Analysis / Nero Wolfe

Wolfe's Misogyny: a complicated example of Writer on Board, combined with a splash of Poe's Law. Wolfe prefers people who display their intelligence openly and who are direct, unemotional, and strong-minded. This is the absolute antithesis of how women of the time were expected to act. Women were trained to hide their intelligence, to act coy and uncertain, and to resort to emotions instead of reason. (Rejecting this training could at give a woman the reputation of "hating men".) This is reinforced through Wolfe's interactions with women who are openly and bluntly intelligent and willing to directly show it; he treats them almost always with respect. Poe's Law enters into it because even though through Wolfe, Stout was actually attempting to skewer the stereotypes that held women in check; he underestimated his male audience's support of these stereotypes and their identification with Nero Wolfe. These readers actually liked female characters to act like silly idiots because they made Wolfe (and by association, themselves) look superior. Stout found this immensely frustrating, as he and his feminist wife were strong supporters of women's rights.

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