This article about male roles on television was linked to me earlier. It's pretty old by now, but a good read on its own, and highly insightful. It shocked me a bit—not because I was surprised to see my gender being portrayed this way on TV, but because I've been watching these shows for years and never really noticing. Something's bothered me about them on some level, sure, but this is the first time I've really thought about it... and suddenly it seems outrageously clear.

Now let's not object that “they're only sitcoms”—comedy shows are some of the most popular shows, and we are influenced by their content, perhaps moreso than the more serious shows out there. It might even be argued that the comedic nature of these shows allows us to laugh on the surface, and spare ourselves having to think about what we're seeing, instead simply incorporating it into the complex cauldron of ideas we call our opinions.

But, mostly, I was shocked because I realized I'd bought into the whole scam. A rather large part of me really was thinking of women as more caring and clever, and men in general as clumsy and oafish, even though I also knew full well that many weren't—self included. It makes me a little angry, in fact, and it makes me wonder just how this happened.

At any rate, people... please read and think about it. Talking about men's rights has been a pretty taboo topic, but I think it's time to start paying more attention to it. We have suffered to, and still do—we are far from equal, but this isn't a one-sided issue and the scales are beginning to tip over to the other side now, in some aspects of society. Let's try to stop it before it does so completely.