Professor Bainbridge notes: "Eight of the top 10 Amazon bestsellers in the fantasy category are vampire romance novels by female authors. Whatever happened to elves, orcs, swords, and sorcery?"
Never one to miss an opportunity to jump to spurious conclusions, this made me wonder whether women have lost such faith in the men who continue to dominate our society that their last bastion of hope is stories telling them that happy endings can be found even when you know [your] man is a monster (if it's not obvious, please note that my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek). Here, in no particular order (it is the summer–I'm not going to spend all day doing this), are some related talking points:
On May 22, the Wall Street Journal reported that Anne Mulcahy would become the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company (Xerox).
In a post entitled "Bankers Will Be Boys", James Kwak notes (via Anne Sibert) that: "In a fascinating and innovative study, Coates and Herbert (2008) advance the notion that steroid feedback loops may help explain why male bankers behave irrationally when caught up in bubbles."
Joan MacLeod Heminway has asked: "Is the reasonable investor a woman?"
And "The Intelligent Investor" sums it up nicely thus: "Fess up, fellows: The masters of the universe have turned out to be masters of disaster. No matter which aspect of the financial crisis you consider, there is a man behind it."
What does all this mean? I'll leave it to you to discuss. I'm off to have lunch with my mom.
