A new POLITICO Magazine/IPSOS poll shows that people have very different ideas on the solutions to the challenges facing men and boys. And those differences are affecting how they vote.
While I differ from conservatives on most issues, I actually agree with them on some aspects of the gender war. Feminism does demonize men in its efforts to champion women sometimes, and it’s been a rather frustrating and depressing experience to see that most liberals seem totally blind to what I see as superficially subtle, but very clear signs in popular media and politics. As examples, I’d point to the recent Barbie film, which portrays men as buffoonish caricatures of patriarchal stereotypes a perhaps a bit dated moment in politics from a decade back, wherein Barrack Obama celebrated in a speech women making up 60% of college graduates.
I obviously won’t be voting Republican, but I really do hope the Left reigns in the misandry and finds a way to advocate for women without shitting on men.
On the flip side of things, we have nearly a century of movies treating women as largely useless, fragile creatures who don't do anything of importance, so let's balance that on the scales while we're at it perhaps.
Let's put more of our time and effort into fixing the problem which has existed in some form for all of human history and then whatever time and energy we have left over can go to working on the present blip related to the Barbie movie.
Demonizing men doesn't help women. I'm all for addressing women's issues, including how they're represented in popular media, but representing men poorly is a totally unnecessary part of that. Do you think the solution to the legacy of slavery is for Blacks to enslave Whites for 150 years? To balance the scales? What a bullshit notion.
Nope, you're reaching. Should every man in every move and show be represented in an idealized way at all times? How do you even remotely judge what's a character (which is to say an individual) being portrayed in a particular way versus all men, everywhere being "demonized" as you put it?
Here's a decent enough summary of the plot. The film depicts all the Kens as idiotic, shallow, patriarchy-loving simpletons who are dependent on their Barbie counterparts and many men in the Real World as misogynistic assholes.
I could see how for some women that would be a not entirely unrealistic experience of the men in their lives. Especially if they were raised in more conservative states. Even to the extent that it may not be ideal (and I'm assuming it's not being mischaracterized here), it seems like such a minor thing. How many cultural war battles have come and gone and been forgotten without the culture actually changing in any significant way? I'd wager a fair number.
This is why I think it's so shortsighted for people to aim for "swinging the pendulum the other way". What we should aim for is the actual future we want, not the just inversion of our current problems.
Conservative's chief flaw is their love of dishonesty and contempt for honesty. Liberal's chief flaw is that they sometimes point the outrage machine at the wrong target.
If it's being run by people like you, who can't even read a civil comment on the internet and respond in a civil fashion, I think it's doomed no matter what gender you are.