Examining changing role models for masculine identity--from cowboy in the 1950s to Terminator in the 1990s, from flesh-and-blood man to machine--this book suggests that men need new role models and that sufficient room needs to be left for the expression of male vulnerability.

What is a man? What is a real man? Is masculinity a biological given or an ideological construction? In this treatise, feminist philosopher Elisabeth Badinter seeks to define manhood at a time when sex-role distinctions have become increasingly ambiguous and age-old stereotypes about masculinity have been shattered. Drawing on biological examples, historical and sociological analyses, fiction and biography, Badinter offers a highly suggestive account of the new man which th 20th century is in the process of inventing. Exploring the shifting inscriptions of male identity in the popular imagination, Badinter examines changing role models for masculine identity - from the cowboy of the 1950s to the Terminator of the 1990s. She suggests that men need new role models and that sufficient room needs to be left for the expression of male vulnerability, a psychic space that would accept attitudes and behaviours traditionally labelled "feminine". This new model, Badinter argues, may reduce the profound effects of homophobia and misogyny.