Is television actually sexist toward men?


Didj's avatar
Look at any cartoon, sitcom, or even commercial on TV, almost all of the time when you have a male and female character relationship, it is the man who is the idiotic lazy fat man-child, and the woman who is the attractive sensible mature responsible and intelligent person.

Billy & Mandy
Amazing world of Gumball
Simpsons
Family Guy
etc.

Even little girl characters are almost always smarter and more capable than everyone else. While the young boy character is often an idiot. In fact, I recall one female character who was portrayed in the same way that many male characters are portrayed as being dopy and slow. It was Derpy from MLP, and we all know the backlash that occurred from that one scene. Though the same people who were offended over Derpy didn't seem to have a problem with characters like Cinnamon Bun from Adventure Time or Ed from Ed Edd & Eddy.

What do you think?
Comments31
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RobStrand's avatar
Because feminist and mothers. 
II-edison-II's avatar
I suppose it makes more sense.
but when you look at period dramas then everyone's equal. There's the odd silly character but that's all.
strange cartoons are strange. :/
PotatoOni's avatar
I assume that theres a general devaluation of men in writing (and society). In the vein of "He's male, he can easily deal with this" writers are more comfortable to make men the moron or the one who gets tossed around all the while they pretty much protect female characters more in the vein of "She's female, she can't take that much". Honestly, to me this feels sexist towards both genders. You can generally say that man are acceptable targets for that. A good example would be a plot about infertility. If the character is female it's played for drama and if the character is male it's played for laughs. Continuing with that example the only show I've ever watched where possible infertility of a male character was threated serious was How I Met Your Mother with Marshal.

Also, the lazy fat guy and his smart wife is a staple of american TV shows. I think it originated from the 50's sticom The Honeymooners about a fat bus driver and his wife. Since then it was pretty much used in every cartoon and sitcom to date. The Flintstones, The Simpsons, Family Guy etc.
AvSkyggene's avatar
I'd argue it's sexist period. It rarely puts anyone in a favorable light for long.
magnifulouschicken's avatar
I have noticed this so many times...but as another deviant mentioned here, often the smarter female characters are less popular because they come across as snide. Like in The Simpsons, I've heard Lisa is unpopular because she's a know-it-all (I can't hate her though; I read something about how she was technically depressed).

Most of the "moms" in these cartoons (FG, Simpsons, King of the Hill) are annoying, Marge the least so (IMO). Lois is just an awful person, and from what I remember Peggy is just unlikable.

I like it when shows give more of a diverse set of characters of each sex. The Simpsons does with minor characters.
LostbunniesofWendy's avatar
I guess that (I hope to explain well, I'm not an native english and this phrases a concepts to translate kills me) the real stereotipe is the dumb-smart couple for any comedy. I mean, almost ANY COMEDY. In movies, series of thelevision, and well cartoons. I think they use this cliche for make clear the personalities. An slightly dumb and a normal smart would be confusing. (I mean, I guess they think like that when they are writing the script).

The thing is, I guess, when they decide who is going to be dumb they decide that the man... I don't know why they see more normal to be the man the one to fall, to hurt, etc. than a woman. I don't think that is right!

Anyway, even when Homer Simpson is dumb, you should remember him at the first seasons. He was dumb, but at the end he always made the right choise. He loved a lot his family and he could change his mind. In the last seasons he is just... dumb!

Kissies!
TheSameTavern's avatar
Sexist to both...as you say in tv/film females are meant to be this unrealistic sex symbol like a Barbie...mainly because is sex appeal to lure in men!

While men are mad to look dumb / funny chubby blokes....because that's what sells

so its sexist to both solely because that's what draws in the viewers.
JessHavok's avatar
Probably a little, reverse sexism in the movies though. Hollywood.
Chromattix's avatar
Dumb male characters are just...funnier, and smart male characters often come across as pretentious and uncool.  Maybe there could be some real life observation starting this long-running trope though. Men are more likely to act on impulse without thinking through the ramifications of their actions like many women would, this can give them the impression that they are dumb since acting on impulse can bring about undesirable outcomes. Women however are less impulsive and more emotional and that gets exaggerated in the media just as much, it just isn't talked about as much. But think of how many times in a show or a movie when the male character does something that seems like betrayal to the female character, but really isn't because he had to do it for some greater reason that would actually sound perfectly reasonable once he gets a chance to explain it to her, only to have her not even give him the chance to explain why he did it because her emotions go on autopilot mode and she goes on a rant about how she can't believe he would do that and storms out the door, leaving our male character totally fucked because he now has to go through another ordeal just to get her to listen to him for a damn minute so he can explain why he did what he did, which the female character perfectly understands and then makes the us the viewers think "if you weren't such a whiny, emotional female stereotype and just listened to him when he tried explaining it the first time you and I could have both been spared the last 20 minutes of bullshit" :doh:

So yeah, both genders get a slap in the face. Men are portrayed as stupid and irresponsible. Women are portrayed as emotional and annoying.
KooboriSapphire's avatar
We're talking about this subject right now in my film & society class lol.

That aside, The Billy & Mandy one is something I'd have to largely disagree with. The dad may have been a slob & all, but the mother wasn't any better. She was actually a lunatic.
HarukoHoshiko's avatar
no no no, media is only sexist towards females, men have everything good.  (/sarcasm)  ~<3
ScottaHemi's avatar
yes, yes it is. 

is it so much to ask for a good male role model on TV :( 
Mintaka-TK's avatar
Television's sexist towards both genders, but most of time, people complain about the sexism towards women. I hate that, because the negative portrayals of men are just as damaging as the portrayals of women. :x
PivotShadow's avatar
Is it strange that I recognised your signature quote, even though I don't watch Dad's Army? I guess it's just that prolific.
Mintaka-TK's avatar
You're the first person on dA who's recognised the quote; and it's been in my sig for a long time now, so this is kinda upsetting on my part. :(
PivotShadow's avatar
Well it's not that easy to recognise – if I hadn't been looking up something related to the programme recently I wouldn't have got it either, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it.
Calvero's avatar
It's not really sexism. Dumb male characters are usually funny. Dumb female characters usually aren't.
Didj's avatar
See Lola Bunny from "the Loony Tunes Show". And example of an extremely funny dumb female character. I guess the issue is that you can't just write dumb female characters the same way that you would write dumb male characters. Because men are dumb in different ways than women. A dumb man would be like "hold my beer, I'm gonna jump crotch first onto this railing", while a dumb woman is like the speech given by Miss South Carolina.
DelSolTormenta's avatar
Yeah but it's okay because men are big and strong and they can handle it.
Didj's avatar
By that regard, would you say that women are small and weak and they can't handle it?
shinyfeather22's avatar
Pretend I am a person who enjoys sensible, mature and responsible male characters. Chances are, it is pretty easy for me to find a character that fits the bill in a work I like.

Now pretend I am a person who enjoys idiotic, lazy, man-child female characters, perhaps because I find them easy to identify with. It is harder to find female characters like this, generally.

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed that there's often less variation seen in the depiction of female characters. There are always exceptions, sure, but if you look at the characters in isolation, you'll tend to notice a little more variation with male ones. I agree with you that it's a disappointment that we don't see more dumb female characters such as derpy.

The female characters in works like the ones you listed, which you say are responsible and mature, are done so for comedic purposes, since those examples are cartoons. If you want a character to fill the 'nagging mum' stereotype, or just be a wet blanket/foil for male characters who get into hijinks, you can expect her to have all the qualities you mentioned. That's not to say that there doesn't exist male characters who fit this role, it's just that a lot of authors like to place females into this role, perhaps because they identify it with the audience's mothers more?
(I kind of see Mandy as one huge exception to this, seeing as she's allowed to have more negative qualities, and actually heads the plot of a lot of episodes herself. Negative qualities make characters more three-dimensional than straight out positive ones, imo).

TV has its own share of problems with sexism, sure, but I don't like this "smart, mature girl, dumb guy" pairing that often keeps getting seen in shows. It seems like compensation from authors, like saying "oh look here you have your strong female character, don't criticize us for not offering a generally 50% female cast".
Didj's avatar
I partially blame writers being afraid to make fun of women. Like, they are going to paint a target on their back for some angry feminist group if they don't write the female characters to be the smartest most capable people in the world. The one dopey female character in such a show that I know of is Lola Bunny from the latest reboot of the Bugs Bunny cartoons- the one where Daffy is Bug's freeloading roommate in suburbia. And she is absolutely hilarious. Mostly because it's such an untapped venue of comedy having a dumb female character like that. Plus it's a great role reversal since Bugs is always the smart capable character.
DarkGrievous7945's avatar
That is part of it
But that's just it, society has become so politically correct that basically, everything is censored... (also: another thing has popped-up where some censoring is now for "OMFG! WE MIGHT PROVIDE FREE ADVERTISEMENT! IF WE SHOW THIS LOGO")

I think another part of it is a problem that seems to be plaguing EVERY industry, of which the entertainment industry is NO exception: general lack of creativity. I blame  the "so called" education system that is failing completely and LOVES to crush artistic talent. That's how USA is, though, idk how much better/worse it is in other countries.

and yes, loony toons show is pretty funny...I never considered the role reversal thing, the biggest changes I noticed are that the roadrunner cartoons are CGI/3D and that the main show is essentially, slice-of-life. Of course, I never really got to see much of the old show, I think CN still shows it in the morning...unless THAT has changed as well.