Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Men and Women

  • The Eclipse of Sex by the Rise of Gender

    Ponder this

  • “One Man’s Datum is Another Man’s Theory”

    Why do I use 'man'? To exclude women? No, to exclude leftists, both men and women. I believe in equality when it comes to the exclusion of the destructive. In the '70s, when it first really got going, gender-inclusive language seemed to many a very good thing indeed. It showed a welcoming attitude to the…

  • Women Need to ‘Man Up’

    A member of the distaff contingent advises.  If men are too 'cocky,' then perhaps the female equivalent is the answer rather than the cultivation of grievances: How did we create an entire class of highly privileged, mostly affluent young women who feel unsafe on campus, microaggressed at every turn, utterly unable to cope with the…

  • On Engagement with Females: The Anti-Biden Rule

    With the exception of wives, sisters, and girlfriends, accept and return hugs, but don't initiate them. A gentleman is cognizant of the power differential between the sexes, and does not impose himself physically or psychologically.  And while the scent of a woman can can carry a powerful erotic charge, a gentleman does not creep up…

  • Cesare Pavese on Romantic Folly

    Cesare Pavese (1908-1950), This Business of Living: Diaries 1935-1950, Transaction Publishers, 2009, p. 177, from the entry of 30 September 1940: The best defense against a love affair is to tell yourself over and over again till you are dizzy: "this passion is simply stupid; the game is not worth the candle." But a lover always…

  • On the Loquacity of the Distaff Contingent

    I had the experience yet again yesterday.   It is easy to get a woman talking; hard to get her to stop. "Not always!" I didn't say 'always.' It's a generic statement. "Men too!" Not as many. "You're a misogynist!" So I hate women because I say something true about them? "You're a fool to say…

  • Amy Wax Interviewed

    Here is a taste: Once again, you’d have to define racism. You’re basically saying any generalization about a group, whether true or false—and we know it doesn’t apply to everybody in the group, because that’s just a straw man—is racist. I mean, we could do “sexist,” right? We could. So, women, on average, are more…

  • A Rule of Engagement with Females

    Accept and return hugs, but do not initiate them. Exception: family members.  Joe Biden take note.

  • Ersatz Maternity

    Having renounced natural maternity, many women today seek an outlet in the political: they seek to become the nannies of the nanny state.

  • Seeking a Mate?

    Better a loving heart than super smart.

  • The Visage of Disillusion

    The faces of the elderly, especially those of old men, often betray disillusionment with life: they've seen through it. It's a business that doesn't cover its costs. (Schopenhauer) Women too are among the disillusioned, but they are 'under-represented.'  That is because women as a group are more child-like than men as a group.  Is that…