Links of Great Interest: Mars Needs Moms… is not a good movie.

So…apparently I’m a man, too?

This isn’t the first time I’ve read a “men are this, women are that” list, and I almost always relate more to the “male” list, but this one is probably one of the most absurd ones.

because it’s being framed as “Women, this is why you can’t have nice things.”

This.

On the other hand, I read through the “what women found annoying” and went “but seriously, that means an hour more work for her, and would have taken you five minutes” for some, and was um, what? on others until I realized that whole list was all about how selfish and unpleasable us ladyfolk are, and real complaints were thrown in there simply to devalue them.

I didn’t identify with the man in that list; I wondered why he was so worthless as to date a woman who treated him like crap. If someone steals my desert or my book I’ll take it right back and tell them to cut it out. I don’t let it go and then whine about it later. The woman had a list of pet peeves I could see myself blowing off steam about without taking it seriously.

Am I the only one who thinks these lists are designed to elicit that response from women?

I’m not sure if they’re all designed that way, although some probably are. But I think many of them are framed so that the male side is the more universal/major side, the female the more specialized/minor side. In this particular list, everyone can identify with putting up with idiots who steal from you or break things and expect you to fix them. But not everyone is bothered by people who don’t pick up after themselves or prefer different TV shows.

The traits in the list aren’t gendered but are falsely presented as if they are. Some men break shit all the time – just ask my mom about the garbage grinder her (now ex) husband took apart and left covering the dinner table for two days. Some women don’t pick up after themselves – my sister cannot figure out how a laundry basket works to save her life.

Just in general I don’t find male/female jokes very funny. The only one I really like is when the wife shops, prepares the meat, tosses the salad, sets the table, serves the food, clears the table and does the dishes. The husband throws the meat on the grill for a few minutes, turns it over, and then asks his wife how she liked her night off. And that’s more about society’s perceptions of the value of male vs. female labor than it is about how men are innately stupid.

I think so, though my reaction was, “I never met a woman who acted like that.”

“my sister cannot figure out how a laundry basket works to save her life.”
I have three! laundry baskets and my floor is still covered in things. I’m a slob. And my male collegue now knows better than to steal my dessert. It was fun to watch how fast he let go of it after he heard me literally growl.

What also annoyed me, was that the things, that supposedly piss women off about men are nearly all about basic household cleanliness, while the items on the men’s list are mostly about down time, again perpetuating the stereotype that all women care about is cleaning and are humorless.

‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” should all be available on DVD, along with “She-Ra Princess of Power” (which was overall a better show). Another good 80′s Filmation series was Bravestarr (don’t know if it got a DVD release).

Seconding the recommendation for Gargoyles.

I would strongly recommend Batman: The Animated Series (1991-1994 or so), and the subsequent shows in the DC animated universe produced by Bruce Timm: Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. The shows deal with some mature themes, and Justice League/JLU aren’t very child-friendly, so you may want to wait on those. But the first few DVD volumes of Batman should be fine.

(Men like senses of humor in women, too, if they stop buying that whole sexist line of crap about how women aren’t funny. Maybe that’s why all these Funny Nice Guys can’t get a girlfriend. They won’t let HER be funny too.)

Quite. If I ever try internet dating again, I should mention that when I say I like a sense of humor, I mean someone who is funny. Whether she also thinks I am funny is up to her.

THERE’S NEW GARGOYLES? This is what I get for not having cable.

The thing that struck me about the lists is that the majority of men I know do the things on the “women hate this stuff” list, and most women don’t. But I’ve never known a woman who does the things on the “men hate this stuff” list. I’ve never known a man to do them, either.

People who don’t give their opinion about where to eat either really don’t care, or feel uncomfortable stating an opinion. In either case, they don’t suddenly make a case of not liking the food they refused to pick out. People don’t take your book and then throw it away. (I mean, I’m sure somebody does, but it’s not common.) People don’t eat all of your food if they asked to share. So either these are not universal behaviors, but very specific behavior of a particular narcissistic ass, which this idiot is projecting onto all women… or he’s exaggerating normal behavior for amusing effect, like the one time his girlfriend actually lost his book becomes “women always lose your book” and his girlfriend taking a third of his dessert becomes she ate it all.

As for his “oh the poor thing” rant… while that one strikes me as realistic, and maybe even occurs in a gendered way fairly often, it’s not actually admirable that you can’t empathize with animals, dude. I mean, actually, if you had any comprehension of animal psychology, you’d know your girlfriend is *right*. The dog *does* want to go home with you. The fact that you know this would result in the dog pooping inappropriately doesn’t mean she’s wrong in her interpretation of the dog’s desires. It means you’re centering the world around your own opinion, so a dog doesn’t desire a loving family, it desires to irritate you personally.

(also, “not changing the radio station”… really? she was supposed to change it back for you? do you change your boring-ass talk radio to her pop station for her? if it’s both your car, and you both have the right to drive it, then maybe you should recognize that she has as much right to listen to her station as you do.)

But the “stuff men do”… insult women’s tastes, cherry pick favorite chores, make a huge deal of the chores he does do, be completely thoughtless of the person who cleans up, and try to apply his progressive beliefs such that she should sacrifice but not him… oh, I totally know men who do these things. Whereas I know no actual women who do. (Girls, yes, as in 12 year olds.)

So actually, my opinion is the opposite of many people’s here. It doesn’t look to me as if the man’s experience is “general” and therefore we’re supposed to sympathize, whereas the woman’s experience is all about cleaning and therefore no fun. It looks to me as if the man is either exaggerating or referring to one particular, unusual jerk, and the woman is talking about things that in real life, men actually *do* to women. And many of the man’s “things he hates” actually strike me as things he only feels he has the right to rant about because he has a massive sense of entitlement — like the fact that he plainly feels his girlfriend ought to change the channel back to his favorite, and the volume back to his preference, rather than he takes a minute to fix his preferences in the morning, even though there’s no evidence from his rant that it’s his personal car or that he puts the channels back for her.

Right. They’re all variations on the same theme and could easily have been gotten down to one or two points along the lines of “pick up after your damn self, I’m not a maid”. But then they would have had to actually think to come up with more points.

Y’know, you’re absolutely right…I hadn’t realized how much of my nostalgia-love was tied up in the first 5 eps. I think I only actually saw 2 other episodes (Panacea and The Collection)…oh, plus the one with the baby leviathan which completely sucked.

Besides the flaws you mention, there’s simply the fact that they lost some (most?) of the “gritty” edge that the original miniseries seemed to have. I mean, the whole premise depends on that feel.

I like it when Vixen does the elephant. <__< Also the cheetah.

I think my favorite Vixen bit was where she did a gecko to fix her injured arm.