My goodness it's been going on for awhile. In comedy sketches, going back to The Honeymooners, the men were dolts, I Love Lucy, not so much, Desi was just the stick in the mud and Lucy was the zany one. Starting in the 70's, the kids were the heros, allowed to be brats and sassy and that was supposed to be funny. The grandfather is often depicted as a wise man, elders in a lot of movies are wise. The heroic men were usually not married. The marketing brains of that day realized that there were more women watching, and the products were geared to them, except for smokes and booze and cars. If it is social engineering, it is also marketing engineering. How to sell something to a woman ? Flatter her, tell her she needs something to make life easier, to make her more beautiful, tell her that she is smart. I think woman are easier to brain wash then men, or at least that's how it used to be.