Television Man

I’ve had a bit of stomach trouble the past few days, the kind that makes for a good pepto commercial, and in true man-flu fashion I found myself laying on the couch, groaning a bit, staring vacantly into the television, my thumb reflexively toggling the remote’s channel button. Normally the man-flu doesn’t allow for self-reflective thought, but I found myself getting offended and angry. What is the deal with the sitcom dad? I realize I am a bit of a Johnny-come-lately to this issue, but um, well, T.V. dads are not the brightest lampposts on the street. It is a bit aggravating, so you will pardon my incredulity.

O.K. I know the white male=bad, right? Nobody is going to buy a t-shirt that says “have you hugged your white male today?” White men are the privileged class. We have all the best jobs, so we can afford the best cars and houses. Right? Not according to television. Then we are the deadbeat dads, the racist hillbillies, and the gigolo yuppies. Worse than this (much, much worse) we are the ineffective caregivers who cannot make a single decision about the welfare of our children without the approval of the ill-tempered, dictatorial wife who is constantly looking over T.V. dad’s shoulder and correcting his every faux pas.

Honestly, women should be as, or more offended by this then men. I just watched an AT&T commercial of a Mother chastising her husband because he was throwing away “milky rollover minutes. ” Far from being the shrewd businesswoman making money in the world of big finance, she is just the shrew. The husband, the bumbling oaf of the home, dismisses her concerns with an offhand and demeaning remark.

At first I thought that this was perhaps some kind of role reversal on television, from weak helpless female, to inept insincere male. But the more I think about it, the more I realize, nothing has changed. It is just more of the same. Perpetuating the message that women should be at home, where they belong, and men have no place in America’s kitchens. Far from members of a healthy relationship, women are still depicted as the guardians of the home, where they are constantly having to correct the husband on what should be some simple chore.. The identities of women are even more closely associated with home and family than that of June Clever.

The interesting thing about this formula is just how little television producers have to risk. With the myriad of channels offered it is more difficult for sitcoms to find wide audience appeal, as a result Sitcoms now target more defined niche audiences on a range of channels. It may even be more difficult for a sitcom to ‘tap into’ contemporary issues since a varied audience is not watching. This means that producers can, with very little deviation, choose between either the matronly housewife or the Jessica Simpsonesque sex kitten without having to challenge the status quo. Nothing changes. Well, except that now men are depicted as the soul of ineptitude.

I like to think of art as somehow imitating life, becoming the social mirror by which we can examine ourselves. That is why I believe learning to look at the media critically is such an important and essential skill for people to develop. Much attention has been made of the fact that most young women read and look at magazines that objectify and exploit them while the images are subconsciously inserted as desirable. I suspect much the same thing is going on for men. Men Depicted as incapable of taking care of their children are thus excused from parenting responsibilities, they are not trusted to take their children to the doctor, or be left alone at home with the children for long periods while the wife is out of town.

I find that even when I know what is going on, when I am being sold a bill of goods by stereotypes on television, it is hypnotic, I can’t look away. Worse, because too often these concepts become less about who we are and more about who we should be and what we should look like to fit in and be accepted and prized in this culture. Unfortunately these images are seldom little more than window dressing on the regurgitated offerings of societies ills. We should be wary and heed the cautious tone of Oscar Wilde. "Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life."