Movies that Portray Men as Stupid, by Clayton Pickard, KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 16
Thursday, August 18th, 2016
In today’s society, men in movies, TV shows and ads are often depicted as bumbling, idiots. Since my family doesn’t have cable, I see this trend happening in movies as well. Some recent movies that have done this include the Ted franchise, the Jump Street franchise, The Internship, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, Central Intelligence and The Interview. All the men in Melissa McCarthy films are portrayed as dumb fools. In the new Ghostbusters, instead of having a “dumb blonde” as a receptionist, they show a dumb, young hunk, wonderfully portrayed by Chris Hemsworth.
Most movies with Seth Rogen and Zac Efron typically portray men as ridiculous fools. Even James Franco, a very respected writer, director and actor, appears in some really inappropriate, dumb guy movies. For instance, Seth Rogen and James Franco are the stars of the movie, The Interview. I have watched this movie three times and I actually really enjoy it. They implement a lot of funny, inappropriate jokes that teens like me love. Zac Efron stars in The Neighbors franchise, which not surprisingly, also stars Seth Rogen. I haven’t seen these films yet, but they are on my list. Zac Efron also stars in the recently released Mike and Dave film which portrays two really dumb brothers that need dates to their sister’s wedding. The family thinks that if they get dates, they won’t be 
as rowdy and ruin the event, like they usually do.
I don’t know when this trend actually started, but it seems to have supplanted the “dumb blonde” trend in movies. Sometime in the 80s. the SNL cast started making movies and many of them followed this trend. I’m thinking of films such as Caddyshack, Animal House, the National Lampoon franchise and The Jerk. This was followed by all the Jim Carrey movies and his persona who, for the most part, was a bumbling idiot. Examples are Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber and The Cable Guy.
This trend coincides with a disturbing trend in college attendance by males in this country. Prior to the 1970s, more men than women went 
to college. Sometime in the late 70s, the ratio switched and more women than men went to college. Now, approximately 60% of all college students are female. According to educators, this is an alarming trend in the U.S. As a teen soon headed to college, I am concerned about these statistics and wonder how I’ll be perceived by my fellow students (most of whom will be female).
