Posted on 01/18/2026 4:52:31 PM PST by Angelino97
Consider the hapless man. He’s uncertain, ineffectual, star-crossed. Nothing ever seems to work out for him; he can’t confidently take action to face a crisis. You’d think he would make for a dull story. And yet there he was last year, serving, improbably, as the protagonist in several notable films.
Instead of prestige movie heroes like J. Robert Oppenheimer, we had the unlucky lead who bumbles forward as if confounded by the plot unfolding around him. He’s a man of action, sometimes, but not much sense. He turns to exactly the wrong person for help with an important task. He spends so long numbing himself with drugs and alcohol that he can’t recall the talismanic words that will protect him.
And of course he reckons with the people these films inevitably put beside him: hypercompetent women. They are ever-present — and they are usually so capable, so confidently efficacious, that if they were the story’s focus, the movie would be over in 15 minutes...
All these protagonists are ineffectual bunglers. Once they’ve decided to act — not a given — they seem unmoored by the forces arrayed against them. It’s not just viewers who can see this. Early in “One Battle,” Perfidia’s mother asks Bob how he will take care of her baby granddaughter: “You look so lost,” she tells him.
The women they come across, on the other hand, seem ready for anything. They might see several chess moves ahead of both the protagonists and antagonists. They know how to affect the world of the movie, and they do so with ease — exactly what the actual “hero” of the story is completely unable to do.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Every woman lawyer or real estate agent posts the identical pose on their billboard photo. Stand at an angle to the camera, lean slightly backward, told your head and cross your arms.
Adopt an arrogant look on your face and wait for the clients to roll in.
Not me though.
>> So, a woman in a black cocktail dress and high heels taking on 23 men variously armed with knives, clubs, handguns and sub machine guns and effortlessly defeating them without breaking a heel isn’t typical?
Nah, in real life they wear spandex leggings.
Mary Sue stories—the adventures of the youngest and smartest ever person to graduate from the academy and ever get a commission at such a tender age.Usually characterized by unprecedented skill in everything from art to zoology, including karate and arm-wrestling.
This character can also be found burrowing her way into the good graces/heart/mind of one of the Big Three [Kirk, Spock, and McCoy], if not all three at once. She saves the day by her wit and ability, and, if we are lucky, has the good grace to die at the end, being grieved by the entire ship.
We know who’s running the show there.
That's a shortlist of titles downstairs. There is a big pile of disks upstairs. Liam Neeson's Taken series.
Oooo! Thanks. Those all look good. :)
RED - You Love the Thunder - Jackson Browne
https://youtu.be/sf_7tZshbrA
RED - Let There Be Guns - Arrogant Worms
https://youtu.be/-H2kBw7UAgg
Sunset - Should’ve Been a Cowboy - Toby Keith
https://youtu.be/FvhFzc03T1o
Galaxy Quest - Very Last Day - Peter Paul and Mary
https://youtu.be/6YEbdNvchqk
Galaxy Quest - Trouble - Cat Stevens
https://youtu.be/u_dj347DHVU
Sherlock Holmes - Downey - Wild Horses - Rolling Stones
https://youtu.be/BCY9m7qspew
Sherlock Holmes - Downey - As It Seems - Lily Kershaw
https://youtu.be/TvhceY2JMNw
Which is the main reason I quit watching TV.
I *HATE* the way men are portrayed on TV in programs and commercials.
This is the post of the day!!!
The democrat party consists of stupid women and weak men.
If you are talking about the politicians, the Republican men are pretty weak, as well.
Every commercial has the cool intelligent black person and weak clueless white man.
You will like RED. It's great.
I also like Nobody
Restore the Patriarchy!
I don’t go to movies and very rarely watch network tv.
And probably the main reason President Trump is hated so much. Here is a competent man taking charge of the United States, going against every type shown in films, television shows, and commercials.
They forgot to mention that all the hapless men were white.
I was flicking through all of my Roku suggestions today thinking about this. There were no suspense movies I even recognized and I only recognized a few drama suggestions and of those there were only a couple of war related ones.
Too a degree I would imagine this is one of those “know your customer” things like we see in commercials.
Women dispose of the household income so they are targeted by the ad.
Do men watch drama/suspense movies? Generally more geared toward women, now anyway. The small screen may have some things more acceptable to males but most dramas just turn into soap opras.
That's not true. The left doesn't hate Trump for his competence, but for his policies.
The left tried very hard to portray Biden as competent, even though he was a white man.
Here's an essay I found online:
The intersexual dynamics (gender-role reversal) of The Honeymooners are, indeed, the source of the show's humor.Regards,Ralph Cramden is a flawed man: a buffoon, a blowhard, and a schemer — but also a dreamer. A sillyheart — but one motivated only by a desire to better himself and/or the financial situation of his family.
He is a man whose ambition consistently exceeds his grasp; whose abilities always fall short of his objectives; whose execution never lives up to his plans.
His bluster, his grand schemes, and his volcanic temper all project the image of a man who believes he is in command of the situation. And the comedy — and the cultural insight — come from the fact that this authority is almost entirely performative. Ralph thunders, but Alice rules.
Alice Kramden's quiet power forms the counterweight to Ralph's noisy bravado. She is the emotional adult in the room, the one who sees through every get-rich-quick plan and deflates every puffed-up declaration of masculine pride. Her sharp retorts and perennial exasperation invert the expected 1950s gender hierarchy: the wife, ostensibly subordinate, is the one who actually understands the world and keeps the household from collapsing under Ralph's fantasies. In this sense, the show's gender-role reversal is not a gimmick but its central engine — the source of both humor and truth.
The dynamic is mirrored with the Nortons. Ed Norton, Ralph's best friend, is even more childish (while simultaneously less ego-driven) than Ralph, while Trixie shares Alice's grounded realism. Together, the two couples form a kind of domestic ecosystem in which the men loudly insist on their authority while the women struggle to keep them from "going off the rails."
What makes The Honeymooners enduring is that beneath the sparring lies genuine affection. Ralph's bluster is always deflated before it becomes cruelty, and Alice's sarcasm is always tempered by loyalty. Their marriage, for all its volatility, is built on a mutual recognition: he needs her clarity, and she tolerates his chaos because she sees the earnestness beneath it. The gender-role reversal is therefore not merely comedic but humanizing. It reveals the gap between the idealized 1950s male authority figure and the flawed, lovable men who actually inhabit those roles.
In the end, the show's reversed intersexual dynamics play with traditional gender expectations while celebrating the resilience of partnership. Ralph may dream of sending Alice "to the moon," but the truth is that she keeps him grounded.
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