JOHN E. writes:

There is in the statement of Christine Lagarde’s that you quoted, a refusal to accept the world as it is, and a shaking of the fist at God’s creation, albeit in a “personally charming and likable” way. She says in regard to business dealings, “it helps in the sense that [women] don’t necessarily project our egos into cutting a deal.” But it is, as it has always been, consistent with the nature of masculinity to assert itself, and therefore it is natural (and good, if one believes that God created good things) that a man should assert himself into his business dealings. Of course this feature of masculinity can be abused, as apparently happened with Strauss-Kahn, but Lagarde doesn’t distinguish between the feature itself and the abuse of it. She finds the very nature of men to be deficient and reprehensible.

If she were truly such a paragon of the corrective virtues that would counter Strauss-Kahn’s vices, I would expect to see her more knowledgeable and fluently conversant in the personal weaknesses that hit closer to home with her, like what are the particular weaknesses of the female sex, rather than only being aware, as she apparently is, of the weaknesses of others. As it is, she appears to be at least as weak in virtue as Strauss-Kahn, perhaps even weaker.

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