Merton Densher, he of the stupid name and stupefying passivity, has this to say about the straits in which he finds himself in the last tenth of his creator's novel: "There had been in all the case too many women."
And yes, our Merton has been led around by the nose a little. But too many women? Is there such a thing? I firmly believe there can be too many men: witness Jihadists, packs of fraternity brothers, and the White House. But packs of women don't seem to have the same destructive power as packs of men. (Discounting the Maenads, but I suppose it's never a reach to assert the existence of too many cannibals.)
Is there anything really wrong with female-dominated environments? I wonder about this sometimes, mostly because I can't seem to escape them. As much as I would dearly love not to be a girly girl, everything I want to do seems to be something done by, well, girls. For whatever reason, men (with a few exceptions) don't seem to hunger to teach small children, work with the elderly, or cooperatively dine.
Do we lose anything by their absence? Sometimes I don't think so. Other times -when I see a little boy light up for his male therapist, for example- I do. Perhaps the only thing I know with any modicum of certainty is that Merton Densher's an ass.
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