Opinion
Education Opinion

‘End of Men’ as a Sitcom

By Richard Whitmire — September 09, 2011 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Once again, the emasculation of men is everywhere you look on fall TV, leaving some to speculate that this is a new theme -- or perhaps a theme generated by Hanna Rosin’s influential Atlantic cover story, The End of Men, now coming your way as a book. Actually, Rosin’s articles probably did spark some new emasculated men scripts, which she lists in her Atlantic blog.

Even the kiddie shows are struggling over how to portray men, as the WSJ pointed out.

And when a magazine tries to celebrate the “good man,” it gets mocked.

Truth is, this kind of portrayal of men has been around for a couple of decades. I offer you Homer Simpson. So, does that mean Hollywood is aiding and abetting the demise of males? I doubt it. For the most part, this is driven by political correctness. We’re safe targets, the same reason so many criminals/villains on tv and the movies are white businessman (Really? When walking home late at night from the subway do you most fear white businessman?).

And then there’s the fact that most comedy writers are male. Men may be getting mocked, but the mocking comes from men.

In short, men have bigger worries (lack of education attainment, a jobs market going against them) than Hollywood.

The opinions expressed in Why Boys Fail are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.