Letters to the Editor
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Takeaway
So here's the takeaway: Mao was a freak and Nixon was a patriarchal troglodyte. This is news?
Seriously, though, what is the issue? Two married people joking about the opposite sex wanting things their own way? Men and women have been doing that for 50,000 years. It was probably among the first conversations humans had.
If anything about the scenario is properly offensive to more cultured sensibilities, it's that Mao, who was by then increasingly dependent on Zhang Hanzhi not just as his English translator but his translator to the outside world in general, was indulging in such colorful humor in her presence. That does smack a bit of old-fashioned sexim — inconsiderate and degrading.
But the humor itself (such as it is)? It's hard to get worked up about it. There will be boy talk and girl talk as long as there are boys and girls.