What Science Tells Us About Manliness

In The Better Half: On the genetic superiority of women, the geneticist and doctor Sharon Moalem argues that, as a male – with a single X chromosome and a puny Y chromosome – he is “disadvantaged”. A second X chromosome, which most females have, constitutes a source of “hidden horsepower”. It accounts for females’ survival edge in all sorts of contexts – in the womb; following premature birth; in fighting viruses or cancer; in extreme environments, such as that of the Donner Pass in 1846, when twice as many men as women died; in famines in general; after accidents when women heal faster and more completely than men; and of course at the end of life when centenarian females outnumber males four to one. By this account, male superiority is the product of aeons of cultural smoke and mirrors. The male’s muscular carapace hides fragility.