Hardball, Softball

I was interested in the juxtaposition of your two front-page reviews (Book Review, Nov. 10). It is just such critics as reviewer Robert Shogan that women who are out to change patriarchal culture must watch out for.

In the “review” of Geraldine Ferraro’s book, “Ferraro: My Story”) . . . Shogan sums up all of American politics with the statement, “As the male chauvinists in the back room used to say: ‘If you play political hardball, don’t complain when you get beaned.’ ” The critique of “The Feminization of America” is illustrative of the very reason that women must make an impact on all American institutions. Taking pride in playing “hardball” with each other and with all the other nations in the world has brought us to the less than enviable position we are in today. So much for the masculization of America--what we would hope for in the “feminization” of America (as Lenz and (the late) Myerhoff apparently show) is not simply a “softball” version of Shogan’s chauvinism but an entirely different ballgame.

LEE HOWARD

Lakewood