It always struck me that men actually might benefit from the “bumbling idiot” stereotype. In very many of the dysfunctional heterosexual relationships I’ve observed, men basically only work then come home and do nothing, and women do a majority of the actual work and men use this learned or feigned helplessness to get women to do everything for them. They’re socialized this way, I think. I married this very equality talking, sensitive, feminist-ally, politically correct kind of man and yet the day we got back from our honeymoon, my ex husband suddenly became an infant who no longer knew how to operate an iron, pack a grocery bag, balance the budget, take a pee without splattering the entire bathroom, flush the toilet, cook his own meals, return phone calls, put his own dishes in the sink before they turned moldy, or even drop letters off at the post office.
The bumbling idiot stereotype doesn’t hurt men. Men are not being denied jobs or health care or legal rights because of being seen as bumbling idiots. They benefit from the stereotype because it means that women do everything.
mousesinger (via swordssoarewords)
This is the sitcom staple stereotype (at least in the US), and I wish it would just go away. A wife having to act like her husband’s mother is not funny. A man constantly doing stupid things and lying to his wife in order to cover it up is not funny. A woman having a total meltdown because she can’t deal with her husband’s inappropriate behavior anymore is not funny. Enough. It makes both men and women look bad, and reinforces the idea that this sort of thing is “okay” in real life.
(via melissasoup)