"I grow old, I grow old,

I shall wear my trowsers rolled," said the poet. Maureen Dowd carries on somewhat similarly in her NYT essay What's a Modern Menopausal Woman to do?. OK, that's not really her title - her real title is something about a "Modern Girl." Ostensibly it's about the modern retreat from feminist ideals, but there is a lot of "poor me" in it, though done with her considerable style and wit.

A theme is the plight of the high-achieving woman, which seems to be the result of the apparently biological fact that women prefer higher status men, but men prefer younger subordinate women, thus dooming poor Mo to spinsterdom. Some pretty impressive women have managed to find themselves a man - a couple of Supreme Court Justices, Madame Curie, and the brilliant and very cute Tina Brown. No doubt they are exceptions.

Whatever one thinks of that, there is the fundamental problem that it's tough to have it all. Choices have to be made, and doors close with every choice. I expect it was a feminist mistake to think that overturning the social order once would be enough. A lot of what we are is in our genes, and they can be very insistent. I did like her essay though.

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