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Cable Guys: Television and Masculinities in the 21st Century Amanda D. Lotz. New York: New York University Press, 2014.
In Cable Guys: Television and Masculinities in the 21st Century, Amanda D. Lotz provides a gender analysis of what she calls the "male-centered serials" that have emerged on television over the past two decades (51). Through her dissection of a variety of cable serials, Lotz shows a shift in popular understandings of masculinity. Rather than assuming the traditional form of stoic, unemotional provider, the protagonists in the programs Lotz analyzes grapple with what it really means to be a man. Lotz suggests that the fact that these "identity crises" are displayed so prominently on television is a new phenomenon in popular entertainment (29). In her view, this development signals a cultural shift in the definition of manhood toward what she refers to as a "post-second wave" understanding of gender in which men are actively trying to reconcile manhood with a more feminist conception of society (23).
The masculine identity crisis on display in these shows is one that crosses barriers across family, work, and friendships. Borrowing from Michael Kimmel, Lotz notes in the second chapter that "we...