"The conventional wisdom is that a woman could never ascend to the leadership of North Korea... [a] toxic mix of Confucianism and totalitarianism indentures women to their husbands, to their in-laws, and..."

"... ultimately, to a male-dominated regime.... Since 1948, North Korea has been ruled by three men—the founder, his son, and his grandson—but, nevertheless, it is now conceivable that the fourth man will be a woman. That is because, with reports that Kim Jong Un is in failing health, the most obvious successor is his thirtysomething sister, Kim Yo Jong.... Last week, CNN reported that he was in 'grave danger,' after having undergone surgery (an assertion echoed by a report from a Japanese magazine on Saturday that claimed he was brain dead after a failed operation to insert a stent).... Kim Yo Jong is the youngest known grandchild of Kim Il Sung, carrying what North Koreans revere as a pure bloodline that originated on Mount Paektu, a volcano on the border with China, which is the mythical birthplace of the Korean people. She was reportedly a favorite of her father, Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 until his death, in 2011, [who, it is reported] praised the intelligence of his daughter, while deriding his sons as 'idle blockheads.'...  Among the adult males in the family, Kim Pyong Il, a half brother of Kim Jong Il, spent three decades posted in Europe as a diplomat in semi-exile.... Jong Un’s older brother, Kim Jong Chol, best known as a rock-and-roll groupie who once tried to invite Eric Clapton to Pyongyang, is reported to have even more serious health issues, and was dismissed by his own father as being 'too girly' for consideration in the succession."

From "In North Korea, the Fourth Man Could Be a Woman" by Barbara Demick (The New Yorker).

The article quotes Katharine H. S. Moon, a political-science professor at Wellesley College: "North Korea is so outlandishly sexist, despite the fact that they are supposed to be a revolutionary society."

I just have 2 things to say about that:

1. Hypothesis: An outlandishly sexist culture has a bigger problem with a man who is "girly" than with a woman who looks and acts in a way that you wouldn't call "girly." (The article quotes the Washington Post describing Kim Yo Jong — at the South Korea Olympics — as wearing "barely-there makeup," a "lack of bling," "plain black outfits," carrying a "simple purse," and clipping "her hair back in a no-nonsense style.")

2. The New Yorker expects us to accept as a given that a real "revolutionary society" — in contrast to a "supposed" one — will have overcome sexism, at least the outlandish kind. Don't blame the revolution for anything that's wrong with the revolution! Oh, it's just something Professor Moon said. In quotes. Don't pin it on The New Yorker...