[Here is a lovely piece from the woman who wrote about the war against boys. She reminds us of the Titanic, and how men died so that women and children could be saved. To me, this signifies the way men should be, and much of what Western men have been about. In defence of their homes and countries, men die on the battlefield.

In the Middle Ages, there was also a tradition, which Napoleon later revived among his own troops, which was that when a man went to war, he did so for a particular woman. Part of the tradition was that sometimes if a man lay dying on the battlefield, he would pass on a message via a fellow soldier, to be taken back to the woman on whose behalf he gave his life. To me, this is the very beautiful side of Western civilisation – when men willingly, give their lives for the women they love and wish to protect. Jan]

Christina Hoff Sommers, the author of The War Against Boys, points out that œafter almost 40 years of feminist agitation and gender-neutral pronouns, it is still men who are far more likely than women to run for political office, start companies, file for patents, and blow things up. Men continue to tell most of the jokes and write the vast majority of editorials and letters to editors. And ” fatal to the dreams of feminists who long for social androgyny ” men have hardly budged from their unwillingness to do an equal share of housework or childcare. Moreover, women seem to like manly men.

She also notes that œOne of the least visited memorials in Washington is a waterfront statue commemorating the men who died on the Titanic. Seventy-four percent of the women passengers survived the April 15, 1912, calamity, while 80 percent of the men perished. Why? Because the men followed the principle (152)˜women and children first.™ œThe monument, an 18-foot granite male figure with arms outstretched to the side, was erected by (152)˜the women of America™ in 1931 to show their gratitude. The inscription reads: œTo the brave men who perished in the wreck of the Titanic. […] They gave their lives that women and children might be saved.