All the same, the profound differences between the two sexes are the author’s primary story. For example, the human hormone, oxytocin, is “the kindest of natural opiates,” but it operates differently on the sexes. Men experience it at the moment of sexual release. Women, though, feel the same euphoric exhilaration while breastfeeding. Indeed, some of the oxytocin reaches the child through the breast milk. This creates a special bond between mother and child in which they become “one continually interacting, merged organism” with “a pleasant fog descend[ing] upon the brain.”
No “Mr. Mom” can replicate this experience. Indeed, Rhoads shows that despite the media hype, there are actually few such men around. In candid surveys, even the best-earning, highest-status women reject role reversal in favor of a partner who is superior in power, earnings, and status. So too
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