Wednesday, May 19, 2010
TV for Tots: Not The Fantasy You Remember, But All About Adult 'Issues' - WSJ.com
If you're looking for role models, don't look to television.
It's clear that the males in prime-time sitcoms are NOT depicted as stellar members of a productive society.
Now, for the children, we have this...
It's clear that the males in prime-time sitcoms are NOT depicted as stellar members of a productive society.
Now, for the children, we have this...
This is from Jonathan V. Last's recent article in the Wall Street Journal:
"In recent years, for instance, children's entertainment has struggled with the idea of manliness. To some extent, TV is just reflecting changes in the outside world, which over the past 40 years has been, to a large degree, feminized. This has been partly for good and partly for ill. To take just one example, it is undeniably good that bullying has become (at least officially) forbidden. Bullying is a very bad thing.
But as bullying was put away, so were ideas about physical courage and manliness. Not knowing how to handle such subjects in this new era, the creators of children's television choose to present strange visions of men.
The men on kids' shows tend to be either aged, and hence harmless, or young, and vaguely effete."
