Dad.") Meanwhile, on "The West Wing," President Bartlet temporarily resigns from office out of concern that his fears for his kidnapped daughter's safety might cloud his judgment.
More women watch television than men, surveys show, and women increasingly select, write and produce the shows that go on television. Advertisers, too, are increasingly represented by female agents, who place their clients' money on shows they think will succeed, and that they themselves like. (Some of ABC's promos for "Threat Matrix," an action-adventure drama about counterterrorism, showcase the female commandos and secret agents defending the nation from attack, even though the lead character is actually a male F.B.I. agent.)
It is not surprising that the feminization of the television industry would give female characters more prominence, but it is a little disconcerting to see how men have waned in the process. Suddenly, sensitive shows are dealing with men as an oppressed minority group. Television writers who once focused on women's dilemmas are now exploring the emotional difficulty of being a man in today's world.
David E. Kelley's new show, "The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.," is perhaps the most glaring example of the new male disempowerment. The drama, by the creator of "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice," is a challenge to programming orthodoxy: it focuses on three fat, discontented brothers in their 40's. The show is well written and surprisingly engrossing, but that could be because Mr. Kelley, famous for his challenging roles for women, merely inverted classic wifely issues and slapped them on his male characters.
The oldest brother, Garrett (John Carroll Lynch), the mayor, had an affair with a neighbor and is being blackmailed for his transgression ââ¬â he agonizes like a latter-day Lana Turner. Hank, the police chief (Randy Quaid), is angry and anxious that his wife has outgrown him and their small town. The youngest, Waylon (Chris Penn), is an unemployed, loving father who worries that he is not smart enough to keep up with his intelligent, attractive wife and teenage daughter. The brothers are close, but it is a new kind of male bonding: a Ya Ya Brotherhood of midlife insecurity and consciousness-raising.
2003-09-28 22:22 | User Profile
Sally Shops-A-Lot: "Boy, it's a good thing that that evil Franco guy didn't come along and try to blame this post's topic on Jews. After all, what do Jews have to do with TV?"
Betty Bakes-A-Cake: "Right, Sally! That Franco is a no-good hatemonger who Hates Jews Just Because They Are Jews [tm]." :smartass:
2003-09-28 22:33 | User Profile
Hey even the Jews aren't Jews. They're turks.
2003-09-28 22:43 | User Profile
I just watched an episode of "Bewitched" a little while ago and realized how different TV and society has changed in 30+ years. I think a homemaker/witch is more profound than a man-pants homicide detective, in both its mental and aesthetical forms.
In terms of classic womanly bitchiness, I'll take Endora over some c*ntish lawyer from a "Law And Order"-type show.
To think that this writer's concern over the lack of masculinity in men on television made the Times is a story in itself. I doubt the advertising industry would care. It seems that when it comes to women, if they're not kickboxer broads, they ain't worth :dung: .
2003-09-29 10:34 | User Profile
If only Sally and Betty [I]were [/I] shopping and baking, Frankie!
2003-09-29 19:19 | User Profile
Il Ragno wrote:
If only Sally and Betty were shopping and baking, Frankie!
Yep! Today's woman don't do that stuff. She tosses something into the microwave for dinner. She has no husband, just "male friends" and a fancy "career," and she sticks little Johnny [from a quickie prior marriage] into a day-care center; she buys her own condoms; she can't remember who she had sex with last Tuesday; and she videotapes "Sex and the City" so she doesn't dare miss an episode. She will vote for Joe Lieberman in 2004 because he "seems honest."
In short, she's a modern gal! America is FULL of such gals today. Thanks, Zhids.
2003-09-30 04:07 | User Profile
IMHO, it's usually White men who are the "NEW Women" on television today. Not all the time. But most of the time. Of course, there's always the more masculine, etc. minority male that stands as a contrast to the wimpy White, among the other archetypes that now present themselves as more manly than the lowly White male. :bash:
2003-09-30 05:04 | User Profile
[QUOTE=American Patriot] I also notice the assult and battery double standard on the Jewsmedia. Females are always shown slapping men, throwing objects at them, punching them, kicking them in the testicles. The media glorifies this type of violence, but for a man to hit a women is considered anathema on the TV.
.[/QUOTE] Correct. You see this kind of double standard shit every day. One particularly odious commercial features a little sow imagining violent punishments for her cheating Generic Whiteguy hubby: first, a smiling man drives a golf ball into his nuts as he steps out for the morning paper; then a piano falls on his head, splattering him.
Just try to imagine the sexes reversed, no matter how heinous the femail character.
It's not "domestic violence" in general the juus and their ugly bulldyke tools are concerned about; it's purely violence against wimmin.
2003-09-30 06:41 | User Profile
Here's an interesting IMDb comment I read a few weeks ago on LAW & ORDER:
[QUOTE]....they did something terrible: they introduced Elizabeth Rohm's character, ADA Serena Southerlyn.
The show had carried out the formula of ADA eye candy for many years before Rohm showed up. The important part was that the sex of the eye candy rarely came into play. There was very little gender-oriented banter. Then Rohm came along and the show became a "female power" champion. Show after show contains Rohm spouting some sarcastic or derogatory remark towards either the men her character is working with, or towards a male defendant, or just out of the blue. Take, for example, the episode where a ballplayer murders his drug dealer. McCoy says that testosterone doesn't make you crazy. Rohm: "No comment". Rohm is reading a brief on steroid usage. Her comment: "On the bright side, it makes your testicles smaller." Others get in on the act. Merkerson as the chief gets a five-minute-long spiel about how stupid men are for liking sports figures. And in several episodes Rohm has verbally berated her coworkers for not seeing something obvious - because women always have the answers. Men are just dumb!
It is not psychosis that causes me to see this, folks, it is the changing of the networks to focus on the female demographic. NBC has been the most blatant about it. This year there was an episode of "Third Watch" where a female detective tracked down a drug dealer and shoved a gun in his crotch while triumphant music played. If you cannot see how this can be offensive (as most women can't), imagine the scenario reversed. Imagine a scene where a man shoves a pistol into a woman's vagina on network TV. Imagine a man joking about a woman's vagina "drying up". Then imagine the public outrage.[/QUOTE]
2003-09-30 18:23 | User Profile
The Jewish media is all hate all the time. The intent is, as previously noted, to make white men hate themselves and to feminize them so they are no longer a threat. Homosexualizing society does the same thing as the queers are paraded around as being a superior variety of male. The powers that be are trying to turn the West into a giant hive where only the select few actually breed. The rest of us are to be either drones ( working women and queers) or soldiers. Minorities are depicted as masculine in order to get those women who do breed to do so with blacks and Hispanics.
The real problem is the hold that Jews have on people's minds without their being aware that they are being manipulated. If we could re-program people and make them more aware of how they are manipulated it would be far easier to attract others to our cause. As it is, Whites are as big a problem as Jews because of this brainwashing. I've tried to pass on what I know in the form of books, articles, etc. For the most part, they fall on deaf ears.
2003-09-30 21:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE=yummybear]The Jewish media is all hate all the time. The intent is, as previously noted, to make white men hate themselves and to feminize them so they are no longer a threat. Homosexualizing society does the same thing as the queers are paraded around as being a superior variety of male. The powers that be are trying to turn the West into a giant hive where only the select few actually breed. The rest of us are to be either drones ( working women and queers) or soldiers. Minorities are depicted as masculine in order to get those women who do breed to do so with blacks and Hispanics.
The real problem is the hold that Jews have on people's minds without their being aware that they are being manipulated. If we could re-program people and make them more aware of how they are manipulated it would be far easier to attract others to our cause. As it is, Whites are as big a problem as Jews because of this brainwashing. I've tried to pass on what I know in the form of books, articles, etc. For the most part, they fall on deaf ears.[/QUOTE]
You hit the nail right on the head,Yummybear. :cheers:
2003-09-30 22:28 | User Profile
The emergence of the homosexual in the popular culture is not merely by accident. When wimmin claimed that they had the "power" instead of the men, it took the trumping of the flamish male to make White Men secondary citizens. White masculine males are the threat to feminism.
If anyone thinks that "equal rights" was what the Broad Brigade was all about, let America 2003 be a wake-up call. Feminism is a [B]power[/B] game. They want women to have [B]power[/B] and nothing else. "Equality" was just a smoke screen. No way on God's earth could the Brigade share with the men; it wasn't humanly possible, and never will be.
2003-09-30 23:32 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Octopod]No, they want [B]Jews[/B] to have power.
While gentile men and women at at each others' throats, Jews are able to enjoy power unopposed. That's the real goal of feminism - not to uplift gentile women, but to condemn them to everlasting slavery.[/QUOTE]
Yes, it is true that feminism only augments Jewish power time and time again, but the fact that it succeeded in making the Gentile sexes betray and mud-sling each other is tragic. The same thing is applied to race. White females were encouraged to procreate with non-Whites while White males were made to be "evil" and the Jew slapped his hands in the background; put another notch in the "win" category for ZOG's goals.
2003-09-30 23:40 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Octopod]No, they want [B]Jews[/B] to have power.
While gentile men and women at at each others' throats, Jews are able to enjoy power unopposed. That's the real goal of feminism - not to uplift gentile women, but to condemn them to everlasting slavery.[/QUOTE]
That's so true, Octopod. If feminists ever get full power in a society they will create a beehive community. Most females of that community will be workers, who are sterile females, whose job is not only clean house but to nurse babies, feed the queens and drones, cook ( make honey), gather food, guard the house, and if nescessary die in defense of the hive. A few females will be queens, their only job is to lay eggs, having been mated with the males, drones, whose penises explode when they mate. They are good for nothing else and are thrown out of the hive to die before winter.
Another thing. How about straight men getting makeovers by queers in "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"? What can be more humilating than that?