当然，这并不是说帅气英勇的男主角们已经没有市场了，只是说他们的角色必须“色艺俱全”才能获得女影迷们的追捧。近年来，《越狱》成为了最受欢迎的电视剧之一，而这很大程度上是依赖于一个拥有布拉德·皮特的相貌和史蒂芬·霍金的头脑(甘地的人品)的男主角。为了营救被关在死刑区的哥哥，他辞去建筑师的工作故意入狱，迈克尔·斯科菲尔德塑造了新的英雄形象：睿智、忠诚、英俊，他几乎拥有女人们所要求的所有品质，但也正是他无穷的智慧和极具创造性的越狱计划使得他在女人眼中尤为特别。

    And it is not just the geeks that are rising to challenge Arnie and Sly. Pretty boys like Orlando Bloom have become increasingly popular in the West. Starting with his role as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and then as Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean (also now a trilogy), Bloom has played many different action heroes, but all his roles have been distinctly girly. In his movies, Orlando's attempts to rescue the damsels in distress always seem to go wrong, and more often than not it is he that needs the rescuing. Maybe this can help explain the lack of strong muscular heroes? Perhaps with the growing level of gender equality in the word, women no longer feel a need for a protector. In the 50s and 60s men were expected to be masculine and the breadwinner. In the 60s and 70s it was about women having the freedom to be whatever they wanted to be. Perhaps now it is about women being the stronger more dominating one…or perhaps not. ......