Perhaps the reason the girls who envy the “golden boys” do so because they thought they would be in those kinds of positions one day. I never did, so I do not experience the same kind of resentment.
I do envy the girls who are in the kinds of jobs where “golden boys” even exist, not because of status but because there are libraries at those institutions.
What I dislike about the girls who envy the “golden boys” is that they tend to treat other women the way they claim these “golden boys” treat them. If we complain or refuse to play along, they say our poor service is a sign of insufficient solidarity.
This is my convoluted way of saying: show me most academic feminists, and I will have to undertake research before determining that these individuals are not patriarchs in drag with all the drawbacks of ladies, too.
Yes, I know what you will say: they have been given a hard time, and it has taken its toll. That is exactly what I mean! If you were about to comment along those lines, you’ve started in on the “insufficient solidarity” argument.
If you really think it is my duty to show solidarity with suffering ladies, and not theirs to show solidarity with me, then do you not see a certain class bias on your part, and so on…? Is the revolution not intended to dismantle that, too?
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I totally might be a patriarch in drag (lovely expression, by the way) and I’m very good at feeling resentment. However, my resentment against people who get by through nepotism has never been gendered. What do I care what their gender is? It’s unfairness that drives me crazy.
I am so jaded, I am not even worried about nepotism. I am fine with it so long as the nepotes don’t ask me for extra work on their behalf. I’m just burned by those who say they are a poor thing.
“they have been given a hard time, and it has taken its toll.”
That is also the same argument given to budding patriarchs by … ripe patriarchs, to justify the hazing process.
Well, to tiresomely repeat myself, you are probably dealing with people who think their lives are more important than yours.
Good points, Tom and Hattie. Hattie esp., this is my psychoanalytic issue in a nutshell.