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, a psychic space that would accept attitudes and behaviors traditionally labeled as "feminine." This new model, Badinter argues, may reduce the profound effects of homophobia and misogyny.