ABSTRACT
Trade-press publications show a consensus that the position of men is in dire peril in the Obama Era. As media scholar Brent Malin maintains in American Masculinity under Clinton, "these new male heroes embrace their new sensitivity with caution, their cautiousness evidencing anxieties implicit within this era of new masculinity and the contemporary crisis of masculinity". Masculinity has ostensibly been in crisis to varying degrees and in different historical formations since the Second World War. Sally Robinson's analysis of masculinity in crisis provides the theoretical foundations that under gird my analysis. Television is indeed a cultural practice that operates in the everyday practices of millions of people in the United States. Hanna Rosin takes a more nuanced approach to changing gender roles. Kimmel wants to maintain a nostalgic version of a real man while reconfiguring masculine behavior in ways that do not encourage violence or aggression.
