Hormones

I was appalled to see Donella Meadows’ backhanded apologia for men in The Times on Christmas Day (“Good Will to Sheep--and Men,” Commentary). Despite a patronizing “acceptance” of male nature, and a condescending admission that she finds male violence dramatically appealing at times, the upthrust of her “perspective on nature” is summed up by the only lesson she sees fit to pass on to her daughter, “Testosterone . . . It does a lot of damage in the world.”

Somehow, I doubt that Meadows would find much appeal in a similarly cynical paean to women, in which female behavior was compared to say, hens, which peck at each other even while a fox carries off their chicks. I suspect that such a perspective, concluding with a man telling his son, “Estrogen . . . It causes a lot of erratic and self-destructive behavior,” would really get Meadows’ goat.

KENNETH GREEN

Los Angeles