Whether one wants to prove their manliness, tough-as-nails attitude, or both, Parks and Recreation‘s Ron Swanson is the go-to fictional character for all sorts of inspiring quotes and worldly guidance. Then again, anyone who thinks the character is a legitimate source of life advice may want to consult with the actor first. Not because he feels any kind of ownership over the character, per se, but because he thinks you’re all getting it wrong.
At least that’s what Offerman told The A.V. Club while promoting a new comedy tour he’s co-headlining with his wife, Megan Mullally:
Ron Swanson, because of his simple rules for living, became a lot of peoples’ icon for their own aspirations of simple living. And so anybody from meat eaters to scotch drinkers to gun wielders to libertarians all hold Ron up as their champion, but he was much more complex than that. He was a very outspoken feminist. He was a man of few words and people mistook that for a man of few colors.
Offerman was especially enamored of the Parks and Rec writers’ insistence that Swanson be a feminist.
Traditionally, that character is more like Al Bundy or Archie Bunker, where they’re much more apt to be misogynists or, at best, dismissive of women. Ron was completely fair. Whoever had the skills or the passion or the decency, whether it was a man or a woman, he drew no line.
Yes, Swanson loved a good plate of “turf and turf” every now and then, and yes, both he and his real-life counterpart sure do love woodworking. But that doesn’t mean that Swanson was ever as simple and single-minded as most fans would have him be.
Unless, of course, he’s given the chance to spell out “poop.”
(Via The A.V. Club)
