Men portrayed as monsters - article, Australian MX News

Found this in the Australian (Sydney) MX News, a daily newspaper given away free to all commuters each day in Sydney. It's the drum I've been banging on about for ages, so really pleased to see it in at least a form of mainstream press.

QUOTE:

TITLE: TV Turns men into monsters, by Matt Sun

The portrayal of men on current affairs television has turned the average Australian male from goofy bloke to evil predator.
University of Western Sydney media researcher Dr Jim Macnamara said years of seeing images of men being shown as evil was influencing young boys, who either abandon men as role models or try to live up to the stereotype.

A six month study revealed 69 percent of reports on men were unfavourable - only 12 percent were favourable.

"Some recurring themes in media content portrayed men as violent, sexually abusive, unable to be trusted with children, deadbeat dads or commitment-phobic, and in need of reconstruction," he said.

"Men were predominately reported or portrayed in mass media as villains, aggressors, perverts, and philanderers. With more than 75 percent of mass media representations of men and male identity showing men in one of these four ways."

Macnamara accepted that many adults dismiss the negative portrayal as exaggeration or ratings grabbing, but said that those most likely to be overwhelmed by the images were boys with single parents.

"Highly negative views of men and male identity provide little by way of positive role models for boys to find out what it means to be a man and gives boys little basis for self-esteem," he said.

/END QUOTE

Personally I think it's about time somebody paid attention to it, and I'm only surprised the figure is so low - ONLY 75% of men in the press displaying us in the four evils...