Wolcott reviews the latest slew of books on the decline of manliness. Money quote:
Before we mourn the prospect of an army of sad sacks slouching to the exits as Empress Oprah reigns over the new kingdom of empathy, keep in mind that the odds still favor the penis-bearer. The passport privileges of being a man have hardly been revoked. If anything, they’ve been super-ratified for roof entry to the helicopter pad. In his informative, provocative guide to the “global power elite,” Superclass, David Rothkopf spells out the eight key rules for admission into the atrium of the Davos gods, among them “Attend an elite university” and “Get rich.” Topping the advisory list: “Be born a man.” “There is no group as disproportionately under-represented among the members of the superclass as women. On a planet where 51 percent of the inhabitants are women, the global power structure is still locked in the dark ages on this issue. Only 6.3 percent of the superclass are women.” Corporate boardrooms are still predominantly boys’ clubs—“As of 2007, there were only thirteen women chief executives among Fortune’s top five hundred, twenty six among the top one thousand”—and the numbers in elected office are not much better: “Around the world, women held on average only 17 percent of parliamentary positions in 2007. The U.S. Congress fell below the global average, with 16 percent female members in the House and Senate.
The Dish 