In The Ox-Bow Incident, Walter Van Tilburg Clark uses the character Gerald Tetley to show that neither masculinity nor femininity is the answer to every problem. When speaking to Croft, Gerald Tetley lays out his thoughts about men compared to women: Men are worse. They're not so sly about their murder, but they don't have to be; they're stronger; they already have the upper hand of half the race, or so they think so. They're bullies instead of sneaks, and that's worse. And they're just as careful to keep up their cheap male virtues, their strength, their courage, their good fellowship, to keep the packfrom jumping them, as the women are to keep up their modesty and their hominess. They all lie about what they think, hide what they feel,