- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
While I suppose it's de rigeur to suggest that women are more often (or at least more negatively) stereotyped on the small screen, I've long thought the opposite true: male stupidity and inability are central themes of television and have been for some time. Compare Homer and Marge or, a generation earlier, Fred and Wilma. Husband is unquestionably a moron and wife picks up all the slack. (And then consider what's being imprinted on youngsters watching.) And it's not just cartoons: the screeching idiot father on Malcolm in the Middle; the obvious intelligence gap between Sam and Diane on Cheers or Tony and Angela on Who's the Boss?. No doubt you can make a list of contrary examples, but broadly I think Traister is confirming a trend not discovering a new theme.
I would offer one possible explanation, at least for the comedy. Going pantsless is simply not funny unless its a male character. I don't think this is a cultural artifact but something a little more primordial: scenes that involve physical injury or juvenile stupidity simply don't make us (women and men) laugh when a women is involved. Can you imagine a woman being anally raped by a baboon in a sitcom? Would anyone find any amusement in it whatsoever? I doubt it--more likely, the producers would be arrested.
