The Female of the Species

A merry widow.

 There are many complaints this morning that Candy Crowley was blatantly partisan in her moderation of the Obama-Romney debate last night. Most notably, she interjected to defend Obama against the charge that he misrepresented events in Benghazi--which, of course, he did.

Rudyard Kipling could have explained why it is intrinsically a bad idea to have a woman moderate a debate:

She is wedded to convictions - in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him, who denies!
He will meet no cool discussion, but the instant, white-hot wild
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.

...

Proof of evil in nature.

So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of abstract justice - which no woman understands.

Though stated in a painstakingly gentlemanly way, what Kipling says here is outrageously politically correct. But ask yourself, isn't it nevertheless true?

 
The first wave of feminism insisted that men and women were identical except for the dangly bits. That was so obviously absurd that no feminist would say it any more today. Now we have so-called "difference feminism." Which means, necessarily, that men may be emotionally and intellectually better suited to some situations than are women, and women may be better suited to some situations than men. Feminists themselves insist on this when, for example, they claim that women are more "nurturing," or less "competitive."

Hello, sailor!

But hang on a moment. If there are differences, they cannot always be in favour of women.

Men read maps better than women. Men are better at abstract spatial reasoning. And women are far more partisan than men.