Are Men Necessary?

I guess I've gotten old. I know the hormones don't flow anymore, and would only frustrate me if they did. So, sometimes I felt vaguely uncomfortable attending Ms. Dowd's meanders through feminine sexual desires. I also felt vaguely unwanted, as I am a man and the title intends to dismiss men.

This book starts out in bed and ends up running for office. Maureen Dowd tells us how she would have trapped a man, had she followed her mother's advice to wear a red dress. We are clued in to Mom's advice on the front cover, by the dame in the red dress being secretly eyed by the Dick Tracy, who knows she knows she is being watched. So everyone knows, but what happens?

Well, for the professional woman, not much. It turns out we are not going to find out much about what goes in Ms. Dowd's boudoir, or about other famous female boudoirs. It appears these women have problems capturing (or wanting?) a male companion for any length of time. This seems to be a result of the fact that males are supposed to be alpha, females beta. Ms. Dowd, an alpha, and her alpha girlfriends complain about it, but don't know what to do about it.

Ms. Dowd indirectly reviews the history of the feminist movement since the 1960s. What she recounts is the self-assertion and hopes of young women slowly but surely turning into a struggle for power, a struggle that gets betrayed. Ms. Dowd thinks even younger women than herself gave up without a fight, as the social clock moves backward, backward, backward. For most young women, things appear to have gone back to pre-liberation days when the name of the game was earning an MRS. This seems to be the result of a conflict between the "biological clock" and attempts to overcome male dominated structures.

Ms. Dowd hasn't quite achieved full Senior Citizen status, but is on the edge of it. Some of her writing seems wistful, as if things could yet be changed. But, it seems pretty clear things won't be changed. She is a dominant women in her profession, successful and, apparently, unmated. I think it unlikely that will change, but I don't hear a message in the writing that says,'yes, I know that' or 'it doesn't matter any more.' Instead, I have a subdued feeling of 'if only ...'

As the book moves on, it becomes more and more concerned with American politics. She treats us to an unflattering view of Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. Ms. Dowd then takes apart the Clintons, Monica and all the rest that happened a few years ago. It becomes patently clear that powerful men have sex problems. Those men seem utterly incapable of recognizing any women as anything but sexual objects. They are possessed by their penis, helped along by women who turn into obliging mattresses in the presence of alpha males. Ms. Down attributes this to biology, I think rightly. I think she is disappointed, again rightly, that culture does not overcome nature.

Maureen Dowd tells her version of Clinton's sexual escapades. She is disgusted that feminists traded in personal goals to achieve political goals. (But, what else could they do?) Hillary, she thinks, destroyed the feminist movement so that Hillary can become President. She believes (as do I) the Clintons are master players of the political game, and ready to trade in this or that cause in the name of  the greater good. Where does this lead? Maureen Dowd doesn't tell us. I guess you'll have to read her column to find out.