gender stereotyping

 

Let me just say right up front that I don’t expect any of the following from Life&Style, Us Weekly, or any of the other mags barfing their neon coverlines all over the Safeway checkout line: Accuracy, subtlety, reason, nuance, intelligence, imagination, responsibility, or feminism. They’re tabloids about Bachelors and Kardashians, and their douchebaggery is as inescapable and unremarkable as traffic in Los Angeles.

But there’s everyday Hollywood stupid and there’s offensively, egregiously stupid—so stupid that I’m actually almost embarrassed for anyone associated with the product in question. And this week’s Life& Style, featuring the wee Shiloh Jolie-Pitt sporting a cute new pixie haircut, is so emphatically the latter that there was no other possible contender for today’s Douchebag Decree.

The trailer for An Emasculating Truth opens with the following...
"There's always that fear that masculinity is in danger, that it's being lost, men are becoming feminized in one way or another."
"Men are definitely finding their feminine side."
"Their masculinity's kind of questionable."
"Maybe too superficial."
"Settling for less."
"Not...manly."


In fact, "kind of questionable" and "superficial" are great descriptions of the movie itself, where Concerned Male Citizen Oscar reports "Testosterone levels are down 17% in the past 14 years among American men."

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I met her in the backyard. She was soaking up the sun, wishing it would never set. She greeted me with excitement, her energy radiating. When she spoke I could sense she was a strong woman that had worked hard for what she had. I quickly learned that she was a Portland-based writer & director...