The men of Congress. (Indicators).

For this special TAE installment on men, the INDICATORS editors decided to conduct our own survey of the men currently in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. How many of the individuals in Congress notably exhibit one or more of the traditional attributes of masculinity? How many flunk a test of old-fashioned male virtues?

To find out, we and our ace TAE interns searched public records, sent a written survey to every male member of Congress, then followed up with phone calls. We ended up with data on 305 of the 463 men in the House and Senate. Though we've avoided teasing too much sociological significance out of information collected partly just for fun, some of the results are intriguing.

We tried to cast the net broadly in order to capture the wide range of behavior conventionally viewed as admirable in men. Respondents could get credit for being a chess champion or accomplished computer nerd. We recognized men capable of fixing their own cars, and those who have hunted their own meat. Patent winners, champion athletes, and successful entrepreneurs got counted. Our criteria extend right up to the level of the war hero, Olympic champion, astronaut, and bona fide lifesaver.

In rank order, here are the number of men in Congress we were able to identify as having racked up various trophies of masculinity:

 
Real men on The Hill 
 
Served in the military    150 
 
Serious athlete ...