Men aren't men anymore
What I say is absolutely true.
Go back in time and remember how men were portrayed. The Cary Grants, the Clark Gables, the Gene Kellys, the Humphrey Bogarts. They were cool, calm, collected, in control. Alpha males, masters of their domain, all of that. It was simple and direct. Women, whether the ones playing with the men on screen, or the ones watching the screen, wanted them. It was more than just the looks, it was the confidence that they portrayed, and confidence is EASILY the #1 thing women love.
But now, modern media has changed everything, including how a man is portrayed. This is not a knock on a woman's portrayal because that has changed for the better the past fifty years. My problem with that change is that, instead of just making women stronger, they made men either mopey and dopey, without any stretch of charisma whatsoever, or a safe looking pretty boy that probably borrows mascara from his girlfriend(all with a few exceptions, of course). Let's look at some examples.
Freecreditreport.com ads - I know they are pretty much off the air now, thanks to the government(and I thank them every second for that), but the person that started these ads need a complete beatdown. It's some complete loser being portrayed as a down on his luck goof who made his own dumb ass mistakes not checking his credit report, and getting the shaft for it. He marries a hot chick, and they are stuck in her parents' basement, he can't get a good car, he can't get a good job, all that stuff. All in all, he's supporting his loser friends that play bad music behind him.
Everybody Loves Raymond - Ok, I'm sure Ray Romano's a nice guy for real, but his show completely started the mopey dopey wimp Dad. There are arguments that Cliff Huxtable did this on the Cosby Show because his wife was such a strong character, but at least he took control of his kids, and they had an even marriage. The Ray Barone character might possibly be the wimpiest man in television history. HIs kids ran over him, his wife ran over him, his mother ran over him, life ran over him. The combination of that and his whiny, sniveling voice when things go wrong(which is all the time) makes me want to punch him so hard. The Ray Barone character has brought about a BATCH of shows with sniveling, mopey, dopey wimps that get ran over by their wives. Two examples are King of Queens, and Yes, Dear.
Paul Blart, Mall Cop - Giving credit where it's due, it made a LOT of money, and that's what we're all aiming for. But this completely mocks the idea of the male as a hero, and I can't stand that. What's so ironic about Kevin James is that he's big into mixed martial arts, so he's complete alpha male.
The Lifetime Network - Don't get me started here. Men are punked out worse on this station than any other. Living with a friend upon my move to Atlanta, I had to watch it all the time because the girl of the house was addicted to it. A normal storyline is woman in trouble, runs to her man for help, man offers support but little else, man gets beat up or shot by the person after her, and she ends up taking care of the evil guy at the end. Yes, this is a woman empowering network, but what's the point of the man then?
Adam Lambert - Yes, Glambert! When a male wears the same makeup as the females screaming in the audience, and those same females think he's hot(and even funnier, the feeling is not reciprocating when it comes to him), it shows that males have been made WAY too safe. Remember Han Solo? Indiana Jones? Rocky? Rambo? James Bond? All did have some emotion(especially Rambo at the end of 1), but they had had an element of danger to them that made them INTERESTING. Ok, ok, so I used movie characters to compare to a real life human being, so I'll change course.
Johnny Cash?
The man was simply cool. There was a charisma to him, a level of danger, something that made him interesting. His voice was cool, his look was cool, his charisma was cool, everything was cool. This guy could probably make reading a newspaper look cool. Most of all, he could get away with being a man. Different time, different place.
Now I'll give a little bit of credit. We are starting to see some people try to bring MAN back in the fold. You have the Ketel One and Dos Equis ads that show it's cool to be an alpha male, and it emphasizes that this is a MAN'S WORLD! You have Entourage, which is an alpha male show if there ever was one. Most of all, you have the movies "Taken" and the James Bond flicks, which are blockbuster hits, and it showed the man as a hero again. At least there are obviously people that agree with me on this.
But as I said, it's just a start. What I say doesn't mean I want to see women brought back to damsel in distress level of the early Hollywood years. Far from it. Those characters are way too one dimensional for my tastes.
At the same time, there shouldn't ever be a complete reciprocation of characters making women the hero and men complete putzes. What happened to men being proud that they are men? Rich men are vilified because they own $100,000 cars and enjoy the fruits of their labor. There are stories of wealthy men that are so afraid of a backlash that they won't even buy what they want anymore.
I'll just say it now. Don't be afraid to be a man. Be who you are.
Just make men interesting again.
Go back in time and remember how men were portrayed. The Cary Grants, the Clark Gables, the Gene Kellys, the Humphrey Bogarts. They were cool, calm, collected, in control. Alpha males, masters of their domain, all of that. It was simple and direct. Women, whether the ones playing with the men on screen, or the ones watching the screen, wanted them. It was more than just the looks, it was the confidence that they portrayed, and confidence is EASILY the #1 thing women love.
But now, modern media has changed everything, including how a man is portrayed. This is not a knock on a woman's portrayal because that has changed for the better the past fifty years. My problem with that change is that, instead of just making women stronger, they made men either mopey and dopey, without any stretch of charisma whatsoever, or a safe looking pretty boy that probably borrows mascara from his girlfriend(all with a few exceptions, of course). Let's look at some examples.
Freecreditreport.com ads - I know they are pretty much off the air now, thanks to the government(and I thank them every second for that), but the person that started these ads need a complete beatdown. It's some complete loser being portrayed as a down on his luck goof who made his own dumb ass mistakes not checking his credit report, and getting the shaft for it. He marries a hot chick, and they are stuck in her parents' basement, he can't get a good car, he can't get a good job, all that stuff. All in all, he's supporting his loser friends that play bad music behind him.
Everybody Loves Raymond - Ok, I'm sure Ray Romano's a nice guy for real, but his show completely started the mopey dopey wimp Dad. There are arguments that Cliff Huxtable did this on the Cosby Show because his wife was such a strong character, but at least he took control of his kids, and they had an even marriage. The Ray Barone character might possibly be the wimpiest man in television history. HIs kids ran over him, his wife ran over him, his mother ran over him, life ran over him. The combination of that and his whiny, sniveling voice when things go wrong(which is all the time) makes me want to punch him so hard. The Ray Barone character has brought about a BATCH of shows with sniveling, mopey, dopey wimps that get ran over by their wives. Two examples are King of Queens, and Yes, Dear.
Paul Blart, Mall Cop - Giving credit where it's due, it made a LOT of money, and that's what we're all aiming for. But this completely mocks the idea of the male as a hero, and I can't stand that. What's so ironic about Kevin James is that he's big into mixed martial arts, so he's complete alpha male.
The Lifetime Network - Don't get me started here. Men are punked out worse on this station than any other. Living with a friend upon my move to Atlanta, I had to watch it all the time because the girl of the house was addicted to it. A normal storyline is woman in trouble, runs to her man for help, man offers support but little else, man gets beat up or shot by the person after her, and she ends up taking care of the evil guy at the end. Yes, this is a woman empowering network, but what's the point of the man then?
Adam Lambert - Yes, Glambert! When a male wears the same makeup as the females screaming in the audience, and those same females think he's hot(and even funnier, the feeling is not reciprocating when it comes to him), it shows that males have been made WAY too safe. Remember Han Solo? Indiana Jones? Rocky? Rambo? James Bond? All did have some emotion(especially Rambo at the end of 1), but they had had an element of danger to them that made them INTERESTING. Ok, ok, so I used movie characters to compare to a real life human being, so I'll change course.
Johnny Cash?
The man was simply cool. There was a charisma to him, a level of danger, something that made him interesting. His voice was cool, his look was cool, his charisma was cool, everything was cool. This guy could probably make reading a newspaper look cool. Most of all, he could get away with being a man. Different time, different place.
Now I'll give a little bit of credit. We are starting to see some people try to bring MAN back in the fold. You have the Ketel One and Dos Equis ads that show it's cool to be an alpha male, and it emphasizes that this is a MAN'S WORLD! You have Entourage, which is an alpha male show if there ever was one. Most of all, you have the movies "Taken" and the James Bond flicks, which are blockbuster hits, and it showed the man as a hero again. At least there are obviously people that agree with me on this.
But as I said, it's just a start. What I say doesn't mean I want to see women brought back to damsel in distress level of the early Hollywood years. Far from it. Those characters are way too one dimensional for my tastes.
At the same time, there shouldn't ever be a complete reciprocation of characters making women the hero and men complete putzes. What happened to men being proud that they are men? Rich men are vilified because they own $100,000 cars and enjoy the fruits of their labor. There are stories of wealthy men that are so afraid of a backlash that they won't even buy what they want anymore.
I'll just say it now. Don't be afraid to be a man. Be who you are.
Just make men interesting again.
A Lot of Scrap
The Wily Wordsmith:Poems, Stories and Creative Scraps
Paranormal Paranormal
Teacup Tales
Rubber Ball
In Zoo
I'll take a man like big Daddy on Orange County Choppers anyday.
Samaritan's Stories
I do quite like the old movies. And call me old-fashioned, but part of I have to admit that part of their appeal is the fact that men were men and women were women, and you couldn't get the two confused. (Although I have to admit that you're also right that some of the women were very one-dimensional.) But there is something appealing about men who act like men.
Samaritan