Oscars recap: Forget Seth MacFarlane’s sexist jokes. This was the End of Men Oscars.

Dear Troy and Dan, I promise to spare you a long-form exegesis of Seth MacFarlane’s opening number “We Saw Your Boobs,” which name-checked various actresses in attendance and enumerated the movies in which they had bared their breasts as the camera cut to the women in question squirming and shielding their faces. These appeared to be staged reactions meant to jokingly dramatize MacFarlane’s inevitable failure as an Oscar host, but the actresses’ mortified faces, put-on or not, expressed the audience’s own discomfort with this high-concept kickoff. I’ll limit my discussion of “We Saw Your Boobs” to noting how, um, nakedly it put into relief a recurring theme in last night’s ceremony: A defensive anxiety about the ascendant power of women In spite of MacFarlane’s steady stream of lady-diminishing wisecracks it was a night dominated by a trio of powerful, glittering, seemingly indomitable women: 76-year-old Shirley Bassey in a bronze column dress, belting the Bond theme “Goldfinger” with old-time showbiz bravura; Adele in sparkly silver, bringing down the house with a magnificently simple rendition of her own 007 song, “Skyfall,” which went on to win Best Song; and, in the only real gasp-worthy surprise of the night, Michelle Obama in severer, more armor-like silver, appearing live from what appeared to be a West Point dress ball to announce the award for Best Picture. I’m afraid to step into the maelstrom of Anne Hathaway feelings that I know each one of us holds inside, but what did you guys make of her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech, with its breathless opening whisper : “It came true”?