oh please, men are just as poorly portrayed by the media... in every way and more.

I didn't notice that the video stated otherwise. So it's okay that women are portrayed poorly by the media, just because men are poorly portrayed as well? In my opinion, it's not okay to represent any person or group of people in a prejudiced and outdated way (within a serious and contemporary context).

I don't really agree. But if it is as you say, you should have no problem providing some examples to back up your argument.

@Trancecoach I'd like to see a female equivalent (or worse) of the Rob Thicke video where he's fully clothed dancing around actually naked women doing things like:

Blowing smoke in their faces
Making them feign humping dogs
Holding little stop signs in their ass (because they want him to stop but he knows they want it)
Spelling out "Rob Thicke has a big dick" (clit? for the female version that doesn't exist as far as I know)

Not to mention the whole song is basically mirrors date rape and forcing yourself on women. http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/09/17/from-the-mouths-of-rapists-the-lyrics-of-robin-thickes-blurred-lines-and-real-life-rape/

Yeah... good luck finding something MORE poorly portrayed, as you put it, where men are featured.

p.s. here's a link to the video: http://vimeo.com/64611906

@JiggaJonson
* http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/how-do-media-images-men-affect-our-lives
* http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/11/14/are-men-the-latest-victims-of-media-misrepresentation/

*http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/psych/zebrowitz/publications/PDFs/1970s/McArthur_Resko_1975.pdf
* http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865574236/Dumbing-down-Dad-How-media-present-husbands-fathers-as-useless.html?pg=all
* http://www.rolereboot.org/culture-and-politics/details/2013-02-why-arent-more-real-men-portrayed-in-the-media
* http://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/the-depressing-depiction-of-men-in-the-media/
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/darron-t-smith-phd/black-men-media_b_2844990.html

I agree with your point that men are also represented poorly by the media. However, I still don't understand how this affects the topic of this video and the validity of pointing out the shortcomings of the representation of women by the media. The fact that men are represented as poorly as women doesn't justify the general fact that women are represented poorly, and vice versa.

Trance, i don't think any would disagree that men are often and with increasingly frequency portrayed badly by the media and advertising. However, the original point was that the degree to which they are, does not even begin to approach the levels found in the video above or the examples listed in subsequent posts.

@Trancecoach

I read through each individual link (jumped to conclusion and discussion on the scholarly piece), and I'm yet to find anything that's WORSE than "rape worthy"

I'm sorry, there is a reason women are still not allowed to drive in some countries: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/26/world/meast/saudi-arabia-women-drivers/

And it's not because MEN are so oppressed.

There is no taboo in discussing the "rape worthy" contents of media portrayals when it comes to the depiction of women, but there remains consistent and pervasive taboos when it comes to its comparability with men (despite the fact that, statistically speaking, men are far more likely to be the victims of rape than a woman is).

The silence on the issue is deafening, especially when you take into account that as many as 20% of male military veterans are the victims of sexual assault and trauma. Where's the depiction of this alongside its concomitant "warrior" culture depictions throughout the media which in fact breeds the very aggression which perpetuates it?

<crickets>

Moreover, where is the cognizance of how the media perpetuates the stereotypes of men which lead to greater proportions of men committing suicide? Or becoming homeless? Or suffering from crippling occupational injuries? Or dying in the line of duty? Or being alienated from their children/families while still being fully expected and legally obligated to support them financially?

I'd go so far as to say your very denial of these facts only serves to further underscore how commonplace it is to cater to the oppression of women, while continuing to perpetuate the ongoing subjugation and oppression of men.

You should go look up what this song is actually about. Not from Robin Thicke's point of view, but from Emily Ratajkowski. (Seriously, look it up)

Also the whole point Trance is trying to make that you're all missing, and actually exemplifying perfectly, is that no one cares if men are portrayed bad, because of the whole view of being manly man and not complaining.

I don't take either side in this so if you want to come back at me for something have fun, because frankly I don't give a shit about the media or how it portrays anyone. The media plays to the masses plain and simple. It will change when human nature does...good luck with that.

I kinda feel like portraying men as rapists is a pretty big way that the media fails men?

Admittedly, there's surely some room for debate as to whether the video you described portrays men or women as worse, but I think we can agree it doesn't do either any favors. The man in the video is portrayed as self-centered, inconsiderate, and generally a pretty shitty person. The women are definitely portrayed poorly as well, but I'm not convinced that the way they're portrayed is substantially worse than the way the man is portrayed.

Why is everyone more concerned about the portrayal of the women in that video, when the portrayal of the man is completely disgusting as well? I think both should be equally concerning.

This documentary is produced by the same people as the video above. I think it's a good start and they'll probably also address the influence of the media.

http://videosift.com/video/How-our-society-fails-its-men-and-boys-the-trailer

You raise some good points. Its a shame your first comment seemed to dismiss this video and possibly feminism. Why people feel the need to 1up the other "team" I've no idea. I suspect it might have something to do with implicit sexism and the feeling that your ingroup is threatened... This isn't a competition, there is room for masculinism and feminism, you don't have to shout over the other to get your points across. Sadly masculinist and sexist are synonymous precisely because people who describe themselves as masculinist seem to spend the greater half of their time attack feminism rather than making any constructive points to support their argument. Like I said, its a shame you soured your examples with your initial reaction.

@Trancecoach
@vadeosaft

I agree with you on a lot of these points about men, but you are using the vilification/ignorance surrounding the portrayals of men in the media to justify the portrayal of women in the media. Neither set of stereotypes is preferable, but justifying one bad portrayal by saying "men have it just as bad or worse" doesn't make for a good argument.

@Stu
I don't know what you're referring to. Here is what I found:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/emily-ratajkowski-interview-blurred-lines
This?
That's not really an explanation of what the song is about. And if it's supposed to be poking fun at those types of stereotypes, I feel they did a poor job. Come on, this is a far cry from A Modest Proposal in terms of sarcastic social criticism.

Uhhh, did anyone but Stu name the middle path of not paying attention to the only thing that matters? That being, the one way or the other as to how the media uses device and formula, primarily the time-honored and well-developed tools of distracting the consumers of the same from more pressing issues of economic ass-rape, political hi-jacking, or the subtle steering of peeps to think about complete horseshit as opposed to the ruse being perpetrated to hijack their minds and culture to their own ends?

Men, women, all being congealed into distracted humans who will buy more of and believe more of the shit they want you to, in order to increase the coffers of powerful cabals. Ever play RISK? It's not about only land and the human resource anymore, the model of the now is mass-media luring you into a stupor to make you think about shit, and work for more shit, to turn humanity into a soulless Energizer bunnies, who THINK they have a clue.

Uhhhh... no. Men in advertising and media (video games being a classic example) are predominately portrayed as leaders, strong and fearless, who get the job done. Are those features overamplifed? Absolutely. But why are men portrayed that way? Because its a male fantasy to be those things.

Now let's take a look at how women are predominately portrayed in media--as docile, disposable sex objects ripe for the plucking. Notice, that is ALSO a male fantasy.

And that is the crux of the problem--the depiction of both genders in almost every form of the media has been controlled overwhelmingly by men, although that is now thankfully changing, albeit slowly.

Now, you can (and should) absolutely argue that the lack of diversity in the depiction of BOTH genders in media has detrimental effects on us all.

But to claim that men are as badly or more poorly portrayed in media than women?

No. Just... no.

loved the video except the bit about seth macfarlane's song and Dads.

making fun of sexism is not sexism.

This might be throwing a bit of a lit match into the whole thing, but there has been a lot of discussion about how "the media" failed women, and how some sort of unseen force is trying to keep women down, or even men.

At some point in the production of any music video you care to point a finger at, some women have been quite happy to accept money in exchange for portraying whatever it is that certain people are unhappy about.

I have to insist that the question is asked - does everyone WANT equality? There are a lot of women out there quite happy to make a lot of money based on photoshop'd depictions of how they might look in a make believe world. Or to dance around in their smalls, trying their very best to MAKE men interested in their sexual prowess. Their primary money making skill is sexual.

So before we criticise this invisible and possibly make-believe machine that systematically holds women down, how about we consider the individual decisions of prominent women? The women in the blurred lines video weren't forced at gunpoint to strip off and dance around titillating viewers, they accepted payment for a job and did what they were paid for knowing full well that young girls might be watching and imitating them, or whatever.

I mean, great job insulting the hell out of the producer of the video or the choreographer or the guy who made up the song. But all they did was write out a script or imagine out a vision of something they would consider sexually appealing. How about blaming the vacuous bints that wobbled their tits around without considering the consequences?

Perhaps not everyone WANTS equality. Men or women, but women are the easy example; perhaps some or perhaps even many women WANT to be able to use their bodies to gain interest from men or money. If that is the case - as it is for "sexy" music videos, photo shoots, modelling contracts or anything you care to name that involves a complicit woman representing an apparently undesirable or harmful skill - then it is equally unfair to force "equality" on those who do not want it. I see everyone as a person - all equal. And if someone wants to accept payment for wobbling their bits around then that's their decision until it becomes illegal, and it's ridiculous to turn around and say "oh how terribly oppressive of <someone else> for paying that women to flaunt herself." She accepted the fucking cash and did it. She could have pursued any career she wanted. It isn't like she had no other choice.

Additionally, I'm not going to even enter into any discussion that involves "rape" or terms akin to "rape culture" (what a bullshit term) because i actually believe that it detracts hugely from actual acts of rape and the pursuit of justice and prevention of rape.

So all you X-Men fans can relate to the character of Loki being the bad-guy nemesis of all things righteous and earthly/human, right? He comes down from Asgard with no checks or balances from his own universe and attempts to lure mankind through force into a slave-like existence of servitude stating the obvious as to the true nature of humankind and their desire to be led, fed, bred and in essence, dead...He offers nothing but his will over theirs and demands only from the lower creatures obedience and the servile future that is in fact, their destiny in robotic loyalty to their nature.

Imagine if you will, the planet as a chessboard with the majority of humans aboard as pawns with the ruling elite acting as the Asgardian rebel, and you have the state of affairs on planet now. These minor diversions and illusions of personal freedoms and human rights portioned-out in small doses by those who control the illusion that these concepts actually exist for humanity when in reality, countries and nations are mere herd pens for the game-makers to contain their stock.

Wrap your heads around this and you are closer to the true nature of the current paradigm than most care to deal with.

That there is some tangible or meaningful dichotomy between the males and females of the herd is part of the illusion created through the propaganda of mass media...it's but another well-honed tool to keep humans distracted by bullshit and keeps humanity easily controlled.

Such inappropriate music!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-war-on-women.html?hp&rref=opinion

Thought of this comment stream when I read this. The last line.

It's been clear to me for decades that men have a rough go of it -- societal expectations and pressures that I would find crushing.

As a feminist/humanist, it has always been clear to me that men have to tackle that on their own. Women have been fighting against societal crap, men have to fight their own fight.

Our fights are different, however. (And we need to hold each other accountable. We need to get up in each other's grill about how we compartmentalize each other, and react to each other from our "lizard brains" -- the non-thinking part. Women do it, too -- example -- as much as I say I like a man to show his feelings, when a man cries, sometimes I recoil instinctively. Operative word -- "instinct". Not reason.)

It doesn't help when someone speaks up about their own problem, and someone else says -- yeah? well? I got it bad too. Shut up!

That isn't going to fix either problems.

If we could talk about how these problems are interrelated, that would be grand, rather than turning it into some kind of competition.

there are negative stereotypes and portrayals of both men and women, but to argue that they are somehow the same is complete lunacy.

After watching the video again, there are a number of issues I have with some of these examples. Gravity is given as an example for a good thing for women. I thought they portrayed her as rather meek and scared most of the time and getting out of her predicament through a lot of luck so I'm not sure how that was really "pro women"

As stated above. The media hasn't let anyone down. Mediums are the lifeless part that accepts the human crafting. Certain women and certain men let women and men down this year. Grouping all those individuals into one thing called "the media" is also bigoted.

There is no one person to blame for what is massively popular and it won't change easily. Best to tech your kids that popular notions in culture do not represent any sort of actual reality.

To accent that point--the character in the video is under disguise but we all "know" its a man because men are rapists.

Didn't feminists fight so that women could be free (enslaved) to make movies and be on magazine covers like these women are? I am not speaking of the feminist/humanists, or the feminists that actually care about people, but feminists in general...