His Side with Glenn Sacks Radio Commentary: ‘Dad as Idiot’ TV

I do not wish to diminish the importance of the rarity of a single father being portrayed as competent- I agree and applaud that. But before we rush to urge children, particularly boys to embrace the programming on Disney or Nickelodeon we need to confront and discuss the portrayal of boys on these channels. Even on the lauded Hannah Montana, the boys, particularly the son of this good father is portrayed as an incapable underachieving idiot. In fact I am hard pressed to think of any strong and consistently positive boy characters on these networks- naturally there are numerous examples girls we can be proud of. Be it Kimpossible or pretty much any show on these networks, boys can never be accomplished, driven, smart or successful especially when pitted agains girls or academics. Glenn I value your approach and I value all of your good work for finding exceptions and focussing on the positive, but before we celebrate these networks they need to do a lot of work, particularly in the arena of boys and their portrayal. Keep up the great work!!!!