The representation of men in modern films and TV shows

I've been thinking about how men are portrayed in the media these days and thought I'd share my thoughts. Feel free to disagree, but please keep it civilised and constructive.

It seems to me that the way men are represented in Western media has changed over the past decade, and I feel the changes have been to the detriment of men and boys.

The representation of women has changed too, but in a way positive for women and girls. Hollywood in particular used to sometimes represent women in an exploitative, dismissive or sexualised way. However, this attitude was very rarely hateful or intentionally negative. Female characters were much more likely to be overlooked or trivialised than condemned.

With men, however, vilification is common in the media. What gets to me isn't that men are often villains, but that they're villains because they're men. This seems like an important change. Men are in some ways presented as innately and irredeemably flawed creatures, while women automatically have advantages, abilities and insight denied to men.

The loss of men from certain roles is also a recent trend. In remakes and reboots, characters are often swapped from male to female, or historical roles that were almost exclusively male have a disproportionately or unrealistically high number of female characters. Male characteristics, such as physical strength, assertiveness, stoicism, aggressiveness and competitiveness have become the attributes of leading female characters, and leading male characters are in decline. It's one thing to create good female roles, but another thing to take those roles from men. I can't exactly say that men and boys have been squeezed out, but this process only occurs in one direction and it's usually zero sum - women gain and men lose.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and it was a golden age for boys who loved cinema. On reflection, I probably took the male-centred narratives of the films I enjoyed for granted, and never thought about my role as a boy or a future man. And why would I? I was doing no harm and girls had their own entertainment, which didn't concern me. Nowadays, it seems almost impossible to sit through a film or a show without being asked or forced to question your identity in a partisan way, which is exhausting and unproductive. It's a shame that we - all of us, male and female - can't simply go through what should be one of the most enjoyable parts of the day without it becoming yet another front in the culture wars. Women can be women and men can be men, without tension or conflict about their roles. They don't have to exist in opposition or competition. Of course, it's perfectly valid for films and shows to be more analytical or provocative about gender and identity, but there's a place for that, and it isn't in most productions.

I don't want to go back to the past. In some ways, there's been progress in the representation of the sexes that I'm happy to see. However, misandry seems all too common in today's media, and engaging or positive male characters seem to have almost disappeared from our screens. A fuller and more tightly focused representation of women is all to the good, but it doesn't need to be accompanied by the abasement or erasure of men.

Given how I feel, I sometimes wonder what effect modern media have on boys. It must be harmful to be shown again and again that you belong to an intrinsically flawed and unpleasant group, with few good role models as counterpoints. I don't think it can lead to anything good.

What are your thoughts? Do I have a point or am I overthinking this?

Monday edit: Thank you to everyone who responded in good faith, whether you agreed or disagreed. I don't think my mind has been changed, but you've given me a lot to think about.

I did ask for a civilised and constructive discussion, but one notable troll steamed straight in with insults and derision. Someone else accused me of being a sock puppet for another poster. I'm not. I briefly had an account on here before, perhaps a year or 18 months ago. I deleted my account because of the trolling. I really have to question what the value is of keeping disruptive people like that around. Trust me, they put off a lot of potential users.