"Possibly one of the reasons there is a priest shortage is that young men do not want to become priests because they do not want to join a 'brotherhood' that is disgracefully chauvinistic."

It's the exact opposite.  When men see a watered down faith that gives into popular opinion and the latest fad, they don't want to become priests.  It's no coincidence that vocations went up drastically when Benedict was Pope.

"When Paul says that in order to receive communion 'worthily' one must 'discern the Body' (1 Co 11:29&31), is the body a transubstantiated wafer? Probably Paul meant discern that Body which is the communion of all the believers present"

You should read the verses around those two.  That's obviously not the case.