“You might say that; I couldn’t possibly comment…”

A comment under this rather excellent review of a good sounding book about intellectual women (Arendt, Sontag, Didion and that crowd) and ‘toughness/emotional labour.”

Heartless women and men—in academia, the professions, and life in general—appear cold, frightened and thus defensive, and often near panic. The very opposite of what one expects from a seasoned, focused, balanced, comfortable, strong professional. They make terrible teachers, and even worse administrators and managers. They suck all the vibrancy—the intellectual air—out of the room. And unlike strong, balanced women and men, when wrong they have no place to go—they have painted themselves in an insistent, know-it-all corner….

h/t to Sarah A.