CBS’s comedy Man With a Plan took on the controversial issue of sexism, and of course, made sure to give a liberal lecture on the topic. The show centers around husband and father Adam (Matt LeBlanc) who starts spending more time with his kids when his wife Andi (Liza Snyder) goes back to work.
On the Monday, December 11 episode, “Battle of the Sexists,” however, the focus was on Adam’s job as a contractor. As he discusses who to hire with his friends and coworkers, his wife overhears and accuses him of sexism because they’re only focused on hiring a man.
Andi: Hey, uh, just out of curiosity, why does it have to be a guy?
Adam: What do you mean?
Andi: Well, all the applicants are men.
Don: Well, the job is foreman. It's for a man.
Adam: No, that's not why. Okay, look, my crew are big, tough guys, so I need an even bigger, tougher guy to boss them around. Plus, we have porta-potties. Those things don't flush. It's no place for a lady.
Andi: You are the father of two daughters. Would you want Emme and Kate being denied opportunities?
Adam: At a construction site? Yes. Look, I do what I do so they can have the kind of namby-pamby jobs where your boss has a ponytail and you can call in sad.
Andi: So, women can only do namby-pamby jobs?
Adam: No, no, I just... Why is everyone so quiet?
Of course, the writers had to turn Adam into a stuttering idiot who can’t defend his point. Adam finally tries to redeem himself by saying, “Look, men are better at some things and women are better at others.”
Apparently, recognizing this obvious truth was the final straw for Andi as she tells Adam, “You’re kind of being a sexist.” In the end, he gives in to Andi and accepts her challenge to try to find a woman who is qualified for the job. Because, of course.
As it turns out, Adam interviews seven different men and none of them are qualified for the job. But, as luck would have it, the woman he interviews is a perfect fit.
Adam: So, Zara, uh, what do you like about construction?
Zara: What's there not to like? I get to smash stuff, get to drive big machines, and when you're finished, there's something there that wasn't there before.
Adam: Good answer. The last guy said he liked how easy it was to quit.
Don: I see you went to college. In this job, we build colleges. We don't go to them.
Zara: If you look at the next line, you'll see that I got a degree in construction management.
Lowell: Oh, a big fancy college girl. I'm sorry. I can't give you guff. You seem lovely.
Adam: Zara, the issue I'm having here is you don't have a ton of on-site experience.
Zara: Yeah, it's hard for a woman to get a job on a work site. Guys just hire other guys.
Adam, Don, Lowell: What?
Zara: Look, I have enough experience to know that you'd already have your roof up if your guys weren't shooting dice behind that forklift.
Adam: Don, you said you were gonna handle that.
Don: I did. They cut us in for 20%. That's how we got the fancy coffee maker.
Zara: I'll take care of this. Hey! Get back to work! Every minute you're on your ass, I'm docking your pay!
Adam: Oh, they're moving now. Look, Big Ernie just ran into a hole.
Don: Oh, it's okay. Little Ernie is helping him out.
Adam: Now they're both in the hole.
Zara: Nice guys.
Adam: Very impressive. I haven't seen Big Ernie move that fast since his ex-wife came down here. You know, I-I think she's hired.
Andi ends up being impressed by her husband hiring a woman…until she finds out that Zara is a former stripper. Then she demands that Adam fire her, telling him, “I am just not comfortable with you working ten hours a day with somebody who used to dance for schlumpy perverts.”
Adam points out that she is now being sexist. “How could you, the mother of two daughters, be so judgmental? That's women keeping women down, that's what that is,” he argues. Andi retorts, “Look, I believe that any woman should be able to have any job…Unless she's a stripper and it's with my husband.”
In the end, Zara explains that her parents wouldn’t support her dream of working in construction, so she had to find a way to pay for it herself and that's why she turned to stripping. “I did what I had to do,” she argues. “And I know some people might judge me. But I don't care. I'm proud of myself. I wasn't gonna let anybody tell me how I could live my life.”
Andi is inspired by Zara’s story and decides she doesn’t mind her husband working next to an ex-stripper for ten hours a day after all and all is well in Hollywood liberal land.
In a side story, Adam and Andi’s daughter Kate (Grace Kaufman) wants to play for the boys’ soccer team rather than the girls’. We’re not told why the girls’ team isn’t good enough for her even though that seems “kind of sexist.”
But Andi is all for her daughter’s decision and fights to get her on the boys’ team by bullying the principal. The principal is a man but apparently was frightened by Andi’s threats and allows Kate to join the boys’ team. Because all men are apparently wimpy idiots who are easily put in their place by more intelligent and woke women.
After just one practice, though, Kate declares that “boys are gross” and that she wants to be put back on the girls’ team, putting the figurative male-hating cherry on top of the male-bashing sundae that is this entire episode.
I have a question for the writers of this show. How can Adam and Andi, parents of a young son, not be concerned for his future and the possibility of him being treated like an incompetent Neanderthal in a world that disrespects men in the name of supporting women? Or is it only daughters that matter?
