Because it's obvious (again, only if this really does reflect some vein in American society and is not just a total fabrication) that Americans are not ready for a woman president.

I hate to delve into the usual comparisons with Europe, and yes, a large chuck of Europe is far behind the US in women's issues (generally, most of Eastern and Mediterranean Europe), but could these attitudes have something to do with the fact that France has a women's labor participation rate of nearly 80%, while the US cannot break 60%? How about our college degree attainment rate of only about 23%?

It's interesting that at the same time that these new shows are being produced, the concept of the "man law" has been firmly rooted in male-oriented programming. Tune in to sports radio or ESPN long enough and you will hear a comment about somebody needing to turn in their "man card" for doing something like not ordering the porterhouse steak at dinner or using an umbrella to walk the 10 feet from their car to their office (I heard this one a couple of days ago). A beer company's main campaign slogan is "Men Should Act Like Men," and features men getting crushed by giant beer cans as punishment for not catching a tossed brewsky correctly or saying "whee!" while testing out a trampoline. Also, TV and movie actors like Jim Belushi and "Sopranos" tough guy Frank Vincent have authored books about how to be a "real" man.

It seems to me that this codifiction of male behaviors that are socially acceptable mirrors the kind of rules imposed on women until the late 20th century. During that time, the people who called the shots in media (The Executive Producers, studio chiefs, and publishing heads) were overwhelmingly men. Nowadays women fill many critical creative roles in TV, movies, and print. The overarching theme of tough, accomplished women who have to deal with professionally, socially, and economically impotent men might be an unconscious reflection of what many of these women see themselves going through. Similarly, media geared toward men might reflect a lot of anxiety guys have about how they're supposed to act among each other and with girls who are just as powerful as them.

Sometimes I really feel sorry for straight people.

Gender conflict is real and the smart shows understand how to deal with it. Men are not neutered when women are put in positions of power. They learn how to deal. Shows like the Shield or Battlestar Galactica or the Wire understand how to introduce powerful women and powerful men and how to create interesting plots showing the tension and showing how sometimes the sexes learn to work together and how sometimes they resent each other. Yet gender and race conflicts are wrapped up in stories about gangs or robots or drugs. This new network season promises veiled sexism showing that when women finally attain positions of power, there is no room for men. Men either become neutered lapdogs or revert to cavemen. This is not reality.

It's unfortunate that our television networks seem to believe that powerful women are so distasteful and awful that men must be demasculated in the process. And it's even worse that these patriarchal values are hidden in shows obstensibly presenting themselves as feminist.

The central anxiety of post-second wave feminism has long been recognized, in these pages and elsewhere, as being based in the paradox of this radically new idea of girl power in a society which is still very conservative in how it evaluates marital success.

Put very simply, a man can still marry a woman whose achievements in public life are less than his, and need never worry about what anyone will think of him. But for a woman to marry a man who "takes the back seat" in terms of status is a discredit to her, still in this day and age, and will get her no end of criticism.

And yet isn't that the inevitable outcome of girl power? That some of the girls will be more powerful than all the boys? That they will marry men whom they don't adore with that submissive thrill of belonging to a real ubermensch? Men and women of my generation still have a very hard time with this, and as more and more of them realize that this is it, this is how we're just all going to be ... voila, along comes TV to provide some drama therapy.

But there are some other things to consider here as well. For one thing, the kids are all right. Young guys out of college are increasingly ditching professional service economy career tracks for child-raising, garage rock with their buds, and mountain-man beards (what is up with that?), while their honeys are bringing in the bread in total acceptance.

For another thing, these shows are never (really, even when they pretend) about working class America -- or about nonwhite America, for that matter. Men bitching about how their old ladies keep all their money isn't wacky world-upside-down hijinks in the blue collar bars and bowling alleys of middle America -- it's an old story, maybe even a comfortable one.

And try talking to a black American woman about how crazy it would be if women really did start doing all the work, like in those TV shows, while the men sat around trying to get it together, har har har. Har.

So, rich white people of America, get over yourselves, for crying out loud. You're smart, creative, empowered -- if you of all people can't find some way for this new and exciting partnership to mean less stress and self-absorption for everyone involved, then you deserve to marinade in every bit of anxiety Rebecca Traister has to preview for you.

I wonder who the target audiance is for most of the shows Traister describes?

From my own group of 30 something friends only the wives/girlfriends are plugged into standard pop culture. We guys just check out of the whole debate, by finding other entertainment options. The few television shows that are mentioned from time to time are mostly on Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, or Discovery.

It doesn't surprise me that few (any?) of the TV week articals are writen by men. Network television is not even on the radar for all the guys I personally know.

So to the (mostly) women who are busy teasing out the BIG MEANING behind all this, enjoy. Have at it. Meanwhile I'd rather discover how humans figured out that the Universe is 13.7 billion years old by watching the history channel.