I noted, while assisting my nephew and his wife in moving their household over the weekend, that there is very little handy work that I cannot master, with the right tools and a friendly little chat with any one of the little orange-clad clerks from that chain of stores. In contrast, the males in attendance at this moving event, with the exception of my nephew’s father-in-law, were virtually incapable of logically calculating the required steps to complete even the simplest task.

Where have all the manly men disappeared to? Personally, I think they have abandoned the traits of utility and strength in favour of displaying their testosterone through the lyrics of gangster rap and showing their underwear over their waistlines. At least, that is what I could determine from the sampling of my nephew’s buddies present over the weekend. But calling women your “bitches” and showing that you can get the “bling” doesn’t even remotely move my hormones in the same way as watching a sweaty guy in work boots swing a drill around. Rrrrrrroowwwwwwwwwwrr!!! Now, that can make me swoon.

But as I paint my own walls and install my own fixtures, change my own tires and open my own jars, I feel the painful void that has been left by the sad, strange absence of the rugged guy. I wonder sometimes, as they watch us hoisting tire jacks and buying power tools, if they, too, sigh with melancholy and dream of the day when women were girly and giggly and not closely gaining on their corporate asses.

The paradigm seems to be that with cloning and sex toys and what not, women could conceivably reach a point where our need for men has become obsolete. Yikes!!!! How very unnatural that seems. But I say, “Boys!! Do not abandon hope yet!! It’s not too late to save yourselves! Ride a horse! Swing a lasso! Call me ma’am! But for God’s sake, please, please, please, at VERY least, learn how to install a flush anchor and caulk a sink!!”

Size zero?

More and more women are taking extreme measures to loose weight and become a ‘perfect size zero’ and why not a lot of celebrities and models are a size zero so isn’t it the perfect size to be? The thing is celebrities are almost as if they are in competition with each other who can shift the most weight quickest and take it to the extreme, other people should not copy this trend as it is bad for the body and also it needs to be realised that some people are naturally small and some people have disorders so to talk down a size zero is also offensive to someone that is a size zero as it is not always deliberate and there is nothing wrong with being a zero if that were the size you are meant to be.

The pefect ten?

What percentage of women now do you think are a size ten? Sometimes it may look as though everyone except you has a great figure when infact how do you define great? What makes a size ten so perfect? Do you think it has anything to do with men? Men half the time wouldnt even be able to guess what size you are let alone sifting through women for the ‘perfect ten’. It has been said that men are attracted to an ‘hour glass’ figure if this was so then why are so many women on diets? In my opinion there is no such thing as a ‘perfect ten’ if this were true then why do so many size ten’s have insecurities about either being to fat or too thin? The ‘perfect ten’ is just another size, just another feature about yourself that makes you you. Size ten can be defined as perfect but it is not all time perfect as all other sizes are just as perfect.

Breasts?

For starters how big is too big and what would you describe as small? What is the perfect size? No-matter what size you are, it is the correct size if your having boob job’s how do you know what size your meant to go for? Who say’s what size is right and what if it changes? This is no joke there are a lot of risks involved in changing your appearance and is it worth it? Worth it for who? If you have insecurities about yourself you should ask yourself why and think realistically what is wrong with just being you?

‘Imperfections’

In my opinion there is no such thing, whatever you’d describe as an imperfection should be carried with pride as these are signs of life and yourself, its what seperates you from others. It gives you your individuality. If you dont have that then what makes you so special?

Life is not a competition, life is to be lived! 

When I turn on a television I can easily determine what era a particular program has come from; I can determine this by the way the woman is portrayed. The older shows are more reserved with women, making them seem almost fragile. The shows from the late 80’s and 90’s portray women as if they have some kind of a vengeance and they are almost not normal. The newer programs portray woman as “perfect”. My only concern is why? I am just not sure why women have had so many different stereotypes through out the years or why they have stereotypes at all? Networks such as; “Lifetime” and “Oxygen” are the only stations that do a good job in capturing the true image of a woman (in my opinion). These networks focus solely on real life events and real life stories from real women.

Even the positive stereotypes of women are easily turned into a negative. For example; now and days some woman in television have their own careers , moving away from the old stereotype of the homemaker, but just because you give a woman on television a career does not mean it is going to make stereotyping any better. On the sitcom “Scrubs” Elliot Reed (played by Sarah Chalk) is a doctor, but she is also a good looking emotional disaster, which brings me to my point; she has a career, but she is still stereotyped as beautiful, overly emotional and a little bit ditzy. Unfortunately these stereotypes don’t stop at “Scrubs”; there are many other shows that copy this exact stereotype or a worse one.

While doing a generous amount of research on this subject I found that studies show “Women are also depict as less intelligent then men and generally appear to be weak. The roles which women are assigned tend to be marital and family oriented. In addition, women are rarely shown to be able to successfully combine marriage and employment. Women are typically younger then men on television and usually disappear between the ages of 35 and 50. Ironically, women are five times more likely to be blond.” What bothers me the most though, is that this does not surprise me. These studies are obvious to anyone who has watched television, including me.

Today, every one of us is spending more of our leisure time watching Television. The shows on television influence our decision process, shaping our perceptions for the world. While researching this topic the most valuable statement I found was “Stereotyped characters can and will negatively influence the way we view real people in society.” TV programs infiltrate our lives, guiding us with what we are supposed to wear and how we are supposed to look and act. In any case, it is obvious that women are highly and inappropriately stereotyped in television, no matter when the date. Woman should not be portrayed as helpless homemakers, insane dominating monsters or perfect Barbie dolls, but as individual and normal human beings.