I just finished reading a Berenstain Bears book to Mia. It is about the Bear family forgetting their manners. As usual, the mother bear is perfect and the father bear’s behavior is just as bad as the kids’. The mother bear has to draw some kind of chart to make sure everyone remembers their manners and talks in a preachy, sanctimonious “I am always right” voice.
We’re surrounded by this kind of thing in commercials and tv shows. The mom is always the grown-up in the family, thin and pretty with perfect make-up, coiffed hair and no stains on her clothes. She is always married to a fat, clueless guy who looks like Jim Belushi. She sighs and pouts and rolls her eyes at her husband’s stupidity although he is so lovable she obviously loves him. In various commercials she smiles indulgently at her kids when they make a huge mess or eat too much junk food, and she cleans up after the dumb husband who can’t figure out how to work a mop.
Even if the Berenstain mother bear is neither thin nor pretty, the point is she’s always the one who has no flaws while the father bear can get away with acting like an idiot. In the books she is always wearing a pained expression of martyrdom.
I really dislike this representation of women in our society. I know it’s light years better than how it used to be, especially the 1950s when women were portrayed as vacuous and shallow and weak, with minimal interests. But these days, the modern woman is shown as TOO perfect and there is a huge pressure that goes with that.
That’s why I love female tv characters like Elaine in “Seinfeld”. She could have been written as the boring voice of reason but she was just as depraved of morals as the guys were.
In “Ben”, it’s true that Olivia falls into the straight man (woman) role to serve as a foil for Ben. But she also has her moments. And more importantly, when it comes to Patty and Nathan, Patty is the more comical, insecure one and Nathan is the boring straight man. Patty has stains on her clothes, loses her temper, is emotional, and has a hard time dealing with laundry. She’s by no means the perfect mom, but then again, who is? No one – except on TV.
Salut Rina,
Je suis d’accord avec toi. Today’s society depict woman in the wrong manner (as well as man in a certain way). You should take a look at the show “Les Parent” on french CBC on Monday nights at 7h30 PM…. The wife goes through the same kind of frustration women live every day as working moms with kids and husband. It’s in french, but one of the few I like to watch. Stay cool, you are not perfect.
See ya. Steph
Hi Rina,
You are right. However, please note that “Berenstein Bears” were created around … 1950, and the book presented was published in 1985, meaning 25 years ago.
Steph a une bonne suggestion. “Les Parent” est à ne pas manquer.
Pat
thanks Steph and Pat, we’ll try to check out “Les Parent” next week…sounds interesting!
Watching “Les Parent” should give Daniel a few ideas for his comic strip, especially with the two younger boys’ behaviour!