Dowdy over Dowd

Maureen Dowd makes me want to throw-up. Yes, I mean vomit, regurgitate, puke. And it's not just because she's jealous of Caitlin Flanagan because Flanagan has a husband, children, and does some writing on the side (hardly an 80 hour a week "career") and might just be happy with those demanding, energy-depleting humans: editors. Well, maybe that's a little bit of it.

First problem: not every woman attends Harvard. Second Problem: not every woman will attend Harvard. Third problem: not every woman has attended Harvard. Fourth problem: not every successful woman (and this can cut anyway you slice successful) has attended Harvard, nor will every potentially successful woman attend Harvard. Maybe the problem is Harvard, and not men.

It is really infuriating that Dowd presumes that those of us not in the journalism field or that haven't attended an Ivy League school aren't smart enough to analyze statistics like this one:

A 2005 report by researchers at four British universities indicated that a high I.Q. hampers a woman's chance to marry, while it is a plus for men. The prospect for marriage increased by 35 percent for guys for each 16-point increase in I.Q.; for women, there is a 40 percent drop for each 16-point rise.

Oh, so that's the real issue: the smarts. Smart women can't get a man, but wait, I thought they don't want one? Or is it that the less intelligent women aren't intelligent enough to reject the abominable sex? So are we complimenting those who have smarts and feeling sorry for those fools lacking enough to find only a man appealing and not a graduate school application? Or could it really be that the small sample of females in the British study actually represent just that? A small sample.

Silly women taking the name of their husbands and embarrassingly wearing unfeministic unfashionable tee's with sequined "Mrs." on them. Damn it! They are supposed to be fighting to retain their own surnames, or to at least do the name scaffolding and hyphenate! Haven't we taught them anything? After all these years it should be the men throwing wedding showers for other men,eating cucumber sandwiches and drinking mimosas. They should be wanting to wear t-shirts that say "Mr." Oh. Wait...Poor women, having to pay all that money to Harvard Business School and not able to say anything because all the men will tuck tail and run. That's why the women went to HBS, right? To gain bragging rights? Or wait, was it to because they wanted to be able to get a man, or was that a man's job?

You see, all men are the same, while we women are a varied and multi-dimensional sort. All men want exactly the same exact thing from a woman: her job. Or did I misunderstand the article?

h/t: The Llamas via Lileks.