The incomparable Camille Paglia, whom I admire for her ability to find gender near the heart of every phenomenon, responds to a reader who writes in about Hillary Clinton's inner circle:
I agree that the male staff who Hillary attracts are slick, geeky weasels or rancid, asexual cream puffs. (One of the latter, the insufferable Mark Penn, just got the heave-ho after he played Hillary for a patsy with the Colombian government.) If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Hillary is reconstituting the toxic hierarchy of her childhood household, with her on top instead of her drill-sergeant father. All those seething beta males (as you so aptly describe them) are versions of her sad-sack brothers, who got the short end of the Rodham DNA stick.
That's harsh. Way harsh. But without agreeing with her, I'll say that in a presidential campaign in which race and gender have played such a role, it's an interesting observation.
