Man Without Qualities

Posted 3:40 PM by Robert

Hyperdowdified II: Other Reactions

Some people seem to have an even stronger reaction to (against) today's Maureen Dowd column. The following has arrived by e-mail from an astute female reader:

I read this Maureen Dowd column and it made me angry. This piece is unbelievably offensive. I can't believe the NYT would even publish such a thing. ... She should be thrown out of the media, the same as that gay-bashing radio talk show host. This piece is so offensive it makes me ill. The use of pseudo-science (since when does the sloppy musings of some evolutionary biologist nicknamed "Deer Abby" at an unknown college in London qualify as scientific research?) is just the kind of thing I hate most. ... The "cutesy", "girly", "in the know" tone makes the piece even more tasteless and wrong headed. Your blog response was more measured than mine would have been. I think the woman must be a crazy creep. ...

Which raises the question: Why is Maureen Dowd's repeated bashing of (usually, but not always, heterosexual) men and what she sees as their traits (traits which, to be sure, she stereotypes offensively) different from Michael Savage's gay bashing?