Random Poll of the Day! (601)

[nomemory]

Naturally it should be equal between men and women. But it isn't, and frankly I prefer the theme nowadays over how it was before. Women where sexy, stupid and helpless in media. But to quote an old comic I read before: "What do I know, I am just a woman" :V

[IHKF]

^
It should be equal, and while it's okay for us to say that women are strong and aren't like they were seen back then, men shouldn't be how they are being seen now.

[mangaluva]

Every time I try to explain a "girly" concept to a guy, I end up with a lot of "it's like, I mean, you know, it's like this but not really, and when you say that it really means that", where as "boyish" concepts are generally quite simple. Understandable, just dumb XD

[Aokochan]

I don't understand the poll... (sometimes I'm confused by english) Could someone explain me what does it mean, please?

[mangaluva]

Is it harder to explain the "gold shoes or blue shoes?" question to guys (viz, a straight answer is not the right one; protip, guys, ask if she's thinking of a pair first, and if she mentions a preference, however mildly, lay on the praise about how well it will match her hair/eyes/accessories/dress and how she has such fantastic taste) or is it harder to explain why guys hate "retail therapy" to girls? (As far as I can tell, most guys are very goal-oriented while shopping; they want to get in, get stuff, get out. Most girls prefer to browse, try on stuff they won't buy because they just want to look different for a while, and generally have a day out. I say most because I'm a girl and I hate browsing.)

[Aokochan]

Ah OK, thanks mangaluva! Then, I'll go with the first option, because I think boyish concepts are easier to understand.

[sonoci]

The constant female heroes who can get anything they want out of any boy or seduce any boy or are so much smarter and wiser than the boy. That seems to be a reoccurring theme in television and movies and even books...

...It's...media...? ._. I'm not sure I understand the problem.

Yeah, there are some truths to what's seen on television, but there are still decent, independent, strong, capable and intelligent men out there, just as there are "dumb", dependent, and weak females out there. ...There has to be: there's nearly 7 billion people in the world.

There's also the fact that until roughly 1920s-1950s, women were "lesser" than men. I don't want women to be seen as "better" either, but so far the amount of "women > men" works out there is a needle in a haystack compared to 1900+ years that "men >>>>>>>> women". 

[IHKF]

The constant female heroes who can get anything they want out of any boy or seduce any boy or are so much smarter and wiser than the boy. That seems to be a reoccurring theme in television and movies and even books...

...It's...media...? ._. I'm not sure I understand the problem.

Yeah, there are some truths to what's seen on television, but there are still decent, independent, strong, capable and intelligent men out there, just as there are "dumb", dependent, and weak females out there. ...There has to be: there's nearly 7 billion people in the world.

There's also the fact that until roughly 1920s-1950s, women were "lesser" than men. I don't want women to be seen as "better" either, but so far the amount of "women > men" works out there is a needle in a haystack compared to 1900+ years that "men >>>>>>>> women". 

There is TOO MUCH girl power in the media, in my opinion. To me, the amount of girl power now is equivalent to the amount of boy power we had years ago.

What is sounds like you're saying to me is: "Oh no, there are strong men in the world, but because we had to deal with men > women for years it's okay that we have women > men now."

[pofa]

The constant female heroes who can get anything they want out of any boy or seduce any boy or are so much smarter and wiser than the boy. That seems to be a reoccurring theme in television and movies and even books...

...It's...media...? ._. I'm not sure I understand the problem.

Yeah, there are some truths to what's seen on television, but there are still decent, independent, strong, capable and intelligent men out there, just as there are "dumb", dependent, and weak females out there. ...There has to be: there's nearly 7 billion people in the world.

There's also the fact that until roughly 1920s-1950s, women were "lesser" than men. I don't want women to be seen as "better" either, but so far the amount of "women > men" works out there is a needle in a haystack compared to 1900+ years that "men >>>>>>>> women". 

There is TOO MUCH girl power in the media, in my opinion. To me, the amount of girl power now is equivalent to the amount of boy power we had years ago.

What is sounds like you're saying to me is: "Oh no, there are strong men in the world, but because we had to deal with men > women for years it's okay that we have women > men now."

I disagree that women > men in the media nowadays, though. I have yet to see many female leads whose "power" over any of the male characters comes from anything other than her sexuality, and even when the show makes a token attempt to show how "competent" she is at her job, it's always sexually tinged. It all seems to me like Jack Nicholson's "There's nothing sexier than a woman you have to salute in the morning" speech.

As for men being portrayed as "stupid," sure, and I don't like that trend either, but the males are still almost always in the positions of power, they're just "incompetent" at it while their female underlings nudge wink each other about how dumb their male bosses/husbands are and how they're "really" in charge (cue audience laughter), as if that somehow makes the spectacle less sexist instead of more. >.>

Maybe it would help me and sonoci understand where you're coming from though, if you gave us an example of a show or book you mean?

[sonoci]

There is TOO MUCH girl power in the media, in my opinion. To me, the amount of girl power now is equivalent to the amount of boy power we had years ago.

What is sounds like you're saying to me is: "Oh no, there are strong men in the world, but because we had to deal with men > women for years it's okay that we have women > men now."

I suppose my opinion would be that media doesn't really matter to me xD I just watch things and suspend my disbelief for the sake of enjoyment. Real life =/= media, so when I see either women > men or men > women it doesn't really bother me. (unless done in an offensive way *looks at twilight*)

Also, I understand that it was the impression you got, but the stuff in the quotes was a little...well, I don't have the word for it. I guess the closest emoticon I could put would be -3- That's also not what I meant. I apologize if my wording made it seem that way, but it wasn't supposed to be. I guess something that would be closer is "I don't really see any major girlpower nowadays, but rather that guypower has been powered down. In the old days, finding a female heroine would be impossible."

There is also what pofa said.

[IHKF]

The constant female heroes who can get anything they want out of any boy or seduce any boy or are so much smarter and wiser than the boy. That seems to be a reoccurring theme in television and movies and even books...

...It's...media...? ._. I'm not sure I understand the problem.

Yeah, there are some truths to what's seen on television, but there are still decent, independent, strong, capable and intelligent men out there, just as there are "dumb", dependent, and weak females out there. ...There has to be: there's nearly 7 billion people in the world.

There's also the fact that until roughly 1920s-1950s, women were "lesser" than men. I don't want women to be seen as "better" either, but so far the amount of "women > men" works out there is a needle in a haystack compared to 1900+ years that "men >>>>>>>> women".  :-\

There is TOO MUCH girl power in the media, in my opinion. To me, the amount of girl power now is equivalent to the amount of boy power we had years ago.

What is sounds like you're saying to me is: "Oh no, there are strong men in the world, but because we had to deal with men > women for years it's okay that we have women > men now."

I disagree that women > men in the media nowadays, though. I have yet to see many female leads whose "power" over any of the male characters comes from anything other than her sexuality, and even when the show makes a token attempt to show how "competent" she is at her job, it's always sexually tinged. It all seems to me like Jack Nicholson's "There's nothing sexier than a woman you have to salute in the morning" speech.

As for men being portrayed as "stupid," sure, and I don't like that trend either, but the males are still almost always in the positions of power, they're just "incompetent" at it while their female underlings nudge wink each other about how dumb their male bosses/husbands are and how they're "really" in charge (cue audience laughter), as if that somehow makes the spectacle less sexist instead of more. >.>

Maybe it would help me and sonoci understand where you're coming from though, if you gave us an example of a show or book you mean?

Well them being portrayed as stupid is making it seem like the girls are smarter. XD

They make the boys look like they are unfit for their job, even though they ARE in a "position" of power.

I'm thinking of examples. It's one of those times where you know what it is but you can't find the title. It's at the tip of your tongue. T_T

And as for what you said, QOC (Queen of comedy, we all know who that is ), I understand what you mean. And tha'ts the way the rest of society should be. But unfortunately the media has a huge HUGE part in what people see and believe.

Spoiler: Doesn't matter, just me rambling. I should stop doing that. ._.

That's why I hate Ke$ha and Kanye West and Snooki being so popular. They're example of people who did nothing to get to where they're at and they set bad example.

[mangaluva]

I will just pitch in to say that I agree that the only thing that Kanye and Snooki ought to be famous for is catching a Darwin Award.

[Akonyl]

The thing about women being portrayed as "smarter" than men in the media though is that the main avenue for that sentiment is commercials, where it's not meant as much for "empowering women" as it is for "remain as politically correct as possible to avoid offending potential buyers". It's a pretty common formula for a commercial:
1) Household has an issue.
2) Husband or Wife attempts to solve problem on their own and ruins everything
3) The spouse sighs and buys the product and solves the problem amazingly

the only issue there is that if you have the woman be the incompetent one and the man be the one to save the day, there will be backlash from people who go "ugh what is this, the 1950s?" whereas if you have the man be bumbling, people just go "oh man what a dumbass you can't use rocks for kitty litter". Funnily enough though, even though women are portrayed as smarter than the men in the commercials, it still comes to bite the women in the ass because the pattern of "person fails at doing something, spouse buys product and saves the day" is most commonly used for household products, which lends out the message "women should take care of house-related things because men are physically incapable of doing so", which is back to the 1950s anyway.

as far as media outside of commercials, I don't really think that women being smarter than men is really any more common than men being smarter than women. In the end, it's generally "The stars of the show are smarter than the secondary characters", so it really just matters who's cast as the stars.

[IHKF]

the only issue there is that if you have the woman be the incompetent one and the man be the one to save the day, there will be backlash from people who go "ugh what is this, the 1950s?" whereas if you have the man be bumbling, people just go "oh man what a dumbass you can't use rocks for kitty litter". Funnily enough though, even though women are portrayed as smarter than the men in the commercials, it still comes to bite the women in the ass because the pattern of "person fails at doing something, spouse buys product and saves the day" is most commonly used for household products, which lends out the message "women should take care of house-related things because men are physically incapable of doing so", which is back to the 1950s anyway.

as far as media outside of commercials, I don't really think that women being smarter than men is really any more common than men being smarter than women. In the end, it's generally "The stars of the show are smarter than the secondary characters", so it really just matters who's cast as the stars.

Yes, and that's why I'm so upset about that. It's not fair. If we don't treat our women that way anymore why make the men feel that way now?

That's not always the truth.

Although the show changed, Chuck was... actually kind of an example. Sarah was the one who did it all. She was the star spy while Chuck was the man that had to be handled. Then a lot of the time the women in the show were stronger-willed and cooler and sexier than the men in the show. (It changed, and Chuck got up there to the same level as Sarah by the end but at the beginning...)

[sonoci]

I like to think of it in the way that the "dumb" and "overly competent" characters are just easier to manage. They can have easier character development, are easy to relate to on both ends (we've all felt smart/dumb at times) and they provide EXCELLENT comedic relief that's easy and simple to do.

In other words: portraying equality is "hard" and "boring" for most shows, and media is supposed to be interesting xD That's why neither the "women > men" or "men > women" stories and such bother me as long as they're entertaining (again, if they're boring as heck, then it may be a problem *cough*twilight*cough*)

I guess an "example" on my end is in How I Met Your Mother, Barney is a character that obsesses over sex, has womanizing as his only goal, somehow is high up in a company, and seems generally incompetent. However, though he has done stupid things (bought televisions just to break them in frustration) it's mostly for comedic relief, and underneath everything he's actually a sweetheart and scarily competent (one episode revolves around him manipulating the entire cast in order to sleep with one woman, just to prove he could.)