Tim Allen, the ageless father?

This week I have spent more time in bed and cuddled in a blanket on the couch than I care to admit.  I have been home sick and feeling pretty crappy :-(  So when you are sick, cannot leave the house, your brain feels all foggy and weird what can you do?  Watch TV and movies of course.  So I have done a lot of that.

In the past two days I have watched almost an entire season of Last Man Standing, almost an entire season of Good Luck Charlie and a (semi-weird) ABC Family movie called Princess.  So I decided to blog about what I have taken away from this media overload experience.  The thought I found most interesting is about Tim Allen.  Now, please do not take this as Tim Allen hate...  I love The Santa Clause movies, Jungle 2 Jungle,  the Toy Story movies.  I think I could even be a Tim Allen fan, but that being said there was an episode in Last Man Standing that reminded me of Miss Representation.

      

Towards the end of the season there was an appearance by Jonathan Taylor Thomas.  There was a comical exchange between his character and Tim Allen's character about Tim Allen recognizing Jonathan Taylor Thomas from somewhere... well that somewhere was Home Improvement where more than a decade ago Tim Allen was playing the father of a family of boys.  This made me think of the Miss Representation movie we watched in class because now more than a decade later Tim Allen is still playing the father of a family of teenagers.  The only difference is now it is a family of teenage girls.

Would a female actress in our society today be able to play a mother of teenage boys and then more than a decade later play a mother of teenage girls?  Maybe their grandma or something, but I really doubt that she would be able to play the mother.

What is the difference then?  Tim Allen looks a decade older now than he did on Home Improvement, but we just accept it.  He looks more distinguished now, maybe it is more realistic now.  But what would we say about a woman in his shoes, she looks too old to play the mother again.  Or if you want this part you need to get your face lifted or something.

So am I going to boycott Last Man Standing.  No way, it is funny, I like Tim Allen and as TV shows go it is pretty clean. But what I am going to do is be a little kinder to women on TV. I am going to try to change my perception of aging women.  And  I am going to work on my perception of my self.