As I was reading Jessica Valenti's "Boys Don't Cry," I became especially interested in one phenomenon that she was describing. The idea of eternal boyhood is one that has gone much farther and become much more real than the figure of Peter Pan. I was disappointed that she seemed to just glaze over it, and I think that it warrants a second look. As Valenti notes, "Back in the day, being a man meant taking care of your family and having a good job and all of that. Now, at least if you look at commercials and television shows and the like, it seems that the ultimate way to be a man is to stay a boy," an endless number of television shows and movies ran through my mind. From "Knocked Up," where a prudish and career-driven Katherine Heigl has to deal with the immature and goofy Seth Rogan, to "King of Queens," where the 'bitchy' and cold Leah Remini constantly rolls her eyes at the doofy and overweight UPS worker Kevin James, it seems that women have gained intelligence but not a sense of humor, while we are meant to personalize with male characters who only want to live like the rest of us, by embracing downtime over worktime. Society seems to have partially dealt with the fact that some women make more money than some men, but have chosen to demonize that women who respect their careers. Perhaps they are still hanging on to the notion that this type of behavior is 'unnatural.' After all, what woman wouldn't want to do it 'Dugger Style,' and push dozens of babies out one of their orifices while mastering the art of their Lean Mean Fat Grilling Machine?
For men, their identities have now become even more conflicted. Though their world is being led by men, popular culture tells them that if they want to live in their parent's basement well into their thirties and play Halo, there is still a chance that they'll snatch the hot girl. This type of phenomenon is perhaps a result of the age we live in. Judd Apatow, after all, was a teenager in the Regan eighties, a time when the economy seemed unsinkable and when baby boomers were attempting to shower their children with all of the material goods that they were not able to have. As critics endlessly call my generation listless, unmotivated, and bored, what better way to reflect this than the through characters (usually played by Seth Rogan) who are the epitome of the excessive?
Why, then, have women been left behind? As Valenti points out, feminism makes quite a large group uncomfortable. By stressing that a career and life goals only make a woman stuck up and cold, women once again feel left out of the group. The lack of female comics is yet another indicator of this. Some of the most popular ones, such as Chelsea Handler, are still forced to base their whole persona on sexuality. She pegs herself as an alcoholic whore, and therefore gets laughs. The only way women can be funny, it seems, is if she is a mockery of herself. Dane Cook, on the other hand, epitomizes this "man-child" persona. He mainly discusses picking up babes in the club, or talking about the Kool-aid guy for laughs, and he is most popular with the 14-year-old crowd. But I digress. It seems like I don't have a ton of answers for the quandries that I introduced, although it certainly makes me extremely angry.
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