a sexist view

"The communications system on Cannery Row is mysterious to the point of magic and rapid to the speed of light. Fauna and Mack came to the decision that the party should be a masquerade on Friday evening at 9:111/2, By 9:12 the magic had started, and by 9:30 everyone who was not asleep, drunk, or away, knew about it.  One particularly mean woman who hadn´t had a man for a long time commented, "How will you know whether they´re in costume or not?"  - a statement clearly drawn from her state of misery. But mainly the news was received with wonder and joy. Mack´s tom-wallager had achieved the stature of a bull bitch tom-wallager."

Sweet Thursday - John Steinbeck
Penguin books, 1996