The Fall of the American Male - Bob

Pop culture is well known to be trendy, full of fads, and very effective and profitable, but one aspect of pop culture that seems to be changing for the worse is the idea of manhood. Many big artists today seem to be very concerned with being tough rule breakers who are all straight and don’t show their emotions. They say this idea actually stems from an idea called misandry, a general hate or contempt for men. The first real shaping of what a “man” should be starts back in 1991 with a show called “Home Improvement.”

In what seemed a harmless and humorous attempt at an average man, ABC chose to air a show that made men into cavemen. Tim Allen quite honestly played a great performance, but unfortunately for him, it was for the worse. I’ve seen many episodes of the show, and after every one I wonder, how can such an absolutely stupid man be successful anywhere as an adult? It may seem harmless to adults who watch the show with their children, but the audience is in fact the very children they would watch the show with. All of the men in the show (excluding Wilson, the neighbor whom we rarely see) are buffoons who run around, yell, hit their head on things, and drink beer. Even Tim Allen’s sons in the show act like him. Whilst looking into some background on the show, I found that Tim is described in advertisements as “a stereotypical male who loves power tools, cars and sports”. Isn’t it sad when such materialistic ideals of power and wealth become the stereotype of the American male? What happened to intelligent thought and political or social accomplishments? In its entirety, its ratings never dropped below number ten for the timeslot. That’s just sad America.

Even today pop culture influences the male. Popular music of today is gangster rap, which is actually categorized as “a genre of hip-hop that reflects the violent lifestyles of inner-city youth.” It is known for its aggressive lyrics, closed-minded attitude, and all around violent feel. Many of its famous artists are huge in the United States, but one of the most well known and popular artists, Lil Wayne, is going to jail for a year, and this is his third time. Yet, his album was the best selling album in the US in 2008. How sad that the correlation exists between a multiple offender and popularity, because sadly, people like Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne who abuse drugs and women get their popularity by doing so. Men in America learn to idolize some of the very worst people in America, and the number of people following this bad trend is growing every day, and the worst grow richer and more powerful.

I really hope there will be a better future in store for the American man. One way for America to get out of its slump is quite literally to become cultured, and doing so means listening to better music. Rappers like Jahi are starting off small but they have a good message, even if it means they won’t get immediate huge fame. It’s not much, but Jahi is passionate about his music and ideals, and he wants strength in the family and educational prowess to be a focus of his music. He thinks if he can become popular, or even just one of many like himself in pop culture, there may still be hope for the American man. I really wish him luck, because without him, I might become an anomaly among American males everywhere. I don’t want to be living and working amongst brainwashed, violent zombie-like people.