Hypermasculinity: qu'est-ce que c'est?

I am confused about the meaning of the term hypermasculinity as used by Lynne Joyrich in her article Critical and Textual Hypermasculinity. While her claim that a concern with television’s femininity is misguided and may actually be rooted in a deeper concern with masculinity (hence the interest in gender as opposed to race, class, age, etc.) which may give rise to a hypermasculinity is reasonable enough, her examples of what hypermasculinity is are limited to a discussion of two police genre television shows from the 80’s (157). The existence of male-centered media is nothing new in either television or film, nor is the idea of a male murderer who kills women because he is threatened by them. In light of this scant evidence, I am wondering if there is some larger trend of a particular masculinity crisis in the 80’s? If not, I wonder why Joyrich did not conduct a more exhaustive review of film or television to point to some larger ongoing crises of masculinity which, if the claim that male-centered media reflect such a crisis is to be maintained, ought to have been around for a long time. Or even, if there is something particularly new about the way in which the crisis of masculinity is presenting itself, say in an extreme violence, for example, she could have brought that to bear. Instead, I am simply confused about the point she is making because it seems way too limited in its scope.

I am also suspect of and confused by the basis of the initial claim that TV is feminine. On page 158 Joyrich alludes to the idea that this association is affiliated with a demographic. There is also much talk of a cyborg/feminine connotation. What is all this about? Where is it coming from? What kind of discourse is she in? Is the claim of TV’s femininity sociologically or theoretically based?

Finally, if we can establish the basis of her claims and agree with them for 1990 and before, is the idea that “‘hypermasculinity’…renders the presence of women within TV representation and TV criticism unnecessary” still relevant today (157)? Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for one, says no.