Men of a certain age Mr corman Shrinking
this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
73 points (97.4% liked)
Men's Liberation
1844 readers
3 users here now
This community is first and foremost a feminist community for men and masc people, but it is also a place to talk about men’s issues with a particular focus on intersectionality.
Rules
Everybody is welcome, but this is primarily a space for men and masc people
Non-masculine perspectives are incredibly important in making sure that the lived experiences of others are present in discussions on masculinity, but please remember that this is a space to discuss issues pertaining to men and masc individuals. Be kind, open-minded, and take care that you aren't talking over men expressing their own lived experiences.
Be productive
Be proactive in forming a productive discussion. Constructive criticism of our community is fine, but if you mainly criticize feminism or other people's efforts to solve gender issues, your post/comment will be removed.
Keep the following guidelines in mind when posting:
- Build upon the OP
- Discuss concepts rather than semantics
- No low effort comments
- No personal attacks
Assume good faith
Do not call other submitters' personal experiences into question.
No bigotry
Slurs, hate speech, and negative stereotyping towards marginalized groups will not be tolerated.
No brigading
Do not participate if you have been linked to this discussion from elsewhere. Similarly, links to elsewhere on the threadiverse must promote constructive discussion of men’s issues.
Recommended Reading
- The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity, And Love by bell hooks
- Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements by Michael Messner
Related Communities
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
I particularly love Shrinking. Jason Segel and Harrison Ford make a great pair.
Who knew Jason Sudeikis had such dramatic chops? I honestly forgot it was even him most of the time.
Shrinking might be a good positive depiction of positive masculinity (I don't think it is, he's a toxic asshole who puts his stuff on everyone else) but I couldn't get over the fact that he's supposed to be a therapist. I'm a psychotherapist and Segal's wildly unethical behaviour, never mind the unethical behaviour of his workmates (who should have reported him) made me really dislike this show. I loved Ted Lasso and Shrinking is not on the same level.
There were similar issues with unethical therapists in Ted Lasso. While it's not done in the same way, there are still a few unethical therapist-patient interactions (spoiler left below). Since both shows are Apple TV, I was joking that this is just a theme for AppleTV shows.
It IS possible to have ethical therapist-patient scenes that are also interesting, so maybe it's just easier for most shows to play it up.
I think with Shrinking, the characters are not perfect role models, but they're actively trying to improve and get better. They also don't share a lot of the usual issues with male characters. Overall I agree with you though.
Spoiler Ted Lasso
How the former marriage counsellor starts dating Ted's ex-wife and eventually gets married to her. That's so unethical that I can't think of the other examples right now.
The fact that the situation you mention in the spoiler is acknowledged in the show to be problematic from both a professional and personal perspective is dealt with in the show, iirc. It’s something Ted needs to come to grips with, and is in no small part related to his internal troubles. It’s not played for laughs or character development, and to the extent that the therapist wasn’t reported or sanctioned it is unfortunate but realistic.
I agree completely about the therapists in Ted Lasso, but they weren't the main characters in the story, so it didn't bother me so much.
It's really the reason I never started the show because I don't feel comfortable with such a recurring theme of depicting therapists as unprofessional. Like I'm fine if they were portrayed as humans ans struggling to deal with difficulties and struggling to help their clients but this is just icky to me
The only realistic therapist portrayal that I've seen in a movie or TV show is Steve Carrell's in The Patient.
I've never seen it but I'll have to watch it now. Every movie or television therapist I've ever seen are terrible.
Interesting - I hadn't heard of Mr. Corman yet at all. I'll give it a watch :)