'Male bashing'

Do you think Male Bashing in the media (on TV, in film, in music, or in daily life) is a real problem?
Is it a double standard when women can seemingly mock or have a cynical attitude towards towards men and rarely get called on it, while a mans sexism seemingly sounds alarms? In general, do you think that sexism against men has any real damaging effect on anyone?

This is a slippery slope, there are people who think Thelma & Louise is male bashing because they shoot a rapist, but as Susan Sarandon pointed out, in Total Recall, Schwarzanegger shoots his wife in the head and says 'consider that a divorce' and nobody blinks an eye. But then their complaints about it being 'male bashing' turn into women bashing because they're essentially saying 'women are stupid, women get drunk and lead men on and then think they have a right to kill them, what's the moral of this (but you can note NOBODY ever demands a moral when it's two men starring)'.

And what exactly DOES qualify as male bashing? The jokes that men can't do anything right? Because for a lot of women that is not a joke, that is a reality, a job could take half an hour to do but if the wife asks the husband to do it, it won't get done for 10 years, no, he has to think of it himself for it to be a good idea and to ever get done.

And then, I like to point this out...how is it NOT bashing women when they do all these movies and TV shows where the women's ONLY thoughts are 'oh shoes! oh shopping! oh I want to get married! oh ice cream! More shoes! More shopping! Oh that's so cute! Oh I'm so fat! I need to drop down to a size 0 to look good in this bikini even if I can't breathe in it. Why can't you commit? Why can't I get a guy? When am I EVER going to get married?', you can note you NEVER see a man like this in anything. That THIS is the epitome of what they are? When the men are the ones who are actually in possession of half a brain and the taste for adventure?

And the ONLY way women can be in on the action is if they're hot, men don't have to be hot, men don't have to be appealing at all but if a woman's going to be kicking ass she HAS to do it in a skin tight suit and have her dress dropping around her spiked heels. Really, when was the last time Indiana Jones had to prove his worth in a lepoard skin bikini?

I don't know about BASHING exactly, but I would venture to say that the media is largely biased, more so against women than men because sure men get the little jokes of 'to do it right I have to do it myself', but it doesn't compare with the treatment women get.

I don't really think anyone should go around bashing anyone. It's one thing when friends vent about their SO's or something, but doing it in public or in general seems distasteful to me.

I have a friend whose wife bashes him on her facebook, vents about him and I get her frustrations but my sympathy really is with him on this one. It's hurtful!

I think there is a double standard. Trash talk women and you're misogynist. But women can trash talk men all they want.

This is sort of a tangent, but I came across an interesting double standard Saturday night at work.

A VERY flamboyant, young gay man was bothering some our young, male staff. He called a busboy over and told him that he had a great chest and big lips, and that he hoped he put them both to good use. He also dropped silverware three separate times when another busboy walked by. On the third drop, the busser realized the guy was screwing with him and ignored it.

The second busser complained to the managers about it. Both managers on that night were male, one is straight and one is gay. Neither of them cared very much about the situation. They sort of kept on eye on the table to see if anything further happened, but didn't do anything. If a female staff member had been harassed, they probably would have asked the customer to leave. I found it sort of odd, especially coming from the gay manager.

thepossiblepolice wrote:I don't really think anyone should go around bashing anyone. It's one thing when friends vent about their SO's or something, but doing it in public or in general seems distasteful to me.

I have a friend whose wife bashes him on her facebook, vents about him and I get her frustrations but my sympathy really is with him on this one. It's hurtful!

ITA with this! I don't agree with any kind of bashing. I've noticed there's a lot of... reversism, for lack of a better word - reverse racism, reverse sexism, etc. I've watched shows where characters have made comments like "You dance like a white boy" or "don't go all white on me" and stuff like tht I find those comments just as offenseive as I would someone saying something equally negative about a black person, an Asian person, a woman, or a man. I have no interest in shows that promote racism, sexism, etc. I don't find those comments funny in the least.

ITA that what happened was wrong, 2xy. The busboys didn't deserve that kind of treatment. I got into a debate with a roommate once who thought it was great when businesses, places of employment, university programs, etc. had quotas based on race, gender, etc. when it came to qualifying. I asked her how she'd feel if she'd applied to a program and found out she didn't get in because they had to let a certain number of people from a minority group in, even if they didn't have the necessary qualifications. I'm not talking about people who have the right qualifications, but when someone gets a job because of their ethnicity, gender, etc. but doesn't have the qualifications, I have issues with that. She wasn't so sure the quota thing was such a good idea once she realized it might mean she didn't get in to her program while someone with less or not enough qualifications did, just so the program could fulfill a set-out quota.

I find "normal" commercials tiresome. You know the ones of the supposed average household where the husband is an illiterate dolt and can't read OTC medication labels and needs a wife to treat his common cold. EGAD! My wife knew to just leave me alone when I was sick. I lived 35 years before hooking up with her so I had some survival skills. But, those are so common and ppl apparently accept them.

Now wheels-sports-beer-boobs-obsessed males do have their foibles as do multi-shoe-owning-fat-butt-worrying women and it is fun to exaggerate on them.

Is it bashing if it's true?

Shale wrote:

Is it bashing if it's true?

That's what I'd like to know because 'if you want something done right, or done at all, don't bother asking your husband' is a reality for a lot of married women.


Now the ones that I don't agree with is EVERY single commercial where the husband's left in charge of cooking, he does not have one damn clue, I'm surprised he even knows the oven from a hole in the ground, can't cook a meal but can mess up the whole damn kitchen or just get a stack of meat from the deli. For some this may be right on the money but I'm sure most men have at least ONE idea of how to cook dinner without blowing up the kitchen.

Well I don't approve of bashing of any sort to either woman and men. I hear it both ways. Woman bashing men and visa versa. Although there is a funny joke and is only meant to be a joke, NOT bashing. There is a fellow Chief in the navy that does all the cooking and cleaning, even though he is married, and we joke that he'll make a great wife one day. But he and everyone knows it's a joke

"Male Bashing" is tacky and something that scorned women do, but I wouldn't call it "problem" because while it's unnecessary and rude, the truth is that men aren't degraded or lessened by a woman's sexists remarks.