Sponge Bob Men

I can't be the only one who's bothered by this. How come in America the male is often portrayed in the media as a buffoon, dumb, too arrogant to ask for directions, as a flat-headed idiot? And this has been going on for around 30 years or so. I know many of the shows that paint guys as stupid were/are comedy or sitcoms, but why should it be guys that get the foul end of the fun stick?

I'm really not a big television or movie guy, so I'll only list just a handful that I actually watched at some point:

• The sitcom Good Times on CBS television (February 1974 to August 1979)
• The sitcom The Jeffersons on CBS television (January 1975 through June 1985)
• The sitcom Family Matters first on ABC television (September 1989 to May 1997), and later on CBS (September 1997 to July 1998)
• The sitcom Sanford & Son on NBC television (January 1972 to March 1977)
• The movie Dumb & Dumber (released in 1994)
• The sitcom Married With Children on Fox television (April 1987 to June 1997)
  
• The animated television series Sponge Bob Square Pants, which first aired on May 1, 1999 and premiered on July 17, 1999. Can you believe this is the most watched show on Nickelodeon's Nicktoons? By the way, since Sponge Bob is aimed at children, Sponge Bob may brainwash our little ones that boys are the dumb ones of the human species. Well, if boys are stupid, guess who's smart. Girls, of course!
• The animated sitcom The Simpsons on Fox (debut December 1987 and still running). It holds the double record as the longest-running American sitcom and animated program. The Simpsons Movie based on the sitcom has made over $526 million since it was released in July 2007. Stupid pays! And if stupid pays so well, why try smart?
  

Not just sitcoms and movies. Watch the news on TV, and you will find that male news anchors who co-host with female news anchors usually come across as less smart and timid, while the women journalists continue to exude airs of brilliance and confidence. Wow!

With all these years of our culture painting men as stupid, wishy-washy, and weak, is it any wonder that more and more men now fit the bill? Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy: believe that guys are stupid; say guys are stupid; say it over and over; say it in so many ways, and it sticks; it comes true.

To prove that boys are opting for stupid over smart, more boys than girls are dropping out of school. Fewer guys than girls graduate from high school and move on to college. Girls are doing better in school than boys. In our family, my school-age daughter makes better grades than my son, though he's been catching up. And I know my boy is intelligent, but it seems he believes that good grades are a girlish thing, and he doesn't want female grades.

Chew on this: When was the last time you saw a male valedictorian at a high school graduation ceremony? Yes, it still happens, but it's getting to be rare these days, unless the boy is from India, China, Finland or somewhere outside of the United States. At the last graduation I attended in May 2008, both valedictorians were girls. The girls are certainly doing better in school than the boys.

Why should we be surprised that men for the most part have lost the skill and will to lead? If men are as dumb and weak as they have been portrayed in the media all these years, then it makes perfect sense that men have hugged the stereotype. They are gladly living down to the expectation of being Sponge Bob men.