True Manliness: A Rebuttal
By Simone Nathan

Harvey Mansfield is no "Harvey the Rabbit." (An imaginary companion of inebriation from the Pulitzer-prize winning play by Mary Chase.) This Harvey is real. He is the William R. Kenan Professor of Government at Harvard University and is out and about promoting his new book, "Manliness." I heard him interviewed recently on National Public Radio's current affairs program, "On Point."

In his closing commentary he acknowledged that he had made patronizing remarks about women. It was appropriate, he said. "They are weaker and will always be."

Professor Mansfield misses a point essential to human existence. Cooperation rather than strength is more likely to result in survival. Statistics demonstrate beyond any shadow of doubt that it is a man's world. In the United States of America, the most free and most democratic of societies, men control the professional financial industry, media ownership, most corporate board positions, most political offices. Women are making inroads that are not representative, considering that females are the statistical majority population of the world.

Those heroes that Mansfield holds up for emulation include the John Wayne types; the warrior models. In general, and as generals, they dominate by force.

In rebuttal, I hold up a different model of manly men, those who have positively impacted the lives of millions for generations. These include Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, and men like Raul Wallenburg and Oskar Schindler. These men waged peace at risk to themselves. The organ they exercised the most was the brain.

None of them were pugilists. Look at their legacies.