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This is a great article, but I question the logic of the last paragraphs. Men are only "feminized" insofar as they are relegated to what they perceive to be a lower slot on the social totem -- the one they have traditionally associated with women. That doesn't mean every characteristic that is ascribed to a "feminized" man is applicable to "females" as a category.
No, we don't think you freak out and get angry when we have more money than you do. No, we don't (always) think you flip out when a man comes on to you -- though that one's more up for grabs, since people of all stripes tend to flip out when somebody they don't want to hit on them hits on them. No, we don't think you end relationship because you've been passed over for promotion -- though it's got to be awfully frustrating by now.
By your own system of ascendancy, though, a male wouldn't be simply re-inscribed with female characteristics -- he would view a woman as a usurper. Hence the bitterness. It's not about a simple flip-flop in which everything male becomes female and everything female, male. Women, instead, become the lovable underdog who, through unbridled tenacity, make that shot to win the game. And then we don't see the other team, the team that was "supposed" to win, onscreen for the rest of the movie. So, these shows are a glimpse into that locker room. Are they good shows? I have no doubt that they are not good shows. But, to expect no bitterness -- to assume bad sportsmanship is somehow equated with a distaste towards everything women used to represent that men have somehow come to represent -- just wouldn't be fair. I'm not saying men aren't babies. But, one of the perks of being a loser is, you get to be a baby sometimes.
You worry that men on these shows are too "unattractive, or silly-looking"? Shoot. Sometimes that's just how we are. Submissive. Beaten down. Pansy-assed. Buffoons, caricatures, dopes or just angry, neutered bastards.
