I have a 7 year old daughter. She, like many children these days, watches entirely too much television. The Nielsen Co. reported that in 2009, children’s television viewing had reached an eight-year high. Children ages 2 to 5 watched TV for more than 32 hours a week. Kids ages 6 to 8 spent 28 hours per week in front of the tube, most likely because they were in school, explains Nielsen. The Kaiser Family Foundation also conducted research on the media habits of children ages 8 to 18. Kaiser found that on average, this age group spends 4½ hours each day watching TV in various forms, including on their mobile phones and the Internet.
- Children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight.
- Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.
- TV characters often depict risky behaviors, such as smoking and drinking, and also reinforce gender-role and racial stereotypes.
But there's more to it than that. Have you ever paid attention to the shows your children or grandchildren, or children in general watch? Sit down some day and watch the Disney channel for a few hours. You are sure to notice something. That something is how fathers are are depicted in almost every show, if they're seen at all. Look at the average sitcom father. We have gone from Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, a family doctor, a black man, a positive influence in the lives of many real word fathers and young children, to not even in the picture. And that brings me back to the Disney channel.
Show example number one, "Jessie". The series follows Jessie Prescott (Debby Ryan), a young woman from a small town with big dreams who, rebelling against her strict father, decides to leave the military base in Texas where she grew up and moves to New York City. She accepts a job as a nanny and moves into a multi-million dollar penthouse on the Upper West Side with the wealthy Ross family which includes: jet-setting parents, Morgan and Christina; and their four rambunctious children: Emma Ross, Luke Ross, Ravi Ross and Zuri Ross. Assisting her are Bertram Winkle, the family's lazy and sarcastic butler, and Tony, the building's 20-year-old doorman.
So we have dad number one, Jessie's father. Overbearing, strict, in the military, completely out of the picture. Unless we here some story about what a hard ass he was. Wealthy Ross family parents? Wandering the world while a nanny raises their (oh, how heartwarming) mostly adopted family. OK, let's stop right there for a moment. There is no positive parental role model in this show aimed directly at children. None. Of course that's fine because hey, they're rich and rich people have things to do. So, then we have Bertram, a portly old fellow who, instead of being made a positive male role model (why would we do that) is written as a whiny, lazy buffoon. The young man working the front desk? Incompetent moron. In fact, if it has a penis it made to look like a complete idiot. Except for Ravi, because he's not white, but they still hit pretty much every possible racial stereotype with his character.
Show example number two, "Austin & Ally". Ally Dawson is an aspiring singer-songwriter with extreme stage fright who works at her father's instrument shop at the Mall of Miami. Austin Moon is a singer. Ally writes the songs, Austin sings them, Trish de la Rosa is Austin's manager and personal stylist, and Austin's friend Dez Wade is their producer and music video maker.
I have yet to see a responsible adult character spend more than 5 minutes on this show. It's dad's store, yet no dad. Hell, no real adult. The few male characters are, again, written to look like clowns. Positive male role models here? Zero.
So who do we have on television to act as a reminder of what a father is supposed to be like? Let's see. Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Here's a description of Peter I found online. When he's not out causing mayhem, he can be found at home farting in Meg's face, avoiding Chris's hunger for fatherly attention, flat out ignoring Stewie's existence, and generally driving his family insane. Awesome. Frank Reynolds, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Frank Reynolds may legally be a father, but he did everything to avoid acting like one. In fact, he made a point of buying the gifts his children wanted for Christmas and keeping them for himself. If that wasn't bad enough, he forced his son into a sex ring and pretended to be engaged to his own daughter. At least this is one TV dad that had a fitting end: His children hated him so much that his tombstone read: "He was a dick of a father." What happened to dads like John Walton? Or Charles Ingalls? Or Howard Cunningham for Happy Days? How did we go from that to Homer Simpson? But I digress.
These are the shows that our children watch as they grow up. Like it or not, television and other forms of media have a huge influence on how children think. On what they think. That's why companies spend billions every year on advertising. Imagine being a young boy, growing up in a house where dad is around much, or at all. Or he's just not involved when he is. And you watch television, seeing these men portrayed at buffoons, incompetent, stupid. How long before you're convinced that dads are idiots. Dads are good for making money for the wife and kids to spend and holding down the couch. When did the television fathers go from the likes of Danny Tanner from full house, to an idiot like that depicted by Ray Ramano? And what influence has that had on children growing up watching it?
Women complain about being depicted as sex symbols, and that is somewhat true, but look at how men are portrayed. Not just in movies, but television shows, "reality" television, music videos and even books. We are apparently good for taking out the trash, if we remember (because we're really really dumb) or if we can stop watching sports long enough. We work, to pay the wife and kids. We always defer to the mother in matters of parenting, because we're incompetent. If we are portrayed in a "positive" manner it's because we're blowing shit up, being manly men and killing people. Watch any of the "Die Hard" series. Several movies with Arnold S. that come to mind. So, you can be a shitty father who makes up with his children after saving the world, or you can be a bumbling idiot. This is what our children spend 30 hours a week watching and learning. If dad isn't there to be a positive role model and show them how to do it right, who is?
...........
Yet their ineptitude is unrelenting. At home it is always the mother figure - long-suffering Mummy Pig, Wilma or Marge - who gallop to the rescue to fix everything he messes up. The more this image takes hold, the more the role of the father in the family unit is marginalized and the more hurtful this will be to society.
Yet their ineptitude is unrelenting. At home it is always the mother figure - long-suffering Mummy Pig, Wilma or Marge - who gallop to the rescue to fix everything he messes up. The more this image takes hold, the more the role of the father in the family unit is marginalized and the more hurtful this will be to society.
"Negative general portrayals of fathers/husbands/men in TV commercials and sit-coms contributes to a decrease in men wanting to assume those roles in society, and creates the impression among others that men need not assume such roles anyways, that such simply aren't important."
Read more:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865574236/Dumbing-down-Dad-How-media-present-husbands-fathers-as-useless.html?pg=all
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/fatherhood-group-studies-tvs-portrayal-male-figures
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