Kathleen Parker, in her new book Save The Males, argues that feminism has neutered men, and that this is bad news for both sexes.

It's telling that standing up for men is a job men seem incapable of doing themselves.

When Harriet Harman announced plans to allow employers to discriminate against white men recently, it was the female commentators who stepped in to defend their beleaguered brothers.

One of the ways in which modern man finds himself snookered is that, if he is getting a raw deal, drawing attention to the fact looks unmanly.
When women stand up for their rights they look heroic. We think of Emily Davison throwing herself under the king's horse.

When modern man stands up for himself, the best he can manage is those Fathers 4 Justice superhero outfits, the sight of which speaks volumes – and not in a good way – about the gap between the childish dreams of man, and the disappointing reality in which he finds himself.

There are some exceptions in popular culture of men standing up for themselves in a way that is neither embarrassing nor sexist. Okay, there is one exception: the novelist Tim Lott.

Not only do his books articulate male grievances brilliantly, he's also been popping up on the radio lately, sticking it to the Orange Prize and the female obsession with body image typified by the fuss over that picture of Helen Mirren on the beach.

But in terms of cultural space, the output of even a successful novelist is a drop in the ocean next to the small-screen presence of, say, the Robert Lindsay character in My Family.

It is probably this sort of show Kathleen Parker has in mind when she turns her sights on the portrayal of men in pop culture.

"Even otherwise easy-going family men in sitcoms are invariably cast as, at best, bumbling, dim-witted fools.

"One would assume from most depictions that the smart, decent man who cares about his family and pats the neighbour's dog is the exception rather than the rule."

Look for a depiction of modern manhood in recent American or British TV fiction and you find the serial killer Dexter, the boss from hell David Brent, the morally compromised cops in The Wire (in which the strongest character is a lesbian), and the chronic losers of Peep Show.

After that you're down to Barnaby from Midsomer Murders.

Inspired? Me neither.

But male commentators have reason to hesitate before standing up for their own sex.

When an extract from Parker's book appeared in the Sunday Times recently, featured alongside it was an article by the writer Neil Lyndon.

He claimed to have made all of Parker's main points in his 1992 book No More Sex War, only to have been financially ruined for doing so.

If men are going to fight their corner, they need to find a new ways of doing so. Ditching the Batman outfits would be a start.