Downsized and Downtrodden, Men Are the New Women on TV

Article here. Excerpt:

'“Man Up!,” which begins next Tuesday on ABC, is one of several new sitcoms that make fun of men, so much so that the word “man” itself is treated as a joke. ABC’s other emasculation comedy starts this Tuesday and is called “Last Man Standing.” It stars Tim Allen, the onetime star of “Home Improvement.” Mr. Allen plays Mike, the marketing director of an outdoorsman’s catalog who has to stay home to tend to his three daughters when his business retracts to an online shopping site.
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The focus on men’s failings partly reflects that female viewers outnumber men; network executives, it seems, know what women want. But the devolution of man has been a topic of talk shows, pop psychology and books for years. The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd published the book “Are Men Necessary?” in 2005, before the economy collapsed. Since then, books, articles and blogs about the changed status of men have abounded. This year alone, Dan Abrams argued that women were better at almost everything in his book “Man Down.” And Kay S. Hymowitz agreed in “Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys.”'