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There are some metaphysically meaty differences between the sexes, but they're not easy to rate in terms of which sex should rule. Females, as you can tell at a glance, have the more sociable anatomy, including a uterus that fluffs itself up every month in hopes of housing a baby, and a pair of spigots on the chest at which Baby eventually may dine. The surprising thing is that women are the more communistic sex, right down to the cellular level. Fetal cells derived from a woman's offspring may survive in her bloodstream decades after childbirth. What's more, the fabled liabilities of the female condition are sometimes revealed as strengths. Researchers have found that PMS--which has become a handy three-letter slur directed at the aggressive, or merely irritated, woman--is experienced by many as a state of "heightened activity, intellectual clarity, feelings of well-being," according to Angier. "One of my most beautiful memories of college," she recalls, "is of a first day of a period. I was sitting in my living room, studying, and felt an unaccountable surge of joy. I looked up from my book and was dazzled by the air."
Of all the "female troubles," it's menopause that has been undergoing the most decisive makeover. Fifteen years ago, when Geraldine Ferraro ran for the vice presidency, the question buzzing anxiously around the Beltway was, "Has she gone through menopause yet?" You certainly wouldn't want a Veep who flashed hot or popped Midol. Fast-forward to 1994, and the Washington Post could calmly interview power gals Pat Schroeder and Olympia Snowe on their feelings about hormone-replacement therapy--and no one was blushing or giggling. In fact, in the new femaleist vernacular, those aren't hot flashes; they're power surges. True, you might hesitate to rip off your sweater and start fanning your face at a meeting full of alpha males. But outside of that hostile environment, menopause is becoming a celebration-worthy rite of passage. Two New York City women, free-lance writer Beverley Douglas and graphic artist Alice Simpson, have just launched their Two Hot Broads line of greeting cards. Then there are the Red Hot Mamas, whose inspirational support groups for menopausal women have spread from Brooklyn to 18 states, drawing as many as 800 at a time for meetings.
So, whether viewed from the laboratory bench or the kitchen table, difference is fascinating, difference can even be strength. As Hales puts it, "The differences between men and women, we can now see, are exactly that: differences, not signs of defects, damage or disease. Women are not the second, but a separate sex..."
RETHINKING EVOLUTION