Tolos

Is anyone else alarmed with the way men are portrayed over here? How many commercials do you see where the male usually has one or more of the following characteristics:

- seems to live only for beer, sports and girls
- seems to be an overgrown, stunted middle aged man caught in 'arrested development' who still acts like teenager and talks like a teenager
- use words like "dude" and high five his "buddies", despite being over 30ys old
- wears a baseball cap and capris, hangs out in a pizza place with a bunch of equally immature 'buds'

And how about movies featuring these guys?
Failure to Launch (a guy who still lives at home and can't handle mature adult life),
Wedding Crashers (two middle aged men who invade weddings so that they can "score with chicks"),
You, Me & Dupree (a middle aged guy who looks like a teenage surfer moves in with his married friends),
The Breakup (a young woman gets sick of her lazy, dumb manchild boyfriend)
Old School - a bunch of middle aged men go back to college for girls, beer and streaking

And then there's Dodgeball, Anchorman, and all the others.

Are all American men really like this? Do Americans really get some demented pleasure from watching mature men (who should be responsible, active adults) acting like retarded teenagers, chugging beer and only eating steak?

I don't get it. But I am getting a little fed up of every Burger King commercial being represented by a neanderthal manchild acting like a hyperactive college kid. Dude.

Anyone else noticed this? Whatever happened to the Michael Keaton and Robert De Niro style of man?!

Chorlton

MTV has a lot to answer for.

edwords

Don't believe everything you see on TV or in the movies.
Comic books are okay, however.

Kate2112

Are all Englishmen like the guys on "Men behaving badly" or like the geeks on "My Family" ? Nope just stereotypes. Are all English guys obsessive Football supporters or beer swilling Eastender soap opera types? nope.

The ads which you cite first off would LOVE American guys who are long past teens to behave just like this and some will, clutching to a youthful stereotype to keep them young a little longer. Its mostly hype. Look around at the American guys you know are they all like this? Probably not all, possibly some.

Tolos

I'm well aware that all "real life" American aren't like this, which is why I'm so confused. It seems the 'Pierce Brosnan' style of guy is all but gone from media (TV shows, movies, commercials, etc) and being replaced by overgrown kids. And obviously, this means the public wants to see this shit. Hence the repeated box office movies featuring 40yr old men still living with their mom (Adam Sandler, anyone?). It's annoying.

Chorlton

I guess if they can tell you its okay to act like a kid, they can sell more pointless gadgets and burgers, and put some imaginery peer pressure on you to fit in with the version of reality that TV shows.

Kate2112

It could be a sign of you growing old and disapproving

Perhaps the Pierce Brosnan image of men is out of date. Young women seem to prefer men (on the screen anyway) being saved from themselves??? Or perhaps women in executive production positions would like to see men in this way? Real men have nothing to do with these fantasy kinds of images, they are just that ,fantasy.

Having said that I went to a Seattle Seahawks game last night and saw guys in their mid 30's/40's behaving in some of the ways you describe. I am pretty sure that most of this is just acting out with the guys and I am guessing this isn't the pattern of their whole lives just an escape. Pretty harmless really.

windward

I'm 21 and I agree with him.

Makes it a lot harder to argue in good conscience with all the post-modern feminists who call the male 'obsolete'.

I think it's a toss-up from there whether or not the majority of women do actually like/encourage this behaviour in their men. I doubt many would admit it, but the players of the world are the way they are because it 'works' are they not? ... or whether it makes the guys that don't act that way look better.

*shrug*

Depressing either way.

Kate2112

Ignore women who call men obsolete - they are insecure and need to recognise that women are no more important than men.

Some women do like dependency in men while also wanting them to act like real men. Confusing? The same could be said for some men who like women to be feminine, nurturing, successful in their career, a mother to their children, a homemaker and a sex goddess. Its all pretty unrealistic really. We can only be ourselves. Honest to who we are, perhaps emulating the qualities of people we respect but we are very much individuals who make our own choices.

No need to get depressed about it is there? Or am I missing something?

Bob

the fight against the metrosexual revolution ain't it

angelman

One thing I found strange here and I am sure many would disagree was actually how realistic a view many hollywood movies show of America.. well at least the little bit of LA etc. that I have seen.
SCenes that I used to think 'only happened in the movies' frat boys chugging beer and being fratty, girls being girly as in any american teen movie etc. etc. they are all real.. Americans really are like that. I was talking about this with my wife. I was saying how funny stupid movies like american pie they portray such a fantasy world. She seemed to think it was funny because it was so easy to identify with everything and everyone in the movie! I coudlnt believe it. Surely people dont really act like that.

Going to Lake Tahoe on July 4th confirmed this. People really do act like in the movies, both men and women. Not sure about the 40 years olds but certainly the college students.
Whilst students in the UK are hardly angels, people here do seem to be very immature in general. I guess thats why the drinking age has to be so high. I do think that a 21 year old here is emotionally and socially as mature as an 18 or even 16 year old in many other countries especially in Europe. I think it's because people are so cossetted, protected and mothered by their families, the state etc. that they are never able to grow up properly. I think this continues right through life. Some people never grow up, for both better and worse!

Even the whole fraternity thing is so weird. It seems so childish, something that posh people at boarding school and maybe oxbridge do and not something that most normal young adults would get into.

Sorry but I dont see these movies as stereotypes really at all.. I see them as reality more than not.

windward

.lol. Sign of the times. I should have said 'gets you down'. I won't be running to the pharmacy for happy pills because of it.

I just mean it'd be nicer if the people we were mythicising and holding up as examples to everyone else on the silver screen/TV/whatever as 'the person to be' had a bit more to them than a desire for electronic gadgets, sex, and practical jokes.

Good advice btw

Lord Lionheart

Depends on your taste I hated the 40 year old virgin although it was highly successful at the box office. Not that I'm a prude it just got old really quick seeing dick, piss and fanny jokes for 90 minutes, and the jokes were so predictible you could see them coming a mile away.
Anyone seen the new HBO series Lucky Louie? To me that is just like a 2006 version of the Honeymooners, except Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden type character Louie now uses 4 letter words, same type of set using an apartment and a working class guy's relationship with his wife as the basis for the show.
I do agree with the observation of the annoying portrayal of men by the OP as beer swilling idiots, however if I don't like the look of the show or ad I simply don't watch, it's just comedy/TV and a form of escapism after all.
There are plenty of documentaries, movies etc on public TV, HBO, History channel etc.

Tbag

When I lived in Atlanta I catered alot of events at Emory Uni and especially at
frat houses and sororities. They were very immature for 20 something year olds and I have always thought the same of the way some young people develop here with maturity levels. Especially the drinking thing........I was in the pubs at 16 passing for age 18, sure I had my share of nights with too much to drink, but I also learnt responsibility for my actions.
It does seem that some Americans do coddle there teenagers and they also seem to have alot more material wants and needs, cars at 16 etc... that mum & dad pay for.
I got pocket money for school lunch and if I wanted to buy clothes, records, my first car etc.... I went out and worked for it after school and college hours.
I know that this is probably partly a generational thing but some of these youngsters need to learn responsibility and maturity by working for it and some parents need to let go of the security reigns now and again here...........
Rant over

Lord Lionheart

All we had was an old copy of Swank or Knave, which was well thumbed through and had the best pages stuck together........ now the young whippersnappers have a wide selection of digital quality DVD porn to cater to all fetishes and perversions