For 20 years, Tama Starr has been amassing a unique and provocative collection of quotations by cocksure patriarchs on the "natural inferiority" of women. With deadpan humour, she deftly guides us from one-line howlers to weighty reflections on penis envy and nymphomania. From Buddha to Mailer from Confucius to Freud, males from every inhabited corner of the globe are represented. What emerges is a collection of circular reasoning that has had a great influence over men and women throughout history.