Some of you—the old farts—will recognize the title of this post. Many years ago, White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan quipped that women are more interested in diamonds than in throw weights. This was before political correctness had run amok in society, but Regan still got into trouble. He was said to be a chauvinist, a bigot, a sexist, and many other bad things. But didn’t he speak the truth? The typical (average) woman is more interested in diamonds than in throw weights. I’d be willing to wager a great deal of my personal wealth that this is so. If you reply that men, too, are more interested in diamonds than in throw weights, then let me revise the claim. It is that women, more than men, are more interested in diamonds than in throw weights. If the claim is true, as I believe it is, then why was there an uproar? Are there truths that must not be spoken? Regan wasn’t saying that every woman is more interested in diamonds than in throw weights, which is manifestly false. (Jeane Kirkpatrick is a counterexample.) He was making a generalization, like “Men are taller than women” (which is true). Men are different from women in many respects, as even some feminists will acknowledge. They think differently; they reason differently; they have different emotions; they value different things; they are attracted to different things; they have different attitudes to things like competition, combat, and children. Poor Donald Regan. He was vilified for speaking the truth—an early victim of political correctness.

Addendum: If you’re wondering what a throw weight is, see here. Scroll to where Dr Drell says, “I can’t say precisely.”