Not too long ago, I saw one of the newer Star Wars films.  (No, don't ask me which one.  I'm not into them enough to remember its name.)  Watching it, I could not help but notice that the male characters were all childishly immature fools and that the female characters were all portrayed as strong and wise.

Lately, upon trying to give some modern television programs a chance, I found this portrayal of men and women to be, apparently now, the norm.

A case in point was the latest of the Star Trek series, Picard.

Yes, he was still male — but now older and frailer.  And as such, perhaps, now prone to emotional overreaction.  But basically he, Picard, was still portrayed as the thoughtful, heroic character portrayed in the late '80s and early '90s TV series.  But in contrast to him, every — yes: every — strong character other than he was female.

Indeed, males in the program were relatively few, and those few were drawn as weak.  Why, even a purported Romulan — he of a supposedly (according to Star Trek lore) "warrior race" — was pictured as a soft "pretty boy" with all his masculinity erased.

Does society make a culture, or does culture make a society?  This is endlessly discussed.  But whichever is currently making the other, this culture is not mine.  Nor is it one I even choose to visit.

Yes, Picard turned me off.  I, in turn, turned it off.

I suppose this world of preternaturally strong, wise women and weak, foolish men may be somebody's world.  Or somebody's dream of the ideal world of tomorrow.

But not mine.