"Percy's Anvil"

At first, I felt that I was going to be alone in this, but as I began to explore around for some other blogs that shared similar interests in my subject, I was pleasantly surprised to discover how many were out there, most of them focusing on men’s rights as well as exposing the attempts to feminize male society. Of course there were some out there whose goal it seemed to only be about bashing women. Let it be known that my blog is not about that. I am a believer in gender equality, which is why I feel it is important to bring attention to the shift in gender roles and how men are beginning to be viewed by the media and ultimately, by society itself in a negative way. Many will disagree of course and claim that it’s merely society’s way of poking fun at how “all” men tend to act, very similar to how we men tend to be accused of grouping women into one kind of stereotype. It was pretty interesting how many points of views I came across, some were even from women who felt that feminism had come and gone and that there was no need to bring it back. She felt that once it had passed, many women still enjoyed taking care of the household, while only a small group was left feeling like their rights or representation had failed to be met. In the end, I decided to go with another blog that seemed more provocative and one that left me thinking differently about how I viewed feminism in society.

So the blog that I decided upon was titled "What Men Are Saying About Women". Despite the fact that is posts are few and far in between, with only 10 posts in 2008 and only 1 in 2007, the writer “Percy Anvil”, discusses in rich detail many topics about feminism in mainstream society, usually by examining news articles from the U.S and the U.K. as well as various videos dealing with women. His writings seem to be more academically geared rather than professionally, with an audience being catered obviously more to men than women, similar to what I am attempting, except for the fact that I will be posting more frequently. His posts are at times controversial, but I suppose that's what one expects to encounter when one deals with a topic such as feminism. Regardless of what aide one is on, you are bound to disagree with some of his points, which I think makes it such an interesting topic to discuss, but anyway, there doesn’t seem to be as many posts as I thought there might be for one who writes so much. Two of the more interesting posts that I found on his blog involved one that dealt with single mothers’ children being responsible for 70% crime rate and the other on the statistics between male and female valedictorians. Overall, his blog seems as much informative as it is entertaining and I’ll be looking forward to his future posts.

Hello World!!

A few nights ago, I attended the Laugh Factory for the first time. I was surprised at the talent that I heard would be drop by unexpectedly and just kill the audience. You never knew when people like Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, or Dane Cook, love him or hate em, would perform. Unfortunately, this was not one of those nights. The talent was good, the food was better, and as long as the drinks kept coming, I was a happy camper. As I sat there listening to the routines, I noticed a similar trend in jokes that never seem to get old with the crowd….relationships. Ah yes, when in doubt, bust out the marriage routines. One by one, each comedian would whine about how much his marriage sucked or how his kids hated him because he could never do anything right, further dwindling himself into a pile of self-deprecation to the enjoyment of the audience. Now granted, this was a comedy club, so of course they’re going to put themselves down in order to get a few laughs, but what I’ve begun to notice, the issue I will be talking about in my blog, is the increasing trend in not only comedy clubs, but in mainstream media itself where men have begun to be portrayed as dim-witted idiots who are completely submissive and lack any kind of spine that would allow for them to stand up for themselves.

Turn on the TV and watch any primetime show or commercials and you will see it. Shows like “Everybody Loves Raymond” or “The King of Queens”, featuring the husband who every episode gets an earful from the wife, often ending with her giving him an ultimatum of succumbing to what she wants done or if not, denying him sex. Commercials are especially what caught my attention to this issue. There are too many to list but if you watch closely, many of them will present it in a kind of way where the male is childish figure while the female who may be his wife or girlfriend, is the motherly figure who knows best and any attempt to see things differently from them usually results in her referring to him as “silly”. KFC had a great example of this where two grown businessmen were sitting in a stroller crying like babies because they hadn’t eaten yet. Suddenly, the wife appears with a chicken sandwich, talking to them in baby talk saying “awwww, there you go, is that much better?” The two men react by hopping up and down in their seats clapping their hands wildly.

Now much of this may sound like it’s no big deal. We’re all grown men and women, we understand that it’s an attempt at humorous marketing or an attempt to lively up a sitcom right? Yes, but what happens when these stereotypes begin to be portrayed in children’s shows? What kinds of messages are we sending to our children about what is considered “ok” and “normal”? How is this going to affect their behavior towards others when they grow up? Will young girls see that it’s ok to treat people in this fashion and more importantly, will young boys allow themselves to be treated that way? Over the next few months, I will be discussing these issues and the effects they may or may not have on our next generation of young men and women, as well as any articles that deal with this issue.