There's been discussion on several blogs I read about the way men are portrayed on television (both in programming and in commercial advertisements). That is, that men are portrayed negatively: they are dumb, forgetful, lazy, etc.

Craig, whose blog is Lead and Gold, writes:

Jane Galt thinks this trend simply reflects the fact that women make the buying decisions for most consumer products. This is unsatisfactory. The anti-husband commercials are not only used to sell cereal, paper towels, and diapers. They also promote cars and beer where the target market includes men.

Yeah, the target market *includes* men, but women still do most of the actual spending, women control the decision and the dollars.

My problem with these portrayals is the unflattering implication that I, as a woman, can only be proud if I compare myself to a dumbed-down version of another human being (who happens to have different sexual organs than I do). Not to mention the insult to the many men in my life: uncles, cousins, brother, husband, sons, and friends.

That second one is, in fact, far more important to me. I'm in the middle (or possibly by some definition near the end) of trying to raise my sons to be men who are valuable and cherished members of our society. These insidious attacks on their value as human beings, and on the images I've tried to present to them of worthwhile manhood, mean more time spent fighting negativity and less time spent building important values like respect, self-reliance, confidence, generosity, and kindness.

I don't *expect* help from the media; I'm not a complete fool! In fact I fully expect just what I'm getting: a reflection of society as a whole. Since that's something I think needs work, it's not surprising to me that I have to respond to these portrayals, and I have prepared responses over the years, and tried to point out positive role models, and counter the message in as many ways as possible.

So that's my response: this is nothing special, it's just another part of society that I shape my parenting around in light of what I want my children to be. I speak up when people tell jokes that demean men (yes, when they make jokes that demean women, too), and I teach my kids to pay attention to the message in commercials and on tv by asking what response are they trying to evoke by this?