Manliness and the Bush Administration
In today's Washington Post,
Ruth Marcus uses Harvey Mansfield's theory of manliness to emasculate the Bushies.
(Does Mansfield really ask, ""Is it possible to teach women manliness and thus to become more assertive?" Apparently he does. Yikes.)
Marcus' conclusion:
Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.
Honestly, I find this idea of characterizing various human characteristics as gender-specific pointless and, frankly, kind of dumb. But if it has to happen, I'm glad that Marcus has a little fun with it....
