Love Is a Fallacy in Max Shulman’s Novel “Love Is a Delusion”

Is Max Schulman’s novel, Love is a Fallacy, anti-women or anti men? Although the answer to this question is very argumentative, many people would read this essay and immediately agree that this essay was written in an anti-woman perspective. However, there are those who would view this essay in the anti-men perspective as well. Moreover, neither view is 100% accurate. The story does, in fact, have a number of anti-women elements; however, there are also anti-men characteristics that are included.
This being said, equally strong arguments can be made for both sides. The view of this specific essay all depends on the reader. Therefore, this story is not only anti-women, but it is also anti-men. There are definitely elements of this essay that support the anti-women argument. For example, the narrator makes the character Polly out to be quite unintelligent and of a “ditzy” nature. Therefore, the narrator seems to think of Polly only in the way of being a woman of beauty.
He did not want to date her for any other reason at all. This is noticed when he says “I wanted Polly for a shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebral reason. I was a freshman in law school. In a few years, I would be out in practice. I was well aware of the right kind of wife in furthering a lawyer’s career. The successful lawyers I had observed were, almost without exception, married to beautiful, gracious, intelligent women. With one omission, Polly fitted these specifications perfectly”.

This statement said by the narrator makes it clear that he views Polly only as a beautiful symbol and nothing more. Viewing Polly in this way the narrator is nothing short of being ant-women. Nevertheless, this story also has its anti-men elements. This essay revolves around a man who believes none can ever measure up to his greatness. The narrator classifies himself as “better than the rest”. To illustrate, the narrator does not believe that a woman as beautiful as Polly would go for a man with low intelligence such as Petey.
The narrator believes, because Petey is not a law-student or as intelligent as himself, Petey is of a lower standard. The narrator believes he is superior to Petey. The narrator is represented as what has become something of a stereotypical, condescending man. The way the narrator looks down on Petey definitely falls into the anti-men argument. As it is now clear, this essay has both anti-women and anti-men elements. This essay was written purposely to be an argumentative essay; therefore, there is no right or wrong argument.
Love is a Fallacy is a very controversial story, meaning that the view of this essay, whether it is anti-men or anti-women, all depends on the reader. As many readers would argue about whether this essay is anti-women or anti-men, unfortunately, this question can never be accurately answered. The argument about which side the story is based on could go on forever. The conclusion I have drawn about whether Schulman’s essay is anti-women or anti-men is that its subject matter contains both anti-women and anti-men elements. Therefore, this essay is just as much anti-men as it is anti-women.