Just the other day I was given the opportunity to try and answer an impossible question. The question was thus: Just how are men and masculinity represented in the media and how does this reinforce stereotypes or, indeed, reflect positively on men.
It was the clocks going back that gave me a nasty shock. The clock radio in our bedroom had been 35 minutes fast for about two years. Mrs Adams and I never put it right because, apparently, we couldn’t figure out how to do it.
If your partner died, you would hope for sympathetic treatment from the Powers That Be. The reality is very different. Let’s, just for a moment, look at the financial realities. Eligibility for Bereavement Support Payments has just been slashed from 20 years to 18 months. Oh, and you have to be married to receive them.
If you or your children are fans of Paddington Bear, I have to warn you there are some surprising twists and turns in the film Paddington 2. The most unexpected twist must surely be that Paddington ends up in prison under the protection of a man-mountain called of Knuckles McGinty.
This is one of those: “How would you have handled this?” blog posts. It involves some rough play in a park, some bad language (which I shan’t repeat) and me, intervening to stop things getting out of hand.
