I hadn't watched the clip till now, and I completely with you that the emphasis is on it being about him as victim rather than the fact women are good for other things apart from as objects of the male libido. That this has been embraced as a positive thing and a call against sexism is astonishing. Maybe I don't feel sorry (for this seems to be the prevailing emotion being solicited by his epiphany) for him or all the interesting but 'ugly' women he didn't get to meet, maybe they were better off without him. This reminds me of Marion Bartoli's responses to all the outrageous comments about her not being 'beautiful': “It doesn’t matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I’m sorry,” she said. “But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes.' And definitely, the pressing question that needs to be posed is 'so what did you do about it (as the epiphany was then, not now)?' You're sense that this wasn't much, is perhaps best answered by Terri Garr's comments on the film, which the flavorwire article (http://flavorwire.com/403270/dustin-hoffmans-tootsie-tears-l...) reminded me of. Hoffman certainly didn't do anything to make her life easier, during the film or since.