 Tom encounters Cynthia Kurland of the Female Freedom Foundation, a women s liberation organization. An extremist, Cynthia is bold, forthright, direct, pushy, and also very beautiful. Compliments and pampering she sees as condescension. Cynthia wants Tom to do a story on women s lib for the magazine, which he considers. Mutually attracted to each other, they decide to mix business and pleasure, with Cynthia taking on the traditionally male role of paying for checks, pulling out seats, opening doors and sending gifts. Tom doesn t mind the role reversal, but admittedly he does feel slightly nervous around Cynthia as he doesn t quite enjoy the role reversal concerning the sexual aggression. Ultimately, Tom gets turned off by Cynthia s game playing, as he doesn t know what is real is what is a game. He convinces her that perhaps she takes the games too far and that men and women are not equal in every sense: they may be equal but they re also different, and she must understand those differences.