I’m very glad that women are no longer confined to a very narrow choice of careers. Most of my professional life has been spent as an engineer, and I strongly support encouraging girls to excel in math, science and engineering. There is no conflict between my femininity and my engineering career. There is are few mental differences between men and women; some emotional differences; and considerable physical differences. There’s no reason why a woman can’t be a brilliant scientist or engineer.

But there’s a very good reason why she can’t be a good combat soldier or firefighter or boxer or football player or construction worker. Men are innately bigger and much stronger than women, and also more aggressive, all thanks to the miracle of testosterone. This is not something to deny or ignore or minimize or complain about; it’s something to celebrate, the natural differences between the sexes that give life its romantic fire. Basic sex differences are indeed innate and natural, and not merely “cultural” or a “social construct.” A bull and a cow are very different kinds of animals, and it’s not due to their culture.

So let’s celebrate big, strong, powerful, aggressive men, and also small, petite, weak, fragile, delicate women. And next time, instead of a photo of a woman ridiculously flexing her arms, put a photo of a muscular man flexing his biceps — perhaps with an adoring female or two looking on in admiration.

I’m sure it’s a lot easier to find vintage photos of men flexing their muscles anyway. This sick and twisted infatuation with mannish amazons and viragos is a relatively recent thing in our culture, which seems to be trying to undo a million years of human evolution with its encouragement of all this gender-bending nonsense. And we wonder about the death of romance?? When men once again embrace their masculinity and women once again revel in their femininity, then the heat and fire of romance will rise again.