The Postmodern Man

This article examines the asymmetrical development of studies on the construction of masculinity and femininity both in academia and in the media. Nasitowska highlights the fact that within feminist studies, the patriarchal norm is seen as representative for the male position. Masculinity studies are portrayed as an opportunity to compensate for this asymmetry. Nasitowska further describes the different models of masculinity that emerge from media discourses and that provide a focus for social impulses as determined by the economy. She points out that clear models of femininity have not emerged in a way that would mirror the models of masculinity that emerged in the last few years; the problem of a "crisis of masculinity" which Nasitowska treats with some distance, does not find an equivalent "crisis of femininity"