A rough overview on recent “Dumb Dads” portrayed in media

All dads aren’t dumb. Much the same way that all women don’t drive poorly and all blondes aren’t airheads. Likewise, all Asians aren’t smart and all black people can’t play basketball.

But enough about blonde Asian women that can’t play basketball; let’s chat about why the media thinks that all dads are dumb. As a dad, I do love a good joke and have been told that I have an engaging sense of humor. Having said that, let’s take a look at some examples that make us think that broken hearted college girls are shaping some media decisions lately.

The Bitter Dads Club
The Bitter Dads Club is the title of an article in Newsweek. In the article the author summarizes The Change-Up as a metaphor for dads who are bitter and resentful of the single sex addled life that other guys may lead. Essentially, The Change-Up is a body switch comedy about two guys who live the aforementioned lives and they get switched, a la, Freaky Friday; except without Lindsay Lohan and any shoplifting charges.
It’s an interesting article but I’d say that the title is misleading. They mention some of the books that have come out in which dads express frustration or sarcasm about various aspects of parenting. Dads aren’t bitter; we’ve just changed a lot, with some of us working more hours and others being stay at home dads.

The Change-Up looks funny and comedies don’t solve problems; they take us away for a couple of hours. We’re going to review it in Daddy Mojo goes to the movies; I don’t expect to come back from the theater bitter or less intelligent, even though it’s clearly aimed at guys.

Parenting Magazine is renamed “Moms”

To be clear, this is not the national Parenting Magazine. “Parenting in Fort Wayne” magazine has been renamed “Moms”. Moms is a bi monthly magazine that appears in The News-Sentinel and Journal Gazette.
The publishers of Moms surely know their demographic and tested the new name. I don’t know anything about the publication, but as a dad, it would seem to me that Parenting would be more appropriate for a magazine about parenting. If the publication is going to exclusively tackle mom issues, like breastfeeding, menstruation and other things that scare men, then the name change is appropriate. Plus it’s possible that Fort Wayne is the artificial insemination capital of the U.S., so Moms, instead of Parenting in Fort Wayne is more appropriate.

Up all Night-I’ll give it a shot
The Bitter Dads Club turned us onto a show that NBC will air this fall called Up all Night. The show is about a man and wife who are trying to balance life, work and a new born baby. Dad in Up all Night is played by Will Arnett and the mom in the series is Christina Applegate.
It’s a simple premise with two great actors, but I look forward to watching it. If anything the trailer for the show makes them look like new parents who are learning about the difficulties of being a parent.

As both mom and dad are show in the series as not knowing I’m all for it. Because the dad in the series is Will Arnett, I’d probably give it a shot even if it was just the dad who was portrayed as being the slow parent. If you’ve never seen Arnett in anything you’re missing out because his timing and deadpan act is great. Applegate was nice in Samantha Who and with any luck Up all Night will be half as good as Community.
Male bashing on TV must stop
Male bashing on TV must stop was the title to a local blog in The AJC that brought up some nice points about the dumb dad on tv. All of the points aren’t strong, but it brings home the fact that advertising agencies too often portray Dad as a dummy.

What do you think, am I just being thin skinned?