James Woods to the Extreme

When celebrities begin discussing the state of the American male today, people will listen. Getting people to think and talk about it is never a bad thing. In this month's issue of Maxim, James Woods tosses in his two cents. In some instances, I think he's right on the mark. On others, it seems like he might be residing on one of the extreme fringes. And,unfortunately, the extremes tend to be disregarded by most of us in the middle. The whole interview is only available to subscribers but here are his musings on men in America today:

Are today's men pussies?
Men in America are ridiculously pathetic now. I was watching Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential and he's dangerous. But have you noticed anytime they want that quintessential sort of brute, primal male, they cast an Australian? That worries me. When I was at M.I.T., I took a class in sociology, and one of the theories about the rise of Nazism in Germany was that after losing World War I the men were so degraded that they fell prey to the easy platitudes of th Nazis.

Men aren't that bad, are we?
Look at how men are portrayed in commercials. They're complete bozos. They'll be talking to, like, an insurance salesman or something, and the woman is always rolling her eyes because her husband can't understand anything.

Comments

[American Copywriter]

Unfortunately he's exactly right about how we're showing men in advertising. I've joked before that it's perfectly okay to make fun of a man in advertising. It's not like we're going to get off the couch and write a letter of complaint. But maybe we should. If we can just figure out how to get a stamp on the envelope.