I really enjoyed this article. imho The <i>quest/test for manhood</i> theme is one of the most dominant in our media, yet it is also kind of a spoken taboo. <i>Breaking Bad</i> and <i>Fight Club</i> come to mind, where "castrated" protagonists fight back for their manhood... <i>The Big Lebowski</i> is, among many themes, about how different people prove their masculinity in different ways too. The whole <i>damsel in distress</i> genre...
I've been writing an article about this topic, hopefully it will come out soon. Also, movie/tv male comic relief is often portrayed as asexual or incredibly dorky.<p>This is also incredibly timely, as I've spent the last weeks thinking about how joining the military would be like.