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November 14, 2005
It is Sunday and it is time for something different from all the Canberra poiltical stuff of late. Maureen Dowd's Are Men Necessary?
 Dowd is a succesful single woman and she argues that men dumb down when looking for love. That cover says talented women have to act dumb and dress like a tart to 'catch' their husbands.
Dowd is the only female op-ed columnist at the New York Times. That's a real suprise, isn't it.
She writes:"The aroma of male power is an aphrodisiac for women, but the perfume of female power is a turnoff for men" she wrote. So we end up with lonely career woman too successful for love. That is reminiscent of Ally McBeal.
Who am I to judge? I have no connection to the world of the Washington/New York cultural elite that Dowd inhabits and I've no idea how gender looks to these hotshot women.
What is being pictured does sound like the 1950s to me:
"Deep down all men want the same thing: a virgin in a gingham dress," or "if there's one thing men fear it's a woman who uses her critical faculties."
All men? Its kinda cartoonish. What kinda man is Dowd looking for? Does she have man trouble? Hell, her romantic fantasies are about being Katharine Hepburn with Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers with Fred Astaire etc.
But we do live in conservative times, so maybe submissiveness is the new sexy? Recycled 1950s sounds like a turnoff to me. Then again that it is the conservative backlash against second wave feminism isn't it.
Maybe the text is a scintillating provocative critique of modern gender relations, dressed up in a pulpy cover.
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I know many examples of strong women, who succeed in Lover, relationship and family all together.
this feminist attitude and bitter like remarks of this prestigious lady doesn't convince me at all. we live in a modern world, where ,more women are getting what they want as far as fulfillment. and all the men i know, want Strong women, and are turned off by weak submissive women, so, the lady, should look in to her inner being, and find the real deep routes that made her be a loner. it has not necessarily have to do with her social success.
and, BTW, i am a woman.