Nicole Johnson believes movies and television shows can be funny and still portray men in a positive light. Why it’s not being done in this day and age baffles her.
Growing up, my brother, Matt, and I were unapologetic television and movie buffs. We loved any box with rabbit ears, and the silver screen was a magical place where Extra Terrestrials, Ewoks, and Super Heroes lived. In fact, I could call up Matt right now and say, “Jack Abramoff is as corrupt as Boss Hogg”, and we would nostalgically burst out loud laughing over the comparison.
A portion of our childhood was shaped by Happy Days, Benson, Battlestar Galactica, Different Strokes, Good Times, The Cosby Show, Little House on the Prairie, and of course, reruns of The Brady Bunch, Leave It to Beaver, and Lassie, (just to name a few). Moreover, our minds were influenced by the educational cartoons of the time. Don’t scoff; we learned a lot from The Smurfs and Fat Albert. As for the movies, Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and E.T. will always be some of our favorites.
The aforementioned movies and televisions shows not only entertained us, but they taught us right from wrong and proved goodness undeniably conquers evil. My brother and I were fortunate; we grew up during the decades where men were celebrated in film and television. I’m grateful we were raised at a time where industry giants were at the apex of their careers. Thank you, George Lucas and Norman Lear.
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It didn’t matter if we were watching Tom Bosley’s Mr. Cunningham, John Amos’s Mr. Evans, or Christopher Reeve’s Superman (Clark Kent), my brother and I knew these characters were strong and honorable. There was no ambiguity; we knew they were good men. In our generation, media outlets consistently showcased two types of dignified gentlemen: the type of men Matt would want to emulate and the type of men I would want to marry. Despite our affinity for Hollywood, we didn’t learn everything from fiction. My father provided us with a real-life, everyday example of what it meant to be an extraordinary man. His tutelage continues to this day. Thank you, Dad.
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The media I was exposed to in my youth and adolescence is the antithesis of American media today. In 2011, there is a dearth of movies and television shows portraying men in a manner worthy of emulation. Currently, programs in the medical, legal, and criminal justice genre feature certain men as honorable and capable, however there are few television dads who could rival the television dads of generations past. Ergo, the dads incarnated on ABC’s Modern Family are vaudevillian compared to the standards of the 1960’s and 70’s.
Here’s what I find tremendously disconcerting: Hollywood has started writing and producing content which depicts men as ridiculous and as people who should not be taken seriously. The characterizations of men in the media over the past two decades portray men as weak and incompetent. Interestingly enough, it’s men who are behind the scenes doing this, not women. Hollywood is a notorious “boys club.”
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Why do male movie executives (yes, Jud Apatow, I’m referring to you) consistently disseminate this type of content? Clearly the men creating movies such as Knocked Up, Old School, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Pineapple Express, Super Bad, The Hangover, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and I Love You, Man are simply seeing dollar signs. (For further proof, watch the trailer for the upcoming movie The Sitter.) What man would walk away from these movies saying, “I want to be like him?” Conversely, what woman would walk away saying, “I want to marry him?” I understand it’s designed to be entertaining, but if I were a man, I’d be horrified.
Television executives are equally as culpable in contributing to the debasement of men. The most glaring example is ABC’s newest show, Man Up. I’ve seen two full-episodes and I am disgusted ABC actually put this show on the air. ABC’s Man Up portrays men as infantile, incapable, uncultured, weak, pathetic, and flat out moronic (I could go on, but I’ll stop here). Don’t the executives at ABC realize this show is damaging to men? Do the writers not care they are depicting men as buffoons? Why not just put the male actors in clown suits and call it a day?
I’m tired of Hollywood trying to sell me on the concept of “loveable idiots”, and I am disheartened by the ubiquitous content that tears men down. I love filling my life with laughter, however why are my current content choices trying to get me to laugh at a reduced version of men? Why is Hollywood trying to get me to focus on the broken-down, allegorical version of who they think my husband is? Obviously they don’t know my husband.
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Millions of men are driven, capable, intelligent, honorable, responsible, etc. At present time, why is this not regularly celebrated on film and television? I wonder if the media is deliberately trying to degrade men, because I know there are ways of infusing positive aspects of manhood and masculinity into content while maintaining the comedy and excitement. Case in point: Frasier, Scrubs, and Jim Carrey’s, Liar Liar.
I hope media outlets will revamp their destructive strategies. The current template has the potential to be catastrophic to men (and women). There’s a reason why Kay Hymowitz wrote Manning Up, and it’s not solely because of the economy and Feminist movement. The media has contributed to a portion of this plight. Perpetuating images of the “man-child” has established the need for academic and sociological involvement. Thank you, Kay Hymowitz.
To the executives at ABC and beyond, men deserve better. Every protagonist should not be painted as a pinhead, and all antagonists shouldn’t be written as angry Neanderthals. The superfluous use of these stereotypes is depressing. It’s time to redesign the formula. Good men are everywhere; let your content reflect this fact.
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photo: abc.com
About Nicole Johnson
Great article, Nicole.
Yes it seems the scatalogical humor and portrayal of men as goofy pigs is what Hollywood makes money off of more that the nice guy… But here are my two thoughts. As a writer, I have leaned that real life is boring. Yes everyone has a story, but few are best sellers and Hollyood is only interested in box office gross. When a formula works, they repeat it until it doesn’t work anymore.
Second thought is, perhaps there are just not enough good men out there, so it’s easier for them to portray what is common. God knows I’ve been looking for a decent guy who can dress himself and doesn’t sit around and drink beer all day.
You have to look at how women are portrayed as well… In comedy… It isn’t any better. You think the characters in bridesmaids were an accurate portrayal of women? I sure hope not or we are all doomed.
“Hollywood is a notorious “boys club.”
Yes, as always, it’s fault of men, isn’t it. The ladies haven’t done anything in the past 40 years to land us here, oh no. As always, the fairer sex is absolved of all guilt while men (surprise, surprise) are bearing the responsibility to fix everything.
And THIS, my dear Nicole, is why you will never see your wish come true. Have a nice day.
Earlier this afternoon, I typed up a response to another post (the one about Two and a Half Men, but the website reset itself and ate everything I’d written) talking about how I think this type of characterization of men can largely be laid at the feet of the half-hour sitcom format and largely lazy writers.
When producing half-hour sitcoms, you really only have about 22 minutes of screen time once you factor in the commercials, meaning that any story you tell has to be very abbreviated. It therefore becomes easier to use shorthand characterization–archetypes. Once you know that Charlie (on Two and a Half Men) is the drunk womanizer and Alan is the beat-down ex husband, there’s really nothing else you need to know about those characters.
Now, I know it’s possible to get more nuanced characterization even in a half-hour sitcom, but it doesn’t really surprise me that overworked writing staffers are tending to utilize more simplistic characterization as a way to make their jobs easier. I don’t see anywhere near such a depressing depiction of men (on TV, anyway) when you look at 1-hour dramas. Shows like Terra Nova, Law & Order: SVU (when it comes to the main characters, anyway), N.C.I.S., Burn Notice, on and on all portray pretty positive depictions of men. But then, they have more time to fit their material in and can get into more subtlety.
Anyway, that’s just my two cents.
One more comment: I was interrupted while typing this and forgot one thing I wanted to say.
For an excellent portrayal of a non-idiot man in a sitcom (at least I think so, anyway) check out Whitney on NBC. The Alex character is essentially the straight man to Whitney’s neuroses, but he’s not depicted as anything like a buffoon or a caveman. It can be done. You’ve just got to know where to look.
Jason, it wiped out my comment too! It used to refill this box with what I wrote when it refreshed, but not this time, how frustrating!
I will try to make a briefer point. I think this reflects a more general trend of creating characters who are flawed so they are more believable as real people. Because the assumption is that no man can be as perfect as Mr. Cleaver all the time. Those men of yesteryear’s television might have been good role models, but they wouldn’t pass the buck nowadays. Viewers are proving with their box office money that they want characters with everyday flaws, because in real life, no one is an Angel.
Just look at the men who try to present themselves as Good Men. The moment a man tries to paint a picture of himself as Good, he has an army of opponents looking to dig up dirt. Politics would be one example of this (timely case in point: Herman Cain), but it happens even in less competitive arenas. When Steve, the host of children’s show Blues Clues, left the show, rumors ran rampant that he died of a coke overdose (or similar drug habit). Truth was, he was never really interested in the children’s show market and wanted to move on to other things. But people wanted to speculate that he left the show for some dark, secret reason. We LOVE other people’s dark secrets because it makes us feel better about our own flaws. That’s why sites like TMZ exist. That’s why, when I worked at a newspaper in the online department, the highest-grossing element on our website in terms of pageviews were always the galleries of local jail mugshots.
And it’s even better if the skeletons in the closet are not actually skeletons, but everyday things like drinking too much, philandering, failing at relationships, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time (a la Phil from Modern Family). Because then the characters become avatars for the viewers, something to relate to.
All that said, I would love to see more admirable depictions of men AND women in TV and movies, but unfortunately that’s not what sells the ads or movie tickets. Joss Whedon’s Firefly was chock-full of Good men and women – all of whom had believable flaws…CANCELED. (Yet it remains one of my favorite TV series of all time and has a permanent spot in my Netflix Instant Queue.) There’s just not enough of an audience for Good Men, sadly.
I believe your last paragraph is missing the words “Except for Inara, who was basically perfect at everything, which wouldn’t have been so bad if the actress could pull it off”. It was still a great show, but it wasn’t perfect.
Honestly, the thing that’s bugged me the most recently was an episode of Castle (normally a show I enjoy) where the running joke was “who roofies a guy, all you have to do is ask”. It took me half an hour afterwards to explain to my assembled female relatives (my dad doesn’t watch the show), who were all laughing uproariously, how horrible that was and they still never really took it seriously.
Honestly, as a kid growing up in the 90s and 00s, I got most, if not all, of my role models from novels significantly older than I was because the only compelling character on TV was the animated Batman.