Wolf, Mansfield on the Politics of Manliness

As the political world continues to buzz about whether Condoleezza Rice or Hillary Clinton will be the first woman president, the Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield, author of “Manliness,” and Naomi Wolf, who taught Al Gore about earthtones, discuss the politics of manliness.

Mansfield: Manliness I define as confidence in a situation of risk, and I think men have that more than women.

Wolf: I don’t know what bubble he’s living in. He’s making these sweeping arguments as if from this bubble in 1955.

Mansfield: Politics is a field of competition, and women are less interested in competition, just as they’re less interested in sports. And, indeed, I think their interest in sports goes together with their interest in men more than in sports or in politics directly.

Continues.