Boys Drool, Chicks Rule Fall TV

Gone are the days of Magnum PI and McGuyver. This fall's primetime lineup is dominated by female characters who are successful, tenacious, and confident—while male counterparts are almost universally sniveling in the corner. But even as she applauds the turning of TV's gender tables, Salon's Rebecca Traister questions the deeper implications for women.

Comedies such as “Carpoolers,” "The Rules for Starting Over," and "The Big Bang Theory" depict guys whose wives cheat, who dump successful girlfriends, who procreate solely via sperm donation, and even one dominated by an ape. But Traister asks how much worse off women are if seemingly every brand of femininity—successful, hot, savvy, cheating, or domestic—serves to emasculate. (More television stories.)