Name me a single TV show where the man isn’t a moron, and where the woman is not the only functional adult in the relationship, and I could likely show you 100 shows where the man is portrayed as a moron and where the woman is the only functional adult.

The Good Place
Babylon 5
Star Trek (OS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT)
Stranger Things
Firefly
Sevrence
The Black List
Breaking Bad
Gravity Falls...

You owe me 900 shows.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

And this is far from an exhaustive list. But it’s telling that this is a widely-known and ubiquitous trope, whereas its flip-side opposite is pretty much nonexistent.

In fact, the only references I could find were on the “foolish husband” tropes:

And Star Trek should not be on your list:

OS did not include explicit relationships between main characters
TNG series had only two historical relationships, neither of which were “active”.
DS9 had Rom (last season), O’Bryan, and (in the early seasons as a bumbling romantic) Bashir. To a certain extent the trope even existed between Quark and his mother, in terms of her being financially successful and smart in ways Quark never was, although this was shown in just a handful of episodes and so doesn’t really count.
Voyager had Paris, Neelix, and - to a painfully awkward extent - Kim. Plus, poor dude spent the entire voyage home as a f**king ensign.
Technically Enterprise had Trip, who as a human was very emotionally foolish next to T’Pol.

Plus, the argument can be made that a few of your other choices don’t have a husband/wife relationship as a central/recurring feature between main characters, and as such are also ineligible.

The only solid mark that I see in your favour is Babylon 5, with Sheraton’s relationship with Delenne and Ivanova’s tragic relationship with Cole being exemplary examples that are shockingly rare in media.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 1 points 20 hours ago

that's not 900 shows
your list includes things like;

Calvin and Hobbes: While Calvin's dad isn't exactly foolish (he's a patent attorney) and just as irritated by Calvin's antics as Calvin's mom, there's also plenty of strips showing him trolling Calvin by telling him outrageous lies about how the world works (such as the world being black and white until the '60s, or wind being caused by trees sneezing, or Calvin not being brought by a stork but a pterodactyl, etc.).

Which is notably not what you were complaining about.

there's a difference between it existing in some shows throughout the history of mankind and it being the overwhelming majority of television like you implied. Every show I listed was popular and well recieved. Your list includes Fan Fiction which isn't even television.