The Cosby Show is a great sitcom, but does anyone else think that in the later seasons, the show started being more sexist towards men?

Ok, I could give many examples, but let me just stick to a major one; In the episode Just Thinking About It, in which Pam is pressured to have sex with her boyfriend Slide, negative things are said about guys and guys are portrayed in a negative light. In one instance, after Slide says hi and bye to a girl, Pam says, "You men are all the same...you just don't care do you? You just let your hormones run loose." Slide responds to her question by asking "Well what are we (men) suppose to do?" Later on in the episode, Pam is reading a book and jumps to the conclusion that all men are worms after reading a passage.

I could go on and on (such as when Clair told Rudy that boys are just dumb, or Theo cheating on Justine), but has anyone else noticed this sexism? I know it's a TV show (for those who think I cannot tell the difference between reality and fiction), but even for a great sitcom such a The Cosby Show, does this sexism ever bug anyone?

No, I think the show is just fine the way it is. Sorry about that. LOL.

Welcome to the boards. I'm Tom, one of the moderators and veteran members. Good to hear from you. Keep posting.

Well, even though it doesn't bother you, have you ever noticed this sexism?

I agree with ThomasE, I don't ever think the show was Sexism towards mens. It was the great the way it was. I would not change a thing, It was all for fun and comedy.

I always found that the Cosby Show treated men and women as equals. And that's as it should be.

I think those episodes are intended to be "battles of the sexes" or "men vs. women" critiques.

What about the episode where Clair's sister was about to get married? Clair and her mom took her (the sister) in the kitchen to mainly give her a view of men, and they made them (men) look like monsters. Even Rudy got caught up in the male bashing. Just watch her interaction with Kenny. "You got to earn my love!" What does a child know about earning love?

I feel sorry for Cliff sometimes. Even Theo says, "Your wife won't let you have any fun." She is always on him about what he eats, for the love of god let the man have some junk food. Even when she is away she is calling and checking on what he is eating.

I am most definitely aware of what the original poster is saying and he is more right than most people here are admitting to. The men on the Cosby show would back off at the tiniest inclination of a (verbal) confrontation with their women. I remember the episode where Cosby instructed Elvin to back off from Sandra by literally backing away from her and putting his hands up in "surrender" whenever she (Sandra) wanted to have her way; whether she was right or wrong. This was the way he had always been with Claire so he passed the sage advice along to his son-in-law. It's like the message to men was, "if you want to get along with your woman, back off and let her do or say whatever she wanted to who ever she wanted without injecting your opinion."

They were sexist towards men look at the way Elvin got treated by the oldest daughter.Denise wasnt sexist though I really liked her.

I recall a few times where that seemed the case. I remember there was a guy trying to learn basketball and he could not shoot a lick. Enter his wife who is a pro. Husbands of pregnant wives were always bumbling fools, seldom collected and cool. Elvin was a bumbling husband to the polished and collected Sandra, Cliff the same with Claire and all of Theo's pals were knuckleheads. The only two males that seemed to have it together were Olivia's dad, his name escapes me, and Dabnis. Dabnis seemed like a good character that should have been used more.

What about the episode where Clair's sister was about to get married? Clair and her mom took her (the sister) in the kitchen to mainly give her a view of men, and they made them (men) look like monsters. Even Rudy got caught up in the male bashing. Just watch her interaction with Kenny. "You got to earn my love!" What does a child know about earning love?
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Yes there were episodes where they were anti male. After awhile it got on my nerves and stopped watching it. The man being pregnant was disgusting.

The show being sexist towards men is just one of it's problems I think. I started out liking but by the end of it (season 8 or so) I wasn't watching it or liking it much anymore. What stood out to me was the show was very "preachy" on a lot of subjects. I've seen reruns occasionally the last decade or so and I can see it was preachy about something in nearly every episode. That's a real turn off to me.

Ed.

I'm a woman, but I totally agree with the OP. There were also many other sitcoms, which had episodes like that, but "The Cosby show" had a lot of them. I mean, when Elvin was first introduced, Sondra couldn't stop nagging about what a "chauvinist pig" he was. And don't get me started on how Claire could treat Cliff, or how the women just had to beat the men in basketball in one episode. And yes, even Rudy often got involved in the male bashing, whether Kenny deserved it or not. If I'm not mistaken, Vanessa was the sister, who was the least "feminazi".

Oh, suck it up.

Oh, suck it up.

I know, right? LOL.

Why should we "suck it up"? I like "The Cosby show" most of the time, but this is an element of it, that really annoys me.

Why should we "suck it up"? I like "The Cosby show" most of the time, but this is an element of it, that really annoys me.
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I agree "suck it up?" What kind of comment is that? This is a board for discussion. The show was very annoying in terms of its portrayal of men as wimpy and less intelligent then women. As a matter of fact a lot of shows do this. It's one of the biggest turn off's about Everybody Loves Raymond for me. Don't get me started on Debra. Getting back to the Cosby Show, yes it was preachy and also, Cliff was a doctor and yet could not eat what he wanted to eat? That joke got so old to me.

It was a good show but I agree in regards to the anti male bashing at times. I still remember that episode where Denise suggested that her new husband (I forgot his name) have a bachelor party since he did not have one.

So when she found out that there would be strippers at this bachelor party (not unusual), she decided to act offended and ridiculous which Sondra stuck her two cents into it (and insulted Alvin in the processs).

If I had been her new husband, I probably would have considered getting an annullment. If she is going to carrying over this, then what will it be like being with her years from now.

I can understand that Denise didn't want Martin to look at strippers. But I don't like how instead of telling the truth, that they didn't want their husbands to look at other women, Denise and Sondra went on about how striptease was degrading towards women, if the stripper was female, but it wasn't degrading towards men, if the stripper was male. That was such a case of double standards.

I noticed it a lot in the later seasons also. But as we all learned with the Internet, girls do the same things guys do. I guess nobody knew back in the 80s. A lot of the old stereotypes came down.

On the flip side when Clif and Denise's husband Martin talk about their wedding night Clif celebrates that Denise was a virgin. Would Clif ask Theo's wife if he was virgin?

Probably not. ;)