Masculinity and Emotional Disconnection

In class and in the reading, one of the main focuses (Foci?) of the discussion was what has changed in society today to lead to our masculine heroes being so different. On one hand you have the suave seventies Shaft, and on the other you have Samuel L Jackson laying down the law by bitch slapping gangstas and shooting it out with druglords. We talked about how much more violent movies are today and tried to figure out what was different then that we enjoyed such a different style of man as our action hero and particularly such a different style of black man. Our focus was on how much things have changed.
To me this is interesting, because throughout the movie I sort of payed attention to and noticed a lot on the similarities that persist through all of the masculine heroes. The main point of this being the idea of what a man is suppose to feel and how their emotions work.
Shaft cant or at least wont tell his girlfriend he loves her. Of course he cant be pinned down to anything or feel anything for a woman such that he could admit to loving her. He tries to make the pain of being shot as superficial and mundane as possible, and while he is probably kidding when he says he couldn't even feel the bullet being pulled out, the point is to show that a real black man laughs and makes jokes about the pain of getting shot and having the bullet ripped out of his belly by an amateur surgeon. There is a level of disconnect that the masculine character has to have on an emotional level. I guess the root of the idea is that emotions are feminine and showing them is queer. Showing that the world can have so much effect on you as to make you jump for joy or cry in anguish shows a lack of control, and Shaft is displayed as a character who demands control, as we discussed in class with examples of him looming over dangerous pimps and drug dealers.
Do we still see this today? I believe the answer is undoubtedly yes. Male characters who have emotions which rise to the surface are more girly than the ones who strictly guard their feelings and bury them such that they are able to blow the heads off their foes without the remorse. The idea is not a old or new but an ever pervasive idea of masculinity, be it black or white or any race. We like and have always like the idea of men who are not only physically strong and capable but willing and able to shrug off unimportant things such as their own feelings of sorrow and pain. The one thing they are allowed to have drive them is anger at certain points (it isnt really seen as one of the "bad" or "feminine" emotions), and too much of that is even a bad thing, as it violates the idea of self control.
I just found it interesting that while many aspects changed in how people see their masculine heroes, somethings always remain the same. Wether he is shacking up with some sweet thang like Shaft or blowing up a building full of terrorists, the masculine heroes we adore are never allowed to show too much of what lurks behind their good looks and blazing guns.