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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3015-h.zip b/3015-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a20fc5 --- /dev/null +++ b/3015-h.zip diff --git a/3015-h/3015-h.htm b/3015-h/3015-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc4b8ac --- /dev/null +++ b/3015-h/3015-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6209 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Our Androcentric Culture, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man Made +World, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man Made World + +Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman + +Release Date: January 15, 2009 [EBook #3015] +Last Updated: January 22, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Christopher Hapka, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE, + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + OR THE MAN MADE WORLD + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Charlotte Perkins Gilman + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE,<br /> or THE + MAN-MADE WORLD</b> </a> <br /><br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> I. + </a> AS TO HUMANNESS. <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> + II. </a> THE MAN-MADE FAMILY. <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0004"> III. </a> HEALTH AND BEAUTY. <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> IV. </a> MEN AND ART. <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0006"> V. </a> MASCULINE LITERATURE. <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VI. </a> GAMES AND SPORTS <br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VII. </a> ETHICS AND RELIGION. + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0009"> VIII. </a> EDUCATION. + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0010"> IX. </a> "SOCIETY" AND + "FASHION" <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0011"> X. </a> LAW + AND GOVERNMENT. <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0012"> XI. </a> CRIME + AND PUNISHMENT. <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0013"> XII. </a> POLITICS + AND WARFARE. <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0014"> </a> WOMAN + AND THE STATE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0015"> XIII. </a> INDUSTRY + AND ECONOMICS. <br /><br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0016"> XIV. </a> A + HUMAN WORLD. <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE, or THE MAN-MADE WORLD + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I. AS TO HUMANNESS. + </h2> + <p> + Let us begin, inoffensively, with sheep. The sheep is a beast with which + we are all familiar, being much used in religious imagery; the common + stock of painters; a staple article of diet; one of our main sources of + clothing; and an everyday symbol of bashfulness and stupidity. + </p> + <p> + In some grazing regions the sheep is an object of terror, destroying + grass, bush and forest by omnipresent nibbling; on the great plains, + sheep-keeping frequently results in insanity, owing to the loneliness of + the shepherd, and the monotonous appearance and behavior of the sheep. + </p> + <p> + By the poet, young sheep are preferred, the lamb gambolling gaily; unless + it be in hymns, where "all we like sheep" are repeatedly described, and + much stress is laid upon the straying propensities of the animal. + </p> + <p> + To the scientific mind there is special interest in the sequacity of + sheep, their habit of following one another with automatic imitation. This + instinct, we are told, has been developed by ages of wild crowded racing + on narrow ledges, along precipices, chasms, around sudden spurs and + corners, only the leader seeing when, where and how to jump. If those + behind jumped exactly as he did, they lived. If they stopped to exercise + independent judgment, they were pushed off and perished; they and their + judgment with them. + </p> + <p> + All these things, and many that are similar, occur to us when we think of + sheep. They are also ewes and rams. Yes, truly; but what of it? All that + has been said was said of sheep, <i>genus ovis,</i> that bland beast, + compound of mutton, wool, and foolishness so widely known. If we think of + the sheep-dog (and dog-ess), the shepherd (and shepherd-ess), of the + ferocious sheep-eating bird of New Zealand, the Kea (and Kea-ess), all + these herd, guard, or kill the sheep, both rams and ewes alike. In regard + to mutton, to wool, to general character, we think only of their + sheepishness, not at all of their ramishness or eweishness. That which is + ovine or bovine, canine, feline or equine, is easily recognized as + distinguishing that particular species of animal, and has no relation + whatever to the sex thereof. + </p> + <p> + Returning to our muttons, let us consider the ram, and wherein his + character differs from the sheep. We find he has a more quarrelsome + disposition. He paws the earth and makes a noise. He has a tendency to + butt. So has a goat—Mr. Goat. So has Mr. Buffalo, and Mr. Moose, and + Mr. Antelope. This tendency to plunge head foremost at an adversary—and + to find any other gentleman an adversary on sight—evidently does not + pertain to sheep, to <i>genus ovis;</i> but to any male creature with + horns. + </p> + <p> + As "function comes before organ," we may even give a reminiscent glance + down the long path of evolution, and see how the mere act of butting—passionately + and perpetually repeated—born of the belligerent spirit of the male—produced + horns! + </p> + <p> + The ewe, on the other hand, exhibits love and care for her little ones, + gives them milk and tries to guard them. But so does a goat—Mrs. + Goat. So does Mrs. Buffalo and the rest. Evidently this mother instinct is + no peculiarity of <i>genus ovis,</i> but of any female creature. + </p> + <p> + Even the bird, though not a mammal, shows the same mother-love and + mother-care, while the father bird, though not a butter, fights with beak + and wing and spur. His competition is more effective through display. The + wish to please, the need to please, the overmastering necessity upon him + that he secure the favor of the female, has made the male bird blossom + like a butterfly. He blazes in gorgeous plumage, rears haughty crests and + combs, shows drooping wattles and dangling blobs such as the turkey-cock + affords; long splendid feathers for pure ornament appear upon him; what in + her is a mere tail-effect becomes in him a mass of glittering drapery. + </p> + <p> + Partridge-cock, farmyard-cock, peacock, from sparrow to ostrich, observe + his mien! To strut and languish; to exhibit every beauteous lure; to + sacrifice ease, comfort, speed, everything—to beauty—for her + sake—this is the nature of the he-bird of any species; the + characteristic, not of the turkey, but of the cock! With drumming of loud + wings, with crow and quack and bursts of glorious song, he woos his mate; + displays his splendors before her; fights fiercely with his rivals. To + butt—to strut—to make a noise—all for love's sake; these + acts are common to the male. + </p> + <p> + We may now generalize and clearly state: That is masculine which belongs + to the male—to any or all males, irrespective of species. That is + feminine which belongs to the female, to any or all females, irrespective + of species. That is ovine, bovine, feline, canine, equine or asinine which + belongs to that species, irrespective of sex. + </p> + <p> + In our own species all this is changed. We have been so taken up with the + phenomena of masculinity and femininity, that our common humanity has + largely escaped notice. We know we are human, naturally, and are very + proud of it; but we do not consider in what our humanness consists; nor + how men and women may fall short of it, or overstep its bounds, in + continual insistence upon their special differences. It is "manly" to do + this; it is "womanly" to do that; but what a human being should do under + the circumstances is not thought of. + </p> + <p> + The only time when we do recognize what we call "common humanity" is in + extreme cases, matters of life and death; when either man or woman is + expected to behave as if they were also human creatures. Since the range + of feeling and action proper to humanity, as such, is far wider than that + proper to either sex, it seems at first somewhat remarkable that we have + given it so little recognition. + </p> + <p> + A little classification will help us here. We have certain qualities in + common with inanimate matter, such as weight, opacity, resilience. It is + clear that these are not human. We have other qualities in common with all + forms of life; cellular construction, for instance, the reproduction of + cells and the need of nutrition. These again are not human. We have + others, many others, common to the higher mammals; which are not + exclusively ours—are not distinctively "human." What then are true + human characteristics? In what way is the human species distinguished from + all other species? + </p> + <p> + Our human-ness is seen most clearly in three main lines: it is mechanical, + psychical and social. Our power to make and use things is essentially + human; we alone have extra-physical tools. We have added to our teeth the + knife, sword, scissors, mowing machine; to our claws the spade, harrow, + plough, drill, dredge. We are a protean creature, using the larger brain + power through a wide variety of changing weapons. This is one of our main + and vital distinctions. Ancient animal races are traced and known by mere + bones and shells, ancient human races by their buildings, tools and + utensils. + </p> + <p> + That degree of development which gives us the human mind is a clear + distinction of race. The savage who can count a hundred is more human than + the savage who can count ten. + </p> + <p> + More prominent than either of these is the social nature of humanity. We + are by no means the only group-animal; that ancient type of industry the + ant, and even the well-worn bee, are social creatures. But insects of + their kind are found living alone. Human beings never. Our human-ness + begins with some low form of social relation and increases as that + relation develops. + </p> + <p> + Human life of any sort is dependent upon what Kropotkin calls "mutual + aid," and human progress keeps step absolutely with that interchange of + specialized services which makes society organic. The nomad, living on + cattle as ants live on theirs, is less human than the farmer, raising food + by intelligently applied labor; and the extension of trade and commerce, + from mere village market-places to the world-exchanges of to-day, is + extension of human-ness as well. + </p> + <p> + Humanity, thus considered, is not a thing made at once and unchangeable, + but a stage of development; and is still, as Wells describes it, "in the + making." Our human-ness is seen to lie not so much in what we are + individually, as in our relations to one another; and even that + individuality is but the result of our relations to one another. It is in + what we do and how we do it, rather than in what we are. Some, + philosophically inclined, exalt "being" over "doing." To them this + question may be put: "Can you mention any form of life that merely 'is,' + without doing anything?" + </p> + <p> + Taken separately and physically, we are animals, <i>genus homo</i>; taken + socially and psychically, we are, in varying degree, human; and our real + history lies in the development of this human-ness. + </p> + <p> + Our historic period is not very long. Real written history only goes back + a few thousand years, beginning with the stone records of ancient Egypt. + During this period we have had almost universally what is here called an + Androcentric Culture. The history, such as it was, was made and written by + men. + </p> + <p> + The mental, the mechanical, the social development, was almost wholly + theirs. We have, so far, lived and suffered and died in a man-made world. + So general, so unbroken, has been this condition, that to mention it + arouses no more remark than the statement of a natural law. We have taken + it for granted, since the dawn of civilization, that "mankind" meant + men-kind, and the world was theirs. + </p> + <p> + Women we have sharply delimited. Women were a sex, "the sex," according to + chivalrous toasts; they were set apart for special services peculiar to + femininity. As one English scientist put it, in 1888, "Women are not only + not the race—they are not even half the race, but a subspecies told + off for reproduction only." + </p> + <p> + This mental attitude toward women is even more clearly expressed by Mr. H. + B. Marriot-Watson in his article on "The American Woman" in the + "Nineteenth Century" for June, 1904, where he says: "Her constitutional + restlessness has caused her to abdicate those functions which alone excuse + or explain her existence." This is a peculiarly happy and condensed + expression of the relative position of women during our androcentric + culture. The man was accepted as the race type without one dissentient + voice; and the woman—a strange, diverse creature, quite + disharmonious in the accepted scheme of things—was excused and + explained only as a female. + </p> + <p> + She has needed volumes of such excuse and explanation; also, apparently, + volumes of abuse and condemnation. In any library catalogue we may find + books upon books about women: physiological, sentimental, didactic, + religious—all manner of books about women, as such. Even to-day in + the works of Marholm—poor young Weininger, Moebius, and others, we + find the same perpetual discussion of women—as such. + </p> + <p> + This is a book about men—as such. It differentiates between the + human nature and the sex nature. It will not go so far as to allege man's + masculine traits to be all that excuse, or explain his existence: but it + will point out what are masculine traits as distinct from human ones, and + what has been the effect on our human life of the unbridled dominance of + one sex. + </p> + <p> + We can see at once, glaringly, what would have been the result of giving + all human affairs into female hands. Such an extraordinary and deplorable + situation would have "feminized" the world. We should have all become + "effeminate." + </p> + <p> + See how in our use of language the case is clearly shown. The adjectives + and derivatives based on woman's distinctions are alien and derogatory + when applied to human affairs; "effeminate"—too female, connotes + contempt, but has no masculine analogue; whereas "emasculate"—not + enough male, is a term of reproach, and has no feminine analogue. "Virile"—manly, + we oppose to "puerile"—childish, and the very word "virtue" is + derived from "vir"—a man. + </p> + <p> + Even in the naming of other animals we have taken the male as the race + type, and put on a special termination to indicate "his female," as in + lion, lioness; leopard, leopardess; while all our human scheme of things + rests on the same tacit assumption; man being held the human type; woman a + sort of accompaniment and subordinate assistant, merely essential to the + making of people. + </p> + <p> + She has held always the place of a preposition in relation to man. She has + been considered above him or below him, before him, behind him, beside + him, a wholly relative existence—"Sydney's sister," "Pembroke's + mother"—but never by any chance Sydney or Pembroke herself. + </p> + <p> + Acting on this assumption, all human standards have been based on male + characteristics, and when we wish to praise the work of a woman, we say + she has "a masculine mind." + </p> + <p> + It is no easy matter to deny or reverse a universal assumption. The human + mind has had a good many jolts since it began to think, but after each + upheaval it settles down as peacefully as the vine-growers on Vesuvius, + accepting the last lava crust as permanent ground. + </p> + <p> + What we see immediately around us, what we are born into and grow up with, + be it mental furniture or physical, we assume to be the order of nature. + </p> + <p> + If a given idea has been held in the human mind for many generations, as + almost all our common ideas have, it takes sincere and continued effort to + remove it; and if it is one of the oldest we have in stock, one of the + big, common, unquestioned world ideas, vast is the labor of those who seek + to change it. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, if the matter is one of importance, if the previous idea was + a palpable error, of large and evil effect, and if the new one is true and + widely important, the effort is worth making. + </p> + <p> + The task here undertaken is of this sort. It seeks to show that what we + have all this time called "human nature" and deprecated, was in great part + only male nature, and good enough in its place; that what we have called + "masculine" and admired as such, was in large part human, and should be + applied to both sexes: that what we have called "feminine" and condemned, + was also largely human and applicable to both. Our androcentric culture is + so shown to have been, and still to be, a masculine culture in excess, and + therefore undesirable. + </p> + <p> + In the preliminary work of approaching these facts it will be well to + explain how it can be that so wide and serious an error should have been + made by practically all men. The reason is simply that they were men. They + were males, avid saw women as females—and not otherwise. + </p> + <p> + So absolute is this conviction that the man who reads will say, "Of + course! How else are we to look at women except as females? They are + females, aren't they?" Yes, they are, as men are males unquestionably; but + there is possible the frame of mind of the old marquise who was asked by + an English friend how she could bear to have the footman serve her + breakfast in bed—to have a man in her bed-chamber—and replied + sincerely, "Call you that thing there a man?" + </p> + <p> + The world is full of men, but their principal occupation is human work of + some sort; and women see in them the human distinction preponderantly. + Occasionally some unhappy lady marries her coachman—long + contemplation of broad shoulders having an effect, apparently; but in + general women see the human creature most; the male creature only when + they love. + </p> + <p> + To the man, the whole world was his world; his because he was male; and + the whole world of woman was the home; because she was female. She had her + prescribed sphere, strictly limited to her feminine occupations and + interests; he had all the rest of life; and not only so, but, having it, + insisted on calling it male. + </p> + <p> + This accounts for the general attitude of men toward the now rapid + humanization of women. From her first faint struggles toward freedom and + justice, to her present valiant efforts toward full economic and political + equality, each step has been termed "unfeminine" and resented as an + intrusion upon man's place and power. Here shows the need of our new + classification, of the three distinct fields of life—masculine, + feminine and human. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact, there is a "woman's sphere," sharply defined and + quite different from his; there is also a "man's sphere," as sharply + defined and even more limited; but there remains a common sphere—that + of humanity, which belongs to both alike. + </p> + <p> + In the earlier part of what is known as "the woman's movement," it was + sharply opposed on the ground that women would become "unsexed." Let us + note in passing that they have become unsexed in one particular, most + glaringly so, and that no one has noticed or objected to it. + </p> + <p> + As part of our androcentric culture we may point to the peculiar reversal + of sex characteristics which make the human female carry the burden of + ornament. She alone, of all human creatures, has adopted the essentially + masculine attribute of special sex-decoration; she does not fight for her + mate as yet, but she blooms forth as the peacock and bird of paradise, in + poignant reversal of nature's laws, even wearing masculine feathers to + further her feminine ends. + </p> + <p> + Woman's natural work as a female is that of the mother; man's natural work + as a male is that of the father; their mutual relation to this end being a + source of joy and well-being when rightly held: but human work covers all + our life outside of these specialties. Every handicraft, every profession, + every science, every art, all normal amusements and recreations, all + government, education, religion; the whole living world of human + achievement: all this is human. + </p> + <p> + That one sex should have monopolized all human activities, called them + "man's work," and managed them as such, is what is meant by the phrase + "Androcentric Culture." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II. THE MAN-MADE FAMILY. + </h2> + <p> + The family is older than humanity, and therefore cannot be called a human + institution. A post office, now, is wholly human; no other creature has a + post office, but there are families in plenty among birds and beasts; all + kinds permanent and transient; monogamous, polygamous and polyandrous. + </p> + <p> + We are now to consider the growth of the family in humanity; what is its + rational development in humanness; in mechanical, mental and social lines; + in the extension of love and service; and the effect upon it of this + strange new arrangement—a masculine proprietor. + </p> + <p> + Like all natural institutions the family has a purpose; and is to be + measured primarily as it serves that purpose; which is, the care and + nurture of the young. To protect the helpless little ones, to feed and + shelter them, to ensure them the benefits of an ever longer period of + immaturity, and so to improve the race—this is the original purpose + of the family. + </p> + <p> + When a natural institution becomes human it enters the plane of + consciousness. We think about it; and, in our strange new power of + voluntary action do things to it. We have done strange things to the + family; or, more specifically, men have. + </p> + <p> + Balsac, at his bitterest, observed, "Women's virtue is man's best + invention." Balsac was wrong. Virtue—the unswerving devotion to one + mate—is common among birds and some of the higher mammals. If Balsac + meant celibacy when he said virtue, why that is one of man's inventions—though + hardly his best. + </p> + <p> + What man has done to the family, speaking broadly, is to change it from an + institution for the best service of the child to one modified to his own + service, the vehicle of his comfort, power and pride. + </p> + <p> + Among the heavy millions of the stirred East, a child—necessarily a + male child—is desired for the credit and glory of the father, and + his fathers; in place of seeing that all a parent is for is the best + service of the child. Ancestor worship, that gross reversal of all natural + law, is of wholly androcentric origin. It is strongest among old + patriarchal races; lingers on in feudal Europe; is to be traced even in + America today in a few sporadic efforts to magnify the deeds of our + ancestors. + </p> + <p> + The best thing any of us can do for our ancestors is to be better than + they were; and we ought to give our minds to it. When we use our past + merely as a guide-book, and concentrate our noble emotions on the present + and future, we shall improve more rapidly. + </p> + <p> + The peculiar changes brought about in family life by the predominance of + the male are easily traced. In these studies we must keep clearly in mind + the basic masculine characteristics: desire, combat, self-expression—all + legitimate and right in proper use; only mischievous when excessive or out + of place. Through them the male is led to strenuous competition for the + favor of the female; in the overflowing ardours of song, as in nightingale + and tomcat; in wasteful splendor of personal decoration, from the + pheasant's breast to an embroidered waistcoat; and in direct struggle for + the prize, from the stag's locked horns to the clashing spears of the + tournament. + </p> + <p> + It is earnestly hoped that no reader will take offence at the necessarily + frequent, reference to these essential features of maleness. In the many + books about women it is, naturally, their femaleness that has been studied + and enlarged upon. And though women, after thousands of years of such + discussion, have become a little restive under the constant use of the + word female: men, as rational beings, should not object to an analogous + study—at least not for some time—a few centuries or so. + </p> + <p> + How, then, do we find these masculine tendencies, desire, combat and + self-expression, affect the home and family when given too much power? + </p> + <p> + First comes the effect in the preliminary work of selection. One of the + most uplifting forces of nature is that of sex selection. The males, + numerous, varied, pouring a flood of energy into wide modifications, + compete for the female, and she selects the victor, this securing to the + race the new improvements. + </p> + <p> + In forming the proprietary family there is no such competition, no such + selection. The man, by violence or by purchase, does the choosing—he + selects the kind of woman that pleases him. Nature did not intend him to + select; he is not good at it. Neither was the female intended to compete—she + is not good at it. + </p> + <p> + If there is a race between males for a mate—the swiftest gets her + first; but if one male is chasing a number of females he gets the slowest + first. The one method improves our speed: the other does not. If males + struggle and fight with one another for a mate, the strongest secures her; + if the male struggles and fights with the female—(a peculiar and + unnatural horror, known only among human beings) he most readily secures + the weakest. The one method improves our strength—the other does + not. + </p> + <p> + When women became the property of men; sold and bartered; "given away" by + their paternal owner to their marital owner; they lost this prerogative of + the female, this primal duty of selection. The males were no longer + improved by their natural competition for the female; and the females were + not improved; because the male did not select for points of racial + superiority, but for such qualities as pleased him. + </p> + <p> + There is a locality in northern Africa, where young girls are deliberately + fed with a certain oily seed, to make them fat,—that they may be the + more readily married,—as the men like fat wives. Among certain more + savage African tribes the chief's wives are prepared for him by being kept + in small dark huts and fed on "mealies" and molasses; precisely as a + Strasbourg goose is fattened for the gourmand. Now fatness is not a + desirable race characteristic; it does not add to the woman's happiness or + efficiency; or to the child's; it is merely an accessory pleasant to the + master; his attitude being much as the amorous monad ecstatically puts it, + in Sill's quaint poem, "Five Lives," + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "O the little female monad's lips! + O the little female monad's eyes! + O the little, little, female, female monad!" +</pre> + <p> + This ultra littleness and ultra femaleness has been demanded and produced + by our Androcentric Culture. + </p> + <p> + Following this, and part of it, comes the effect on motherhood. This + function was the original and legitimate base of family life; and its + ample sustaining power throughout the long early period of "the + mother-right;" or as we call it, the matriarchate; the father being her + assistant in the great work. The patriarchate, with its proprietary + family, changed this altogether; the woman, as the property of the man was + considered first and foremost as a means of pleasure to him; and while she + was still valued as a mother, it was in a tributary capacity. Her children + were now his; his property, as she was; the whole enginery of the family + was turned from its true use to this new one, hitherto unknown, the + service of the adult male. + </p> + <p> + To this day we are living under the influence of the proprietary family. + The duty of the wife is held to involve man-service as well as + child-service, and indeed far more; as the duty of the wife to the husband + quite transcends the duty of the mother to the child. + </p> + <p> + See for instance the English wife staying with her husband in India and + sending the children home to be brought up; because India is bad for + children. See our common law that the man decides the place of residence; + if the wife refuses to go with him to howsoever unfit a place for her and + for the little ones, such refusal on her part constitutes "desertion" and + is ground for divorce. + </p> + <p> + See again the idea that the wife must remain with the husband though a + drunkard, or diseased; regardless of the sin against the child involved in + such a relation. Public feeling on these matters is indeed changing; but + as a whole the ideals of the man-made family still obtain. + </p> + <p> + The effect of this on the woman has been inevitably to weaken and + overshadow her sense of the real purpose of the family; of the relentless + responsibilities of her duty as a mother. She is first taught duty to her + parents, with heavy religious sanction; and then duty to her husband, + similarly buttressed; but her duty to her children has been left to + instinct. She is not taught in girlhood as to her preeminent power and + duty as a mother; her young ideals are all of devotion to the lover and + husband: with only the vaguest sense of results. + </p> + <p> + The young girl is reared in what we call "innocence;" poetically described + as "bloom;" and this condition is held one of her chief "charms." The + requisite is wholly androcentric. This "innocence" does not enable her to + choose a husband wisely; she does not even know the dangers that possibly + confront her. We vaguely imagine that her father or brother, who do know, + will protect her. Unfortunately the father and brother, under our current + "double standard" of morality do not judge the applicants as she would if + she knew the nature of their offenses. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore, if her heart is set on one of them, no amount of general + advice and opposition serves to prevent her marrying him. "I love him!" + she says, sublimely. "I do not care what he has done. I will forgive him. + I will save him!" + </p> + <p> + This state of mind serves to forward the interests of the lover, but is of + no advantage to the children. We have magnified the duties of the wife, + and minified the duties of the mother; and this is inevitable in a family + relation every law and custom of which is arranged from the masculine + viewpoint. + </p> + <p> + From this same viewpoint, equally essential to the proprietary family, + comes the requirement that the woman shall serve the man. Her service is + not that of the associate and equal, as when she joins him in his + business. It is not that of a beneficial combination, as when she + practices another business and they share the profits; it is not even that + of the specialist, as the service of a tailor or barber; it is personal + service—the work of a servant. + </p> + <p> + In large generalization, the women of the world cook and wash, sweep and + dust, sew and mend, for the men. + </p> + <p> + We are so accustomed to this relation; have held it for so long to be the + "natural" relation, that it is difficult indeed to show that it is + distinctly unnatural and injurious. The father expects to be served by the + daughter, a service quite different from what he expects of the son. This + shows at once that such service is no integral part of motherhood, or even + of marriage; but is supposed to be the proper industrial position of + women, as such. + </p> + <p> + Why is this so? Why, on the face of it, given a daughter and a son, should + a form of service be expected of the one, which would be considered + ignominious by the other? + </p> + <p> + The underlying reason is this. Industry, at its base, is a feminine + function. The surplus energy of the mother does not manifest itself in + noise, or combat, or display, but in productive industry. Because of her + mother-power she became the first inventor and laborer; being in truth the + mother of all industry as well as all people. + </p> + <p> + Man's entrance upon industry is late and reluctant; as will be shown later + in treating his effect on economics. In this field of family life, his + effect was as follows: + </p> + <p> + Establishing the proprietary family at an age when the industry was + primitive and domestic; and thereafter confining the woman solely to the + domestic area, he thereby confined her to primitive industry. The domestic + industries, in the hands of women, constitute a survival of our remotest + past. Such work was "woman's work" as was all the work then known; such + work is still considered woman's work because they have been prevented + from doing any other. + </p> + <p> + The term "domestic industry" does not define a certain kind of labor, but + a certain grade of labor. Architecture was a domestic industry once—when + every savage mother set up her own tepee. To be confined to domestic + industry is no proper distinction of womanhood; it is an historic + distinction, an economic distinction, it sets a date and limit to woman's + industrial progress. + </p> + <p> + In this respect the man-made family has resulted in arresting the + development of half the field. We have a world wherein men, industrially, + live in the twentieth century; and women, industrially, live in the first—and + back of it. + </p> + <p> + To the same source we trace the social and educational limitations set + about women. The dominant male, holding his women as property, and + fiercely jealous of them, considering them always as <i>his,</i> not + belonging to themselves, their children, or the world; has hedged them in + with restrictions of a thousand sorts; physical, as in the crippled + Chinese lady or the imprisoned odalisque; moral, as in the oppressive + doctrines of submission taught by all our androcentric religions; mental, + as in the enforced ignorance from which women are now so swiftly emerging. + </p> + <p> + This abnormal restriction of women has necessarily injured motherhood. The + man, free, growing in the world's growth, has mounted with the centuries, + filling an ever wider range of world activities. The woman, bound, has not + so grown; and the child is born to a progressive fatherhood and a + stationary motherhood. Thus the man-made family reacts unfavorably upon + the child. We rob our children of half their social heredity by keeping + the mother in an inferior position; however legalized, hallowed, or + ossified by time, the position of a domestic servant is inferior. + </p> + <p> + It is for this reason that child culture is at so low a level, and for the + most part utterly unknown. Today, when the forces of education are + steadily working nearer to the cradle, a new sense is wakening of the + importance of the period of infancy, and its wiser treatment; yet those + who know of such a movement are few, and of them some are content to earn + easy praise—and pay—by belittling right progress to gratify + the prejudices of the ignorant. + </p> + <p> + The whole position is simple and clear; and easily traceable to its root. + Given a proprietary family, where the man holds the woman primarily for + his satisfaction and service—then necessarily he shuts her up and + keeps her for these purposes. Being so kept, she cannot develop humanly, + as he has, through social contact, social service, true social life. (We + may note in passing, her passionate fondness for the child-game called + "society" she has been allowed to entertain herself withal; that poor + simiacrum of real social life, in which people decorate themselves and + madly crowd together, chattering, for what is called "entertainment.") + Thus checked in social development, we have but a low grade motherhood to + offer our children; and the children, reared in the primitive conditions + thus artificially maintained, enter life with a false perspective, not + only toward men and women, but toward life as a whole. + </p> + <p> + The child should receive in the family, full preparation for his relation + to the world at large. His whole life must be spent in the world, serving + it well or ill; and youth is the time to learn how. But the androcentric + home cannot teach him. We live to-day in a democracy-the man-made family + is a despotism. It may be a weak one; the despot may be dethroned and + overmastered by his little harem of one; but in that case she becomes the + despot—that is all. The male is esteemed "the head of the family;" + it belongs to him; he maintains it; and the rest of the world is a wide + hunting ground and battlefield wherein he competes with other males as of + old. + </p> + <p> + The girl-child, peering out, sees this forbidden field as belonging wholly + to men-kind; and her relation to it is to secure one for herself—not + only that she may love, but that she may live. He will feed, clothe and + adorn her—she will serve him; from the subjection of the daughter to + that of the wife she steps; from one home to the other, and never enters + the world at all—man's world. + </p> + <p> + The boy, on the other hand, considers the home as a place of women, an + inferior place, and longs to grow up and leave it—for the real + world. He is quite right. The error is that this great social instinct, + calling for full social exercise, exchange, service, is considered + masculine, whereas it is human, and belongs to boy and girl alike. + </p> + <p> + The child is affected first through the retarded development of his + mother, then through the arrested condition of home industry; and further + through the wrong ideals which have arisen from these conditions. A normal + home, where there was human equality between mother and father, would have + a better influence. + </p> + <p> + We must not overlook the effect of the proprietary family on the + proprietor himself. He, too, has been held back somewhat by this + reactionary force. In the process of becoming human we must learn to + recognize justice, freedom, human rights; we must learn self-control and + to think of others; have minds that grow and broaden rationally; we must + learn the broad mutual interservice and unbounded joy of social + intercourse and service. The petty despot of the man-made home is hindered + in his humanness by too much manness. + </p> + <p> + For each man to have one whole woman to cook for and wait upon him is a + poor education for democracy. The boy with a servile mother, the man with + a servile wife, cannot reach the sense of equal rights we need to-day. Too + constant consideration of the master's tastes makes the master selfish; + and the assault upon his heart direct, or through that proverbial + side-avenue, the stomach, which the dependent woman needs must make when + she wants anything, is bad for the man, as well as for her. + </p> + <p> + We are slowly forming a nobler type of family; the union of two, based on + love and recognized by law, maintained because of its happiness and use. + We are even now approaching a tenderness and permanence of love, high pure + enduring love; combined with the broad deep-rooted friendliness and + comradeship of equals; which promises us more happiness in marriage than + we have yet known. It will be good for all the parties concerned—man, + woman and child: and promote our general social progress admirably. + </p> + <p> + If it needs "a head" it will elect a chairman pro tem. Friendship does not + need "a head." Love does not need "a head." Why should a family? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III. HEALTH AND BEAUTY. + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + NOTE—The word "Androcentric" we owe to Prof. Lester F. + Ward. In his book, "Pure Sociology," Chap. 14, he describes + the Androcentric Theory of life, hitherto universally + accepted; and introduces his own "Gyneacocentric Theory." + All who are interested in the deeper scientific aspects of + this question are urged to read that chapter. Prof. Ward's + theory is to my mind the most important that has been + offered the world since the Theory of Evolution; and without + exception the most important that has ever been put forward + concerning women. +</pre> + <p> + Among the many paradoxes which we find in human life is our low average + standard of health and beauty, compared with our power and knowledge. All + creatures suffer from conflict with the elements; from enemies without and + within—the prowling devourers of the forest, and "the terror that + walketh in darkness" and attacks the body from inside, in hidden millions. + </p> + <p> + Among wild animals generally, there is a certain standard of excellence; + if you shoot a bear or a bird, it is a fair sample of the species; you do + not say, "O what an ugly one!" or "This must have been an invalid!" + </p> + <p> + Where we have domesticated any animal, and interfered with its natural + habits, illness has followed; the dog is said to have the most diseases + second to man; the horse comes next; but the wild ones put us to shame by + their superior health and the beauty that belongs to right development. + </p> + <p> + In our long ages of blind infancy we assume that sickness was a visitation + frown the gods; some still believe this, holding it to be a special + prerogative of divinity to afflict us in this way. We speak of "the ills + that flesh is heir to" as if the inheritance was entailed and inalienable. + Only of late years, after much study and long struggle with this old + belief which made us submit to sickness as a blow from the hand of God, we + are beginning to learn something of the many causes of our many diseases, + and how to remove some of them. + </p> + <p> + It is still true, however, that almost every one of us is to some degree + abnormal; the features asymmetrical, the vision defective, the digestion + unreliable, the nervous system erratic—we are but a job lot even in + what we call "good health"; and are subject to a burden of pain and + premature death that would make life hideous if it were not so + ridiculously unnecessary. + </p> + <p> + As to beauty—we do not think of expecting it save in the rarely + exceptional case. Look at the faces—the figures—in any crowd + you meet; compare the average man or the average woman with the normal + type of human beauty as given us in picture and statue; and consider if + there is not some general cause for so general a condition of ugliness. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, leaving our defective bodies concealed by garments; what are + those garments, as conducive to health and beauty? Is the practical + ugliness of our men's attire, and the impractical absurdity of our + women's, any contribution to human beauty? Look at our houses—are + they beautiful? Even the houses of the rich? + </p> + <p> + We do not even know that we ought to live in a world of overflowing + loveliness; and that our contribution to it should be the loveliest of + all. We are so sodden in the dull ugliness of our interiors, so used to + calling a tame weary low-toned color scheme "good taste," that only + children dare frankly yearn for Beauty—and they are speedily + educated out of it. + </p> + <p> + The reasons specially given for our low standards of health and beauty are + ignorance, poverty, and the evil effects of special trades. The Man with + the Hoe becomes brother to the ox because of over-much hoeing; the + housepainter is lead-poisoned because of his painting; books have been + written to show the injurious influence of nearly all our industries upon + workers. + </p> + <p> + These causes are sound as far as they go; but do not cover the whole + ground. + </p> + <p> + The farmer may be muscle-bound and stooping from his labor; but that does + not account for his dyspepsia or his rheumatism. + </p> + <p> + Then we allege poverty as covering all. Poverty does cover a good deal. + But when we find even a half-fed savage better developed than a well paid + cashier; and a poor peasant woman a more vigorous mother than the idle + wife of a rich man, poverty is not enough. + </p> + <p> + Then we say ignorance explains it. But there are most learned professors + who are ugly and asthmathic; there are even doctors who can boast no + beauty and but moderate health; there are some of the petted children of + the wealthy, upon whom every care is lavished from birth, and who still + are ill to look at and worse to marry. + </p> + <p> + All these special causes are admitted, given their due share in lowering + our standards, but there is another far more universal in its application + and its effects. Let us look back on our little ancestors the beasts, and + see what keeps them so true to type. + </p> + <p> + The type itself set by that balance of conditions and forces we call + "natural selection." As the environment changes they must be adapted to + it, if they cannot so adapt themselves they die. Those who live are, by + living, proven capable of maintaining themselves. Every creature which has + remained on earth, while so many less effective kinds died out, remains as + a conqueror. The speed of the deer—the constant use of speed—is + what keeps it alive and makes it healthy and beautiful. The varied + activities of the life of a leopard are what have developed the sinuous + gracile strength we so admire. It is what the creature does for its + living, its daily life-long exercise which makes it what it is. + </p> + <p> + But there is another great natural force which works steadily to keep all + animals up to the race standard; that is sexual selection. Throughout + nature the male is the variant, as we have already noted. His energy finds + vent not only in that profuse output of decorative appendages Ward defines + as "masculine efflorescence" but in variations not decorative, not useful + or desirable at all. + </p> + <p> + The female, on the other hand, varies much less, remaining nearer the race + type; and her function is to select among these varying males the + specimens most valuable to the race. In the intense masculine competition + the victor must necessarily be stronger than his fellows; he is first + proven equal to his environment by having lived to grow up, then more than + equal to his fellows by overcoming them. This higher grade of selection + also develops not only the characteristics necessary to make a living; but + secondary ones, often of a purely aesthetic nature, which make much of + what we call beauty. Between the two, all who live must be up to a certain + grade, and those who become parents must be above it; a masterly + arrangement surely! + </p> + <p> + Here is where, during the period of our human history, we in our newborn + consciousness and imperfect knowledge, have grievously interfered with the + laws of nature. The ancient proprietary family, treating the woman as a + slave, keeping her a prisoner and subject to the will of her master, cut + her off at once from the exercise of those activities which alone develop + and maintain the race type. + </p> + <p> + Take the one simple quality of speed. We are a creature built for speed, a + free swift graceful animal; and among savages this is still seen—the + capacity for running, mile after mile, hour after hour. Running is as + natural a gait for <i>genus homo</i> as for <i>genus cervus.</i> Now + suppose among deer, the doe was prohibited from running; the stag + continuing free on the mountain; the doe living in caves and pens, unequal + to any exercise. The effect on the species would be, inevitably, to reduce + its speed. + </p> + <p> + In this way, by keeping women to one small range of duties, and in most + cases housebound, we have interfered with natural selection and its + resultant health and beauty. It can easily be seen what the effect on the + race would have been if all men had been veiled and swathed, hidden in + harems, kept to the tent or house, and confined to the activities of a + house-servant. Our stalwart laborers, our proud soldiers, our athletes, + would never have appeared under such circumstances. The confinement to the + house alone, cutting women off from sunshine and air, is by itself an + injury; and the range of occupation allowed them is not such as to develop + a high standard of either health or beauty. Thus we have cut off half the + race from the strengthening influence of natural selection, and so lowered + our race-standards in large degree. + </p> + <p> + This alone, however, would not have hid such mischievous effects but for + our further blunder in completely reversing nature's order of sexual + selection. It is quite possible that even under confinement and + restriction women could have kept up the race level, passably, through + this great function of selection; but here is the great fundamental error + of the Androcentric Culture. Assuming to be the possessor of women, their + owner and master, able at will to give, buy and sell, or do with as he + pleases, man became the selector. + </p> + <p> + It seems a simple change; and in those early days, wholly ignorant of + natural laws, there was no suspicion that any mischief would result. In + the light of modern knowledge, however, the case is clear. The woman was + deprived of the beneficent action of natural selection, and the man was + then, by his own act, freed from the stern but elevating effect of sexual + selection. Nothing was required of the woman by natural selection save + such capacity as should please her master; nothing was required of the man + by sexual selection save power to take by force, or buy, a woman. + </p> + <p> + It does not take a very high standard of feminine intelligence, strength, + skill, health, or beauty to be a houseservant, or even a housekeeper; + witness the average. + </p> + <p> + It does not take a very high standard of masculine, intelligence, + strength, skill, health or beauty to maintain a woman in that capacity—witness + average. + </p> + <p> + Here at the very root of our physiological process, at the beginning of + life, we have perverted the order of nature, and are suffering the + consequences. + </p> + <p> + It has been held by some that man as the selector has developed beauty, + more beauty than we had before; and we point to the charms of our women as + compared with those of the squaw. The answer to this is that the squaw + belongs to a decadent race; that she too is subject to the man, that the + comparison to have weight should be made between our women and the women + of the matriarchate—an obvious impossibility. We have not on earth + women in a state of normal freedom and full development; but we have + enough difference in their placing to learn that human strength and beauty + grows with woman's freedom and activity. + </p> + <p> + The second answer is that much of what man calls beauty in woman is not + human beauty at all, but gross overdevelopment of certain points which + appeal to him as a male. The excessive fatness, previously referred to, is + a case in point; that being considered beauty in a woman which is in + reality an element of weakness, inefficiency and ill-health. The + relatively small size of women, deliberately preferred, steadfastly + chosen, and so built into the race, is a blow at real human progress in + every particular. In our upward journey we should and do grow larger, + leaving far behind us our dwarfish progenitors. Yet the male, in his + unnatural position as selector, preferring for reasons both practical and + sentimental, to have "his woman" smaller than himself, has deliberately + striven to lower the standard of size in the race. We used to read in the + novels of the last generation, "He was a magnificent specimen of manhood"—"Her + golden head reached scarcely to his shoulder"—"She was a fairy + creature—the tiniest of her sex." Thus we have mated, and yet + expected that by some hocus pocus the boys would all "take after their + father," and the girls, their mother. In his efforts to improve the breed + of other animals, man has never tried to deliberately cross the large and + small and expect to keep up the standard of size. + </p> + <p> + As a male he is appealed to by the ultra-feminine, and has given small + thought to effects on the race. He was not designed to do the selecting. + Under his fostering care we have bred a race of women who are physically + weak enough to be handed about like invalids; or mentally weak enough to + pretend they are—and to like it. We have made women who respond so + perfectly to the force which made them, that they attach all their idea of + beauty to those characteristics which attract men; sometimes humanly ugly + without even knowing it. + </p> + <p> + For instance, our long restriction to house-limits, the heavy limitations + of our clothing, and the heavier ones of traditional decorum, have made + women disproportionately short-legged. This is a particularly undignified + and injurious characteristic, bred in women and inherited by men, most + seen among those races which keep their women most closely. Yet when one + woman escapes the tendency and appears with a normal length of femur and + tibia, a normal height of hip and shoulder, she is criticized and called + awkward by her squatty sisters! + </p> + <p> + The most convenient proof of the inferiority of women in human beauty is + shown by those composite statues prepared by Mr. Sargent for the World's + Fair of '93. These were made from gymnasium measurements of thousands of + young collegians of both sexes all over America. The statue of the girl + has a pretty face, small hands and feet, rather nice arms, though weak; + but the legs are too thick and short; the chest and shoulders poor; and + the trunk is quite pitiful in its weakness. The figure of the man is much + better proportioned. + </p> + <p> + Thus the effect on human beauty of masculine selection. + </p> + <p> + Beyond this positive deteriorative effect on women through man's arbitrary + choice comes the negative effect of woman's lack of choice. Bought or + stolen or given by her father, she was deprived of the innately feminine + right and duty of choosing. "Who giveth this woman?" we still inquire in + our archaic marriage service, and one man steps forward and gives her to + another man. + </p> + <p> + Free, the female chose the victor, and the vanquished went unmated—and + without progeny. Dependent, having to be fed and cared for by some man, + the victors take their pick perhaps, but the vanquished take what is left; + and the poor women, "marrying for a home," take anything. As a consequence + the inferior male is as free to transmit his inferiority as the superior + to give better qualities, and does so—beyond computation. In modern + days, women are freer, in some countries freer than in others; here in + modern America freest of all; and the result is seen in our improving + standards of health and beauty. + </p> + <p> + Still there remains the field of inter-masculine competition, does there + not? Do not the males still struggle together? Is not that as of old, a + source of race advantage? + </p> + <p> + To some degree it is. When life was simple and our activities consisted + mainly in fighting and hard work; the male who could vanquish the others + was bigger and stronger. But inter-masculine competition ceases to be of + such advantage when we enter the field of social service. What is required + in organized society is the specialization of the individual, the + development of special talents, not always of immediate benefit to the man + himself, but of ultimate benefit to society. The best social servant, + progressive, meeting future needs, is almost always at a disadvantage + besides the well-established lower types. We need, for social service, + qualities quite different from the simple masculine characteristics—desire, + combat, self-expression. + </p> + <p> + By keeping what we call "the outside world" so wholly male, we keep up + masculine standards at the expense of human ones. This may be broadly seen + in the slow and painful development of industry and science as compared to + the easy dominance of warfare throughout all history until our own times. + </p> + <p> + The effect of all this ultra masculine competition upon health and beauty + is but too plainly to be seen. Among men the male idea of what is good + looking is accentuated beyond reason. Read about any "hero" you please; or + study the products of the illustrator and note the broad shoulders, the + rugged features, the strong, square, determined jaw. That jaw is in + evidence if everything else fails. He may be cross-eyed, wide-eared, + thick-necked, bandy-legged—what you please; but he must have a more + or less prognathous jaw. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile any anthropologist will show you that the line of human + development is away from that feature of the bulldog and the alligator, + and toward the measured dignity of the Greek type. The possessor of that + kind of jaw may enable male to conquer male, but does not make him of any + more service to society; of any better health or higher beauty. + </p> + <p> + Further, in the external decoration of our bodies, what is the influence + here of masculine dominance. + </p> + <p> + We have before spoken of the peculiar position of our race in that the + woman is the only female creature who carries the burden of sex ornament. + This amazing reversal of the order of nature results at its mildest in a + perversion of the natural feminine instincts of love and service, and an + appearance of the masculine instincts of self-expression and display. + Alone among all female things do women decorate and preen themselves and + exhibit their borrowed plumage (literally!) to attract the favor of the + male. This ignominy is forced upon them by their position of economic + dependence; and their general helplessness. As all broader life is made to + depend, for them, on whom they marry, indeed as even the necessities of + life so often depend on their marrying someone, they have been driven into + this form of competition, so alien to the true female attitude. + </p> + <p> + The result is enough to make angels weep—and laugh. Perhaps no step + in the evolution of beauty went farther than our human power of making a + continuous fabric; soft and mobile, showing any color and texture desired. + The beauty of the human body is supreme, and when we add to it the flow of + color, the ripple of fluent motion, that comes of a soft, light garment + over free limbs—it is a new field of loveliness and delight. + Naturally this should have filled the whole world with a new pleasure. Our + garments, first under right natural selection developing perfect use, + under right sex selection developing beauty; and further, as our human + aesthetic sense progresses, showing a noble symbolism, would have been an + added strength and glory, a ceaseless joy. + </p> + <p> + What is the case? + </p> + <p> + Men, under a too strictly inter-masculine environment, have evolved the + mainly useful but beautiless costume common to-day; and women—? + </p> + <p> + Women wear beautiful garments when they happen to be the fashion; and ugly + garments when they are the fashion, and show no signs of knowing the + difference. They show no added pride in the beautiful, no hint of + mortification in the hideous, and are not even sensitive under criticism, + or open to any persuasion or argument. Why should they be? + </p> + <p> + Their condition, physical and mental, is largely abnormal, their whole + passionate absorption in dress and decoration is abnormal, and they have + never looked, from a frankly human standpoint, at their position and its + peculiarities, until the present age. + </p> + <p> + In the effect of our wrong relation on the world's health, we have spoken + of the check to vigor and growth due to the housebound state of women and + their burdensome clothes. There follow other influences, similar in + origin, even more evil in result. To roughly and briefly classify we may + distinguish the diseases due to bad air, to bad food, and that field of + cruel mischief we are only now beginning to discuss—the diseases + directly due to the erroneous relation between men and women. + </p> + <p> + We are the only race where the female depends on the male for a + livelihood. We are the only race that practices prostitution. From the + first harmless-looking but abnormal general relation follows the well + recognized evil of the second, so long called "a social necessity," and + from it, in deadly sequence, comes the "wages of sin;" death not only of + the guilty, but of the innocent. It is no light part of our criticism of + the Androcentric Culture that a society based on masculine desires alone, + has willingly sacrificed such an army of women; and has repaid the + sacrifice by the heaviest punishments. + </p> + <p> + That the unfortunate woman should sicken and die was held to be her just + punishment; that man too should bear part penalty was found unavoidable, + though much legislation and medical effort has been spent to shield him; + but to the further consequences society is but now waking up. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV. MEN AND ART. + </h2> + <p> + Among the many counts in which women have been proven inferior to men in + human development is the oft-heard charge that there are no great women + artists. Where one or two are proudly exhibited in evidence, they are + either pooh-poohed as not very great, or held to be the trifling + exceptions which do but prove the rule. + </p> + <p> + Defenders of women generally make the mistake of over-estimating their + performances, instead of accepting, and explaining, the visible facts. + What are the facts as to the relation of men and women to art? And what, + in especial, has been the effect upon art of a solely masculine + expression? + </p> + <p> + When we look for the beginnings of art, we find ourselves in a period of + crude decoration of the person and of personal belongings. Tattooing, for + instance, is an early form of decorative art, still in practice among + certain classes, even in advanced people. Most boys, if they are in + contact with this early art, admire it, and wish to adorn themselves + therewith; some do so—to later mortification. Early personal + decoration consisted largely in direct mutilation of the body, and the + hanging upon it, or fastening to it, of decorative objects. This we see + among savages still, in its gross and primitive forms monopolized by men, + then shared by women, and, in our time, left almost wholly to them. In + personal decoration today, women are still near the savage. The "artists" + developed in this field of art are the tonsorial, the sartorial, and all + those specialized adorners of the body commonly known as "beauty doctors." + </p> + <p> + Here, as in other cases, the greatest artists are men. The greatest + milliners, the greatest dressmakers and tailors, the greatest + hairdressers, and the masters and designers in all our decorative + toilettes and accessories, are men. Women, in this as in so many other + lines, consume rather than produce. They carry the major part of personal + decoration today; but the decorator is the man. In the decoration of + objects, woman, as the originator of primitive industry, originated also + the primitive arts; and in the pottery, basketry, leatherwork, needlework, + weaving, with all beadwork, dyeing and embroideries of ancient peoples we + see the work of the woman decorator. Much of this is strong and beautiful, + but its time is long past. The art which is part of industry, natural, + simple, spontaneous, making beauty in every object of use, adding pleasure + to labor and to life, is not Art with a large A, the Art which requires + Artists, among whom are so few women of note. + </p> + <p> + Art as a profession, and the Artist as a professional, came later; and by + that time women had left the freedom and power of the matriarchate and + become slaves in varying degree. The women who were idle pets in harems, + or the women who worked hard as servants, were alike cut off from the joy + of making things. Where constructive work remained to them, art remained, + in its early decorative form. Men, in the proprietary family, restricting + the natural industry of women to personal service, cut off their art with + their industry, and by so much impoverished the world. + </p> + <p> + There is no more conspicuously pathetic proof of the aborted development + of women than this commonplace—their lack of a civilized art sense. + Not only in the childish and savage display upon their bodies, but in the + pitiful products they hang upon the walls of the home, is seen the arrest + in normal growth. + </p> + <p> + After ages of culture, in which men have developed Architecture, + Sculpture, Painting, Music and the Drama, we find women in their primitive + environment making flowers of wax, and hair, and worsted; doing mottoes of + perforated cardboard, making crazy quilts and mats and "tidies"—as + if they lived in a long past age, or belonged to a lower race. + </p> + <p> + This, as part of the general injury to women dating from the beginning of + our androcentric culture, reacts heavily upon the world at large. Men, + specializing, giving their lives to the continuous pursuit of one line of + service, have lifted our standard in aesthetic culture, as they have in + other matters; but by refusing the same growth to women, they have not + only weakened and reduced the output, but ruined the market as it were, + hopelessly and permanently kept down the level of taste. + </p> + <p> + Among the many sides of this great question, some so terrible, some so + pathetic, some so utterly absurd, this particular phase of life is + especially easy to study and understand, and has its own elements of + amusement. Men, holding women at the level of domestic service, going on + themselves to lonely heights of achievement, have found their efforts + hampered and their attainments rendered barren and unsatisfactory by the + amazing indifference of the world at large. As the world at large consists + half of women, and wholly of their children, it would seem patent to the + meanest understanding that the women must be allowed to rise in order to + lift the world. But such has not been the method—heretofore. + </p> + <p> + We have spoken so far in this chapter of the effect of men on art through + their interference with the art of women. There are other sides to the + question. Let us consider once more the essential characteristics of + maleness, and see how they have affected art, keeping always in mind the + triune distinction between masculine, feminine and human. Perhaps we shall + best see this difference by considering what the development of art might + have been on purely human terms. + </p> + <p> + The human creature, as such, naturally delights in construction, and adds + decoration to construction as naturally. The cook, making little regular + patterns around the edge of the pie, does so from a purely human instinct, + the innate eye-pleasure in regularity, symmetry, repetition, and + alternation. Had this natural social instinct grown unchecked in us, it + would have manifested itself in a certain proportion of specialists—artists + of all sorts—and an accompanying development of appreciation on the + part of the rest of us. Such is the case in primitive art; the maker of + beauty is upheld and rewarded by a popular appreciation of her work—or + his. + </p> + <p> + Had this condition remained, we should find a general level of artistic + expression and appreciation far higher than we see now. Take the one field + of textile art, for instance: that wide and fluent medium of expression, + the making of varied fabrics, the fashioning of garments and the + decoration of them—all this is human work and human pleasure. It + should have led us to a condition where every human being was a pleasure + to the eye, appropriately and beautifully clothed. + </p> + <p> + Our real condition in this field is too patent to need emphasis; the + stiff, black ugliness of our men's attire; the irritating variegated folly + of our women's; the way in which we spoil the beauty and shame the dignity + of childhood by modes of dress. + </p> + <p> + In normal human growth, our houses would be a pleasure to the eye; our + furniture and utensils, all our social products, would blossom into beauty + as naturally as they still do in those low stages of social evolution + where our major errors have not yet borne full fruit. + </p> + <p> + Applied art in all its forms is a human function, common to every one to + some degree, either in production or appreciation, or both. "Pure art," as + an ideal, is also human; and the single-hearted devotion of the true + artist to this ideal is one of the highest forms of the social sacrifice. + Of all the thousand ways by which humanity is specialized for + inter-service, none is more exquisite than this; the evolution of the + social Eye, or Ear, or Voice, the development of those whose work is + wholly for others, and to whom the appreciation of others is as the bread + of life. This we should have in a properly developed community; the + pleasure of applied art in the making and using of everything we have; and + then the high joy of the Great Artist, and the noble work thereof, spread + far and wide. + </p> + <p> + What do we find? + </p> + <p> + Applied art at a very low level; small joy either for the maker or the + user. Pure art, a fine-spun specialty, a process carried on by an elect + few who openly despise the unappreciative many. Art has become an occult + profession requiring a long special education even to enjoy, and evolving + a jargon of criticism which becomes more esoteric yearly. + </p> + <p> + Let us now see what part in this undesirable outcome is due to our + Androcentric Culture. + </p> + <p> + As soon as the male of our species assumed the exclusive right to perform + all social functions, he necessarily brought to that performance the + advantages—and disadvantages—of maleness, of those dominant + characteristics, desire, combat, self-expression. + </p> + <p> + Desire has overweighted art in many visible forms; it is prominent in + painting and music, almost monopolizes fiction, and has pitifully degraded + dancing. + </p> + <p> + Combat is not so easily expressed in art, where even competition is on a + high plane; but the last element is the main evil, self-expression. This + impulse is inherently and ineradicably masculine. It rests on that most + basic of distinctions between the sexes, the centripetal and centrifugal + forces of the universe. In the very nature of the sperm-cell and the + germ-cell we find this difference: the one attracts, gathers, draws in; + the other repels, scatters, pushes out. That projective impulse is seen in + the male nature everywhere; the constant urge toward expression, to all + boasting and display. This spirit, like all things masculine, is perfectly + right and admirable in its place. + </p> + <p> + It is the duty of the male, as a male, to vary; bursting forth in a + thousand changing modifications—the female, selecting, may so + incorporate beneficial changes in the race. It is his duty to thus express + himself—an essentially masculine duty; but masculinity is one thing, + and art is another. Neither the masculine nor the feminine has any place + in art—Art is Human. + </p> + <p> + It is not in any faintest degree allied to the personal processes of + reproduction; but is a social process, a most distinctive social process, + quite above the plane of sex. The true artist transcends his sex, or her + sex. If this is not the case, the art suffers. + </p> + <p> + Dancing is an early, and a beautiful art; direct expression of emotion + through the body; beginning in subhuman type, among male birds, as the + bower-bird of New Guinea, and the dancing crane, who swing and caper + before their mates. Among early peoples we find it a common form of social + expression in tribal dances of all sorts, religious, military, and other. + Later it becomes a more explicit form of celebration, as among the Greeks; + in whose exquisite personal culture dancing and music held high place. + </p> + <p> + But under the progressive effects of purely masculine dominance we find + the broader human elements of dancing left out, and the sex-element more + and more emphasized. As practiced by men alone dancing has become a mere + display of physical agility, a form of exhibition common to all males. As + practiced by men and women together we have our social dances, so lacking + in all the varied beauty of posture and expression, so steadily becoming a + pleasant form of dalliance. + </p> + <p> + As practiced by women alone we have one of the clearest proofs of the + degrading effect of masculine dominance:—the dancing girl. In the + frank sensualism of the Orient, this personage is admired and enjoyed on + her merits. We, more sophisticated in this matter, joke shamefacedly about + "the bald-headed row," and occasionally burst forth in shrill scandal over + some dinner party where ladies clad in a veil and a bracelet dance on the + table. Nowhere else in the whole range of life on earth, is this + degradation found—the female capering and prancing before the male. + It is absolutely and essentially his function, not hers. That we, as a + race, present this pitiful spectacle, a natural art wrested to unnatural + ends, a noble art degraded to ignoble ends, has one clear cause. + </p> + <p> + Architecture, in its own nature, is least affected by that same cause. The + human needs secured by it, are so human, so unescapably human, that we + find less trace of excessive masculinity than in other arts. It meets our + social demands, it expresses in lasting form our social feeling, up to the + highest; and it has been injured not so much by an excess of masculinity + as by a lack of femininity. + </p> + <p> + The most universal architectural expression is in the home; the home is + essentially a place for the woman and the child; yet the needs of woman + and child are not expressed in our domestic architecture. The home is + built on lines of ancient precedent, mainly as an industrial form; the + kitchen is its working centre rather than the nursery. + </p> + <p> + Each man wishes his home to preserve and seclude his woman, his little + harem of one; and in it she is to labor for his comfort or to manifest his + ability to maintain her in idleness. The house is the physical expression + of the limitations of women; and as such it fills the world with a small + drab ugliness. A dwelling house is rarely a beautiful object. In order to + be such, it should truly express simple and natural relations; or grow in + larger beauty as our lives develop. + </p> + <p> + The deadlock for architectural progress, the low level of our general + taste, the everlasting predominance of the commonplace in buildings, is + the natural result of the proprietary family and its expression in this + form. + </p> + <p> + In sculpture we have a noble art forcing itself into some service through + many limitations. Its check, as far as it comes under this line of study, + has been indicated in our last chapter; the degradation of the human body, + the vicious standards of sex-consciousness enforced under the name of + modesty, the covered ugliness, which we do not recognize, all this is a + deadly injury to free high work in sculpture. + </p> + <p> + With a nobly equal womanhood, stalwart and athletic; with the high + standards of beauty and of decorum which we can never have without free + womanhood; we should show a different product in this great art. + </p> + <p> + An interesting note in passing is this: when we seek to express socially + our noblest, ideas, Truth; Justice; Liberty; we use the woman's body as + the highest human type. But in doing this, the artist, true to humanity + and not biassed by sex, gives us a strong, grand figure, beautiful indeed, + but never <i>decorated</i>. Fancy Liberty in ruffles and frills, with + rings in her ears—or nose. + </p> + <p> + Music is injured by a one-sided handling, partly in the excess of the one + dominant masculine passion, partly by the general presence of egoism; that + tendency to self-expression instead of social expression, which so + disfigures our art; and this is true also of poetry. + </p> + <p> + Miles and miles of poetry consist of the ceaseless outcry of the male for + the female, which is by no means so overwhelming as a feature of human + life as he imagines it; and other miles express his other feelings, with + that ingenuous lack of reticence which is at its base essentially + masculine. Having a pain, the poet must needs pour it forth, that his woe + be shared and sympathized with. + </p> + <p> + As more and more women writers flock into the field there is room for fine + historic study of the difference in sex feeling, and the gradual emergence + of the human note. + </p> + <p> + Literature, and in especial the art of fiction, is so large a field for + this study that it will have a chapter to itself; this one but touching on + these various forms; and indicating lines of observation. + </p> + <p> + That best known form of art which to my mind needs no qualifying + description—painting—is also a wide field; and cannot be done + full justice to within these limits. The effect upon it of too much + masculinity is not so much in choice of subject as in method and spirit. + The artist sees beauty of form and color where the ordinary observer does + not; and paints the old and ugly with as much enthusiasm as the young and + beautiful—sometimes. If there is in some an over-emphasis of + feminine attractions it is counterbalanced in others by a far broader line + of work. + </p> + <p> + But the main evils of a too masculine art lie in the emphasis laid on + self-expression. The artist, passionately conscious of how he feels, + strives to make other people aware of these sensations. This is now so + generally accepted by critics, so seriously advanced by painters, that + what is called "the art world" accepts it as established. + </p> + <p> + If a man paints the sea, it is not to make you see and feel as a sight of + that same ocean would, but to make you see and feel how he, personally, + was affected by it; a matter surely of the narrowest importance. The + ultra-masculine artist, extremely sensitive, necessarily, and full of the + natural urge to expression of the sex, uses the medium of art as + ingenuously as the partridge-cock uses his wings in drumming on the log; + or the bull moose stamps and bellows; not narrowly as a mate call, but as + a form of expression of his personal sensations. + </p> + <p> + The higher the artist the more human he is, the broader his vision, the + more he sees for humanity, and expresses for humanity, and the less + personal, the less ultra-masculine, is his expression. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V. MASCULINE LITERATURE. + </h2> + <p> + When we are offered a "woman's" paper, page, or column, we find it filled + with matter supposed to appeal to women as a sex or class; the writer + mainly dwelling upon the Kaiser's four K's—Kuchen, Kinder, Kirche, + Kleider. They iterate and reiterate endlessly the discussion of cookery, + old and new; of the care of children; of the overwhelming subject of + clothing; and of moral instruction. All this is recognized as "feminine" + literature, and it must have some appeal else the women would not read it. + What parallel have we in "masculine" literature? + </p> + <p> + "None!" is the proud reply. "Men are people! Women, being 'the sex,' have + their limited feminine interests, their feminine point of view, which must + be provided for. Men, however, are not restricted—to them belongs + the world's literature!" + </p> + <p> + Yes, it has belonged to them—ever since there was any. They have + written it and they have read it. It is only lately that women, generally + speaking, have been taught to read; still more lately that they have been + allowed to write. It is but a little while since Harriet Martineau + concealed her writing beneath her sewing when visitors came in—writing + was "masculine"—sewing "feminine." + </p> + <p> + We have not, it Is true, confined men to a narrowly construed "masculine + sphere," and composed a special literature suited to it. Their effect on + literature has been far wider than that, monopolizing this form of art + with special favor. It was suited above all others to the dominant impulse + of self-expression; and being, as we have seen essentially and continually + "the sex;" they have impressed that sex upon this art overwhelmingly; they + have given the world a masculized literature. + </p> + <p> + It is hard for us to realize this. We can readily see, that if women had + always written the books, no men either writing or reading them, that + would have surely "feminized" our literature; but we have not in our minds + the concept, much less the word, for an overmasculized influence. + </p> + <p> + Men having been accepted as humanity, women but a side-issue; (most + literally if we accept the Hebrew legend!), whatever men did or said was + human—and not to be criticized. In no department of life is it + easier to contravert this old belief; to show how the male sex as such + differs from the human type; and how this maleness has monopolized and + disfigured a great social function. + </p> + <p> + Human life is a very large affair; and literature is its chief art. We + live, humanly, only through our power of communication. Speech gives us + this power laterally, as it were, in immediate personal contact. For + permanent use speech becomes oral tradition—a poor dependence. + Literature gives not only an infinite multiplication to the lateral spread + of communion but adds the vertical reach. Through it we know the past, + govern the present, and influence the future. In its servicable common + forms it is the indispensable daily servant of our lives; in its nobler + flights as a great art no means of human inter-change goes so far. + </p> + <p> + In these brief limits we can touch but lightly on some phases of so great + a subject; and will rest the case mainly on the effect of an exclusively + masculine handling of the two fields of history and fiction. In poetry and + the drama the same influence is easily traced, but in the first two it is + so baldly prominent as to defy objection. + </p> + <p> + History is, or should be, the story of our racial life. What have men made + it? The story of warfare and conquest. Begin at the very beginning with + the carven stones of Egypt, the clay records of Chaldea, what do we find + of history? + </p> + <p> + "I Pharaoh, King of Kings! Lord of Lords! (etc. etc.), went down into the + miserable land of Kush, and slew of the inhabitants thereof an hundred and + forty and two thousands!" That, or something like it, is the kind of + record early history gives us. + </p> + <p> + The story of Conquering Kings, who and how many they killed and enslaved; + the grovelling adulation of the abased; the unlimited jubilation of the + victor; from the primitive state of most ancient kings, and the Roman + triumphs where queens walked in chains, down to our omni present soldier's + monuments: the story of war and conquest—war and conquest—over + and over; with such boasting and triumph, such cock-crow and flapping of + wings as show most unmistakably the natural source. + </p> + <p> + All this will strike the reader at first as biased and unfair. "That was + the way people lived in those days!" says the reader. + </p> + <p> + No—it was not the way women lived. + </p> + <p> + "O, women!" says the reader, "Of course not! Women are different." + </p> + <p> + Yea, women are different; and <i>men are different!</i> Both of them, as + sexes, differ from the human norm, which is social life and all social + development. Society was slowly growing in all those black blind years. + The arts, the sciences, the trades and crafts and professions, religion, + philosophy, government, law, commerce, agriculture—all the human + processes were going on as well as they were able, between wars. + </p> + <p> + The male naturally fights, and naturally crows, triumphs over his rival + and takes the prize—therefore was he made male. Maleness means war. + </p> + <p> + Not only so; but being male, he cares only for male interests. Men, being + the sole arbiters of what should be done and said and written, have given + us not only a social growth scarred and thwarted from the beginning by + continual destruction; but a history which is one unbroken record of + courage and red cruelty, of triumph and black shame. + </p> + <p> + As to what went on that was of real consequence, the great slow steps of + the working world, the discoveries and inventions, the real progress of + humanity—that was not worth recording, from a masculine point of + view. Within this last century, "the woman's century," the century of the + great awakening, the rising demand for freedom, political, economic, and + domestic, we are beginning to write real history, human history, and not + merely masculine history. But that great branch of literature—Hebrew, + Greek, Roman, and all down later times, shows beyond all question, the + influence of our androcentric culture. + </p> + <p> + Literature is the most powerful and necessary of the arts, and fiction is + its broadest form. If art "holds the mirror up to nature" this art's + mirror is the largest of all, the most used. Since our very life depends + on some communication; and our progress is in proportion to our fullness + and freedom of communication; since real communication requires mutual + understanding; so in the growth of the social consciousness, we note from + the beginning a passionate interest in other people's lives. + </p> + <p> + The art which gives humanity consciousness is the most vital art. Our + greatest dramatists are lauded for their breadth of knowledge of "human + nature," their range of emotion and understanding; our greatest poets are + those who most deeply and widely experience and reveal the feelings of the + human heart; and the power of fiction is that it can reach and express + this great field of human life with no limits but those of the author. + </p> + <p> + When fiction began it was the legitimate child of oral tradition; a + product of natural brain activity; the legend constructed instead of + remembered. (This stage is with us yet as seen in the constant changes in + repetition of popular jokes and stories.) + </p> + <p> + Fiction to-day has a much wider range; yet it is still restricted, heavily + and most mischievously restricted. + </p> + <p> + What is the preferred subject matter of fiction? + </p> + <p> + There are two main branches found everywhere, from the Romaunt of the Rose + to the Purplish Magazine;—the Story of Adventure, and the Love + Story. + </p> + <p> + The Story-of-Adventure branch is not so thick as the other by any means, + but it is a sturdy bough for all that. Stevenson and Kipling have proved + its immense popularity, with the whole brood of detective stories and the + tales of successful rascality we call "picaresque" Our most popular weekly + shows the broad appeal of this class of fiction. + </p> + <p> + All these tales of adventure, of struggle and difficulty; of hunting and + fishing and fighting; of robbing and murdering, catching and punishing, + are distinctly and essentially masculine. They do not touch on human + processes, social processes, but on the special field of predatory + excitement so long the sole province of men. + </p> + <p> + It is to be noted here that even in the overwhelming rise of industrial + interests to-day, these, when used as the basis for a story, are forced + into line with one, or both, of these two main branches of fiction;—conflict + or love. Unless the story has one of these "interests" in it, there is no + story—so holds the editor; the dictum being, put plainly, "life has + no interests except conflict and love!" + </p> + <p> + It is surely something more than a coincidence that these are the two + essential features of masculinity—Desire and Combat—Love and + War. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact the major interests of life are in line with its major + processes; and these—in our stage of human development—are + more varied than our fiction would have us believe. Half the world + consists of women, we should remember, who are types of human life as well + as men, and their major processes are not those of conflict and adventure, + their love means more than mating. Even on so poor a line of distinction + as the "woman's column" offers, if women are to be kept to their four Ks, + there should be a "men's column" also; and all the "sporting news" and + fish stories be put in that; they are not world interests; they are male + interests. + </p> + <p> + Now for the main branch—the Love Story. Ninety per cent. of fiction + is In this line; this is preeminently the major interest of life—given + in fiction. What is the love-story, as rendered by this art? + </p> + <p> + It is the story of the pre-marital struggle. It is the Adventures of Him + in Pursuit of Her—and it stops when he gets her! Story after story, + age after age, over and over and over, this ceaseless repetition of the + Preliminaries. + </p> + <p> + Here is Human Life. In its large sense, its real sense, it is a matter of + inter-relation between individuals and groups, covering all emotions, all + processes, all experiences. Out of this vast field of human life fiction + arbitrarily selects one emotion, one process, one experience, as its + necessary base. + </p> + <p> + "Ah! but we are persons most of all!" protests the reader. "This is + personal experience—it has the universal appeal!" + </p> + <p> + Take human life personally then. Here is a Human Being, a life, covering + some seventy years; involving the changing growth of many faculties; the + ever new marvels of youth, the long working time of middle life, the slow + ripening of age. Here is the human soul, in the human body, Living. Out of + this field of personal life, with all of its emotions, processes, and + experiences, fiction arbitrarily selects one emotion, one process, one + experience, mainly of one sex. + </p> + <p> + The "love" of our stories is man's love of woman. If any dare dispute + this, and say it treats equally of woman's love for man, I answer, "Then + why do the stories stop at marriage?" + </p> + <p> + There is a current jest, revealing much, to this effect: + </p> + <p> + The young wife complains that the husband does not wait upon and woo her + as he did before marriage; to which he replies, "Why should I run after + the street-car when I've caught it?" + </p> + <p> + Woman's love for man, as currently treated in fiction is largely a reflex; + it is the way he wants her to feel, expects her to feel; not a fair + representation of how she does feel. If "love" is to be selected as the + most important thing in life to write about, then the mother's love should + be the principal subject: This is the main stream. This is the general + underlying, world-lifting force. The "life-force," now so glibly chattered + about, finds its fullest expression in motherhood; not in the emotions of + an assistant in the preliminary stages. + </p> + <p> + What has literature, what has fiction, to offer concerning mother-love, or + even concerning father-love, as compared to this vast volume of excitement + about lover-love? Why is the search-light continually focussed upon a two + or three years space of life "mid the blank miles round about?" Why + indeed, except for the clear reason, that on a starkly masculine basis + this is his one period of overwhelming interest and excitement. + </p> + <p> + If the beehive produced literature, the bee's fiction would be rich and + broad; full of the complex tasks of comb-building and filling; the care + and feeding of the young, the guardian-service of the queen; and far + beyond that it would spread to the blue glory of the summer sky, the fresh + winds, the endless beauty and sweetness of a thousand thousand flowers. It + would treat of the vast fecundity of motherhood, the educative and + selective processes of the group-mothers; and the passion of loyalty, of + social service, which holds the hive together. + </p> + <p> + But if the drones wrote fiction, it would have no subject matter save the + feasting of many; and the nuptial flight, of one. + </p> + <p> + To the male, as such, this mating instinct is frankly the major interest + of life; even the belligerent instincts are second to it. To the female, + as such, it is for all its intensity, but a passing interest. In nature's + economy, his is but a temporary devotion, hers the slow processes of + life's fulfillment. + </p> + <p> + In Humanity we have long since, not outgrown, but overgrown, this stage of + feeling. In Human Parentage even the mother's share begins to pale beside + that ever-growing Social love and care, which guards and guides the + children of to-day. + </p> + <p> + The art of literature in this main form of fiction is far too great a + thing to be wholly governed by one dominant note. As life widened and + intensified, the artist, if great enough, has transcended sex; and in the + mightier works of the real masters, we find fiction treating of life, life + in general, in all its complex relationships, and refusing to be held + longer to the rigid canons of an androcentric past. + </p> + <p> + This was the power of Balzac—he took in more than this one field. + This was the universal appeal of Dickens; he wrote of people, all kinds of + people, doing all kinds of things. As you recall with pleasure some + preferred novel of this general favorite, you find yourself looking + narrowly for the "love story" in it. It is there—for it is part of + life; but it does not dominate the whole scene—any more than it does + in life. + </p> + <p> + The thought of the world is made and handed out to us in the main. The + makers of books are the makers of thoughts and feelings for people in + general. Fiction is the most popular form in which this world-food is + taken. If it were true, it would teach us life easily, swiftly, truly; + teach not by preaching but by truly re-presenting; and we should grow up + becoming acquainted with a far wider range of life in books than could + even be ours in person. Then meeting life in reality we should be wise—and + not be disappointed. + </p> + <p> + As it is, our great sea of fiction is steeped and dyed and flavored all + one way. A young man faces life—the seventy year stretch, remember, + and is given book upon book wherein one set of feelings is continually + vocalized and overestimated. He reads forever of love, good love and bad + love, natural and unnatural, legitimate and illegitimate; with the + unavoidable inference that there is nothing else going on. + </p> + <p> + If he is a healthy young man he breaks loose from the whole thing, + despises "love stories" and takes up life as he finds it. But what + impression he does receive from fiction is a false one, and he suffers + without knowing it from lack of the truer broader views of life it failed + to give him. + </p> + <p> + A young woman faces life—the seventy year stretch remember; and is + given the same books—with restrictions. Remember the remark of + Rochefoucauld, "There are thirty good stories in the world and twenty-nine + cannot be told to women." There is a certain broad field of literature so + grossly androcentric that for very shame men have tried to keep it to + themselves. But in a milder form, the spades all named teaspoons, or at + the worst appearing as trowels—the young woman is given the same + fiction. Love and love and love—from "first sight" to marriage. + There it stops—just the fluttering ribbon of announcement, "and + lived happily ever after." + </p> + <p> + Is that kind of fiction any sort of picture of a woman's life? Fiction, + under our androcentric culture, has not given any true picture of woman's + life, very little of human life, and a disproportioned section of man's + life. + </p> + <p> + As we daily grow more human, both of us, this noble art is changing for + the better so fast that a short lifetime can mark the growth. New fields + are opening and new laborers are working in them. But it is no swift and + easy matter to disabuse the race mind from attitudes and habits inculcated + for a thousand years. What we have been fed upon so long we are well used + to, what we are used to we like, what we like we think is good and proper. + </p> + <p> + The widening demand for broader, truer fiction is disputed by the slow + racial mind: and opposed by the marketers of literature on grounds of + visible self-interest, as well as lethargic conservatism. + </p> + <p> + It is difficult for men, heretofore the sole producers and consumers of + literature; and for women, new to the field, and following masculine + canons because all the canons were masculine; to stretch their minds to a + recognition of the change which is even now upon us. + </p> + <p> + This one narrow field has been for so long overworked, our minds are so + filled with heroes and heroes continually repeating the one-act play, that + when a book like David Harum is offered the publisher refuses it + repeatedly, and finally insists on a "heart interest" being injected by + force. + </p> + <p> + Did anyone read David Harum for that heart interest? Does anyone remember + that heart interest? Has humanity no interests but those of the heart? + </p> + <p> + Robert Ellesmere was a popular book—but not because of its heart + interest. + </p> + <p> + Uncle Tom's Cabin appealed to the entire world, more widely than any work + of fiction that was ever written; but if anybody fell in love and married + in it they have been forgotten. There was plenty of love in that book, + love of family, love of friends, love of master for servant and servant + for master; love of mother for child; love of married people for each + other; love of humanity and love of God. + </p> + <p> + It was extremely popular. Some say it was not literature. That opinion + will live, like the name of Empedocles. + </p> + <p> + The art of fiction is being re-born in these days. Life is discovered to + be longer, wider, deeper, richer, than these monotonous players of one + June would have us believe. + </p> + <p> + The humanizing of woman of itself opens five distinctly fresh fields of + fiction: First the position of the young woman who is called upon to give + up her "career"—her humanness—for marriage, and who objects to + it; second, the middle-aged woman who at last discovers that her + discontent is social starvation—that it is not more love that she + wants, but more business in life: Third the interrelation of women with + women—a thing we could never write about before because we never had + it before: except in harems and convents: Fourth the inter-action between + mothers and children; this not the eternal "mother and child," wherein the + child is always a baby, but the long drama of personal relationship; the + love and hope, the patience and power, the lasting joy and triumph, the + slow eating disappointment which must never be owned to a living soul—here + are grounds for novels that a million mothers and many million children + would eagerly read: Fifth the new attitude of the full-grown woman who + faces the demands of love with the high standards of conscious motherhood. + </p> + <p> + There are other fields, broad and brilliantly promising, but this chapter + is meant merely to show that our one-sided culture has, in this art, most + disproportionately overestimated the dominant instincts of the male—Love + and War—an offense against art and truth, and an injury to life. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VI. GAMES AND SPORTS + </h2> + <p> + One of the sharpest distinctions both between the essential characters and + the artificial positions of men and women, is in the matter of games and + sports. By far the greater proportion of them are essentially masculine, + and as such alien to women; while from those which are humanly + interesting, women have been largely debarred by their arbitrary + restrictions. + </p> + <p> + The play instinct is common to girls and boys alike; and endures in some + measure throughout life. As other young animals express their abounding + energies in capricious activities similar to those followed in the + business of living, so small children gambol, physically, like lambs and + kids; and as the young of higher kinds of animals imitate in their play + the more complex activities of their elders, so do children imitate + whatever activities they see about them. In this field of playing there is + no sex. + </p> + <p> + Similarly in adult life healthy and happy persons, men and women, + naturally express surplus energy in various forms of sport. We have here + one of the most distinctively human manifestations. The great accumulation + of social energy, and the necessary limitations of one kind of work, leave + a human being tired of one form of action, yet still uneasy for lack of + full expression; and this social need has been met by our great safety + valve of games and sports. + </p> + <p> + In a society of either sex, or in a society without sex, there would still + be both pleasure and use in games; they are vitally essential to human + life. In a society of two sexes, wherein one has dictated all the terms of + life, and the other has been confined to an extremely limited fraction of + human living, we may look to see this great field of enjoyment as + disproportionately divided. + </p> + <p> + It is not only that we have reduced the play impulse in women by + restricting them to one set of occupations, and overtaxing their energies + with mother-work and housework combined; and not only that by our + androcentric conventions we further restrict their amusements; but we + begin in infancy, and forcibly differentiate their methods of play long + before any natural distinction would appear. + </p> + <p> + Take that universal joy the doll, or puppet, as an instance. A small + imitation of a large known object carries delight to the heart of a child + of either sex. The worsted cat, the wooden horse, the little wagon, the + tin soldier, the wax doll, the toy village, the "Noah's Ark," the + omnipresent "Teddy Bear," any and every small model of a real thing is a + delight to the young human being. Of all things the puppet is the most + intimate, the little image of another human being to play with. The fancy + of the child, making endless combinations with these visible types, plays + as freely as a kitten in the leaves; or gravely carries out some observed + forms of life, as the kitten imitates its mother's hunting. + </p> + <p> + So far all is natural and human. + </p> + <p> + Now see our attitude toward child's play—under a masculine culture. + Regarding women only as a sex, and that sex as manifest from infancy, we + make and buy for our little girls toys suitable to this view. Being + females—which means mothers, we must needs provide them with babies + before they cease to be babies themselves; and we expect their play to + consist in an imitation of maternal cares. The doll, the puppet, which + interests all children, we have rendered as an eternal baby; and we foist + them upon our girl children by ceaseless millions. + </p> + <p> + The doll, as such, is dear to the little boy as well as the girl, but not + as a baby. He likes his jumping-jack, his worsted Sambo, often a genuine + rag-doll; but he is discouraged and ridiculed in this. We do not expect + the little boy to manifest a father's love and care for an imitation child—but + we do expect the little girl to show maternal feelings for her imitation + baby. It has not yet occurred to us that this is monstrous. + </p> + <p> + Little children should not be expected to show, in painful precocity, + feelings which ought never to be experienced till they come at the proper + age. Our kittens play at cat-sports, little Tom and Tabby together; but + little Tabby does not play she is a mother! + </p> + <p> + Beyond the continuous dolls and their continuous dressing, we provide for + our little girls tea sets and kitchen sets, doll's houses, little + work-boxes—the imitation tools of their narrow trades. For the boy + there is a larger choice. We make for them not only the essentially + masculine toys of combat—all the enginery of mimic war; but also the + models of human things, like boats, railroads, wagons. For them, too, are + the comprehensive toys of the centuries, the kite, the top, the ball. As + the boy gets old enough to play the games that require skill, he enters + the world-lists, and the little sister, left inside, with her everlasting + dolls, learns that she is "only a girl," and "mustn't play with boys—boys + are so rough!" She has her doll and her tea set. She "plays house." If + very active she may jump rope, in solitary enthusiasm, or in combination + of from two to four. Her brother is playing games. From this time on he + plays the games of the world. The "sporting page" should be called "the + Man's Page" as that array of recipes, fashions and cheap advice is called + "the Woman's Page." + </p> + <p> + One of the immediate educational advantages of the boy's position is that + he learns "team work." This is not a masculine characteristic, it is a + human one; a social power. Women are equally capable of it by nature; but + not by education. Tending one's imitation baby is not team-work; nor is + playing house. The little girl is kept forever within the limitations of + her mother's "sphere" of action; while the boy learns life, and fancies + that his new growth is due to his superior sex. + </p> + <p> + Now there are certain essential distinctions in the sexes, which would + manifest themselves to some degree even in normally reared children; as + for instance the little male would be more given to fighting and + destroying; the little female more to caring for and constructing things. + </p> + <p> + "Boys are so destructive!" we say with modest pride—as if it was in + some way a credit to them. But early youth is not the time to display sex + distinction; and they should be discouraged rather than approved. + </p> + <p> + The games of the world, now the games of men, easily fall into two broad + classes—games of skill and games of chance. + </p> + <p> + The interest and pleasure in the latter is purely human, and as such is + shared by the two sexes even now. Women, in the innocent beginnings or the + vicious extremes of this line of amusement, make as wild gamblers as men. + At the races, at the roulette wheel, at the bridge table, this is clearly + seen. + </p> + <p> + In games of skill we have a different showing. Most of these are developed + by and for men; but when they are allowed, women take part in them with + interest and success. In card games, in chess, checkers, and the like, in + croquet and tennis, they play, and play well if well-trained. Where they + fall short in so many games, and are so wholly excluded in others, is not + for lack of human capacity, but for lack of masculinity. Most games are + male. In their element of desire to win, to get the prize, they are male; + and in their universal attitude of competition they are male, the basic + spirit of desire and of combat working out through subtle modern forms. + </p> + <p> + There is something inherently masculine also in the universal dominance of + the projectile in their games. The ball is the one unescapable instrument + of sport. From the snapped marble of infancy to the flying missile of the + bat, this form endures. To send something forth with violence; to throw + it, bat it, kick it, shoot it; this impulse seems to date back to one of + the twin forces of the universe—the centrifugal and centripetal + energies between which swing the planets. + </p> + <p> + The basic feminine impulse is to gather, to put together, to construct; + the basic masculine impulse to scatter, to disseminate, to destroy. It + seems to give pleasure to a man to bang something and drive it from him; + the harder he hits it and the farther it goes the better pleased he is. + </p> + <p> + Games of this sort will never appeal to women. They are not wrong; not + necessarily evil in their place; our mistake is in considering them as + human, whereas they are only masculine. + </p> + <p> + Play, in the childish sense is an expression of previous habit; and to be + studied in that light. Play in the educational sense should be encouraged + or discouraged to develop desired characteristics. This we know, and + practice; only we do it under androcentric canons; confining the girl to + the narrow range we consider proper for women, and assisting the boy to + cover life with the expression of masculinity, when we should be helping + both to a more human development. + </p> + <p> + Our settled conviction that men are people—the people, and that + masculine qualities are the main desideratam in life, is what keeps up + this false estimate of the value of our present games. Advocates of + football, for instance, proudly claim that it fits a man for life. Life—from + the wholly male point of view—is a battle, with a prize. To want + something beyond measure, and to fight to get—that is the simple + proposition. This view of life finds its most naive expression in + predatory warfare; and still tends to make predatory warfare of the later + and more human processes of industry. Because they see life in this way + they imagine that skill and practice in the art of fighting, especially in + collective fighting, is so valuable in our modern life. This is an + archaism which would be laughable if it were not so dangerous in its + effects. + </p> + <p> + The valuable processes to-day are those of invention, discovery, all + grades of industry, and, most especially needed, the capacity for honest + service and administration of our immense advantages. These are not + learned on the football field. This spirit of desire and combat may be + seen further in all parts of this great subject. It has developed into a + cult of sportsmanship; so universally accepted among men as of superlative + merit as to quite blind them to other standards of judgment. + </p> + <p> + In the Cook-Peary controversy of 1909, this canon was made manifest. Here, + one man had spent a lifetime in trying to accomplish something; and at the + eleventh hour succeeded. Then, coming out in the rich triumph long + deferred, he finds another man, of character well known to him, impudently + and falsely claiming that he had done it first. Mr. Peary expressed + himself, quite restrainedly and correctly, in regard to the effrontery and + falsity of this claim—and all the country rose up and denounced him + as "unsportsmanlike!" + </p> + <p> + Sport and the canons of sport are so dominant in the masculine mind that + what they considered a deviation from these standards was of far more + importance than the question of fact involved; to say nothing of the moral + obliquity of one lying to the whole world, for money; and that at the cost + of another's hard-won triumph. + </p> + <p> + If women had condemned the conduct of one or the other as "not good + house-wifery," this would have been considered a most puerile comment. But + to be "unsportsmanlike" is the unpardonable sin. + </p> + <p> + Owing to our warped standards we glaringly misjudge the attitude of the + two sexes in regard to their amusements. Of late years more women than + ever before have taken to playing cards; and some, unfortunately, play for + money. A steady stream of comment and blame follows upon this. The amount + of card playing among men—and the amount of money lost and won, does + not produce an equivalent comment. + </p> + <p> + Quite aside from this one field of dissipation, look at the share of life, + of time, of strength, of money, given by men to their wide range of + recreation. The primitive satisfaction of hunting and fishing they + maintain at enormous expense. This is the indulgence of a most rudimentary + impulse; pre-social and largely pre-human, of no service save as it + affects bodily health, and of a most deterring influence on real human + development. Where hunting and fishing is of real human service, done as a + means of livelihood, it is looked down upon like any other industry; it is + no longer "sport." + </p> + <p> + The human being kills to eat, or to sell and eat from the returns; he + kills for the creature's hide or tusks, for use of some sort; or to + protect his crops from vermin, his flocks from depredation; but the + sportsman kills for the gratification of a primeval instinct, and under + rules of an arbitrary cult. "Game" creatures are his prey; bird, beast or + fish that is hard to catch, that requires some skill to slay; that will + give him not mere meat and bones, but "the pleasure of the chase." + </p> + <p> + The pleasure of the chase is a very real one. It is exemplified, in its + broad sense in children's play. The running and catching games, the hiding + and finding games, are always attractive to our infancy, as they are to + that of cubs and kittens. But the long continuance of this indulgence + among mature civilized beings is due to their masculinity. That group of + associated sex instincts, which in the woman prompts to the patient + service and fierce defence of the little child, in the man has its deepest + root in seeking, pursuing and catching. To hunt is more than a means of + obtaining food, in his long ancestry; it is to follow at any cost, to seek + through all difficulties, to struggle for and secure the central prize of + his being—a mate. + </p> + <p> + His "protective instincts" are far later and more superficial. To support + and care for his wife, his children, is a recent habit, in plain sight + historically; but "the pleasure of the chase" is older than that. We + should remember that associate habits and impulses last for ages upon ages + in living forms; as in the tree climbing instincts of our earliest years, + of Simian origin; and the love of water, which dates back through + unmeasured time. Where for millions of years the strongest pleasure a + given organism is fitted for, is obtained by a certain group of + activities, those activities will continue to give pleasure long after + their earlier use is gone. + </p> + <p> + This is why men enjoy "the ardor of pursuit" far more than women. It is an + essentially masculine ardor. To come easily by what he wants does not + satisfy him. He wants to want it. He wants to hunt it, seek it, chase it, + catch it. He wants it to be "game." He is by virtue of his sex a + sportsman. + </p> + <p> + There is no reason why these special instincts should not be gratified so + long as it does no harm to the more important social processes; but it is + distinctly desirable that we should understand their nature. The reason + why we have the present overwhelming mass of "sporting events," from the + ball game to the prize fight, is because our civilization is so + overwhelmingly masculine. We shall criticize them more justly when we see + that all this mass of indulgence is in the first place a form of + sex-expression, and in the second place a survival of instincts older than + the oldest savagery. + </p> + <p> + Besides our games and sports we have a large field of "amusements" also + worth examining. We not only enjoy doing things, but we enjoy seeing them + done by others. In these highly specialized days most of our amusement + consists in paying two dollars to sit three hours and see other people do + things. + </p> + <p> + This in its largest sense is wholly human. We, as social creatures, can + enjoy a thousand forms of expression quite beyond the personal. The birds + must each sing his own song; the crickets chirp in millionfold + performance; but human being feels the deep thrill of joy in their special + singers, actors, dancers, as well as in their own personal attempts. That + we should find pleasure in watching one another is humanly natural, but + what it is we watch, the kind of pleasure and the kind of performance, + opens a wide field of choice. + </p> + <p> + We know, for instance, something of the crude excesses of aboriginal + Australian dances; we know more of the gross license of old Rome; we know + the breadth of the jokes in medieval times, and the childish brutality of + the bull-ring and the cockpit. We know, in a word, that amusements vary; + that they form a ready gauge of character and culture; that they have a + strong educational influence for good or bad. What we have not hitherto + observed is the predominant masculine influence on our amusements. If we + recall once more the statement with regard to entertaining anecdotes, + "There are thirty good stories in the world, and twenty-nine of them + cannot be told to women," we get a glaring sidelight on the masculine + specialization in jokes. + </p> + <p> + "Women have no sense of humor" has been frequently said, when "Women have + not a masculine sense of humor" would be truer. If women had thirty "good + stories" twenty-nine of which could not be told to men, it is possible + that men, if they heard some of the twenty-nine, would not find them + funny. The overweight of one sex has told in our amusements as everywhere + else. + </p> + <p> + Because men are further developed in humanity than women are as yet, they + have built and organized great places of amusement; because they carried + into their humanity their unchecked masculinity, they have made these + amusements to correspond. Dramatic expression, is in its true sense, not + only a human distinction, but one of our noblest arts. It is allied with + the highest emotions; is religious, educational, patriotic, covering the + whole range of human feeling. Through it we should be able continually to + express, in audible, visible forms, alive and moving, whatever phase of + life we most enjoyed or wished to see. There was a time when the drama led + life; lifted, taught, inspired, enlightened. Now its main function is to + amuse. Under the demand for amusement, it has cheapened and coarsened, and + now the thousand vaudevilles and picture shows give us the broken + fragments of a degraded art of which our one main demand is that it shall + make us laugh. + </p> + <p> + There are many causes at work here; and while this study seeks to show in + various fields one cause, it does not claim that cause is the only one. + Our economic conditions have enormous weight upon our amusements, as on + all other human phenomena; but even under economic pressure the reactions + of men and women are often dissimilar. Tired men and women both need + amusement, the relaxation and restful change of irresponsible gayety. The + great majority of women, who work longer hours than any other class, need + it desperately and never get it. Amusement, entertainment, recreation, + should be open to us all, enjoyed by all. This is a human need, and not a + distinction of either sex. Like most human things it is not only largely + monopolized by men, but masculized throughout. Many forms of amusement are + for men only; more for men mostly; all are for men if they choose to go. + </p> + <p> + The entrance of women upon the stage, and their increased attendance at + theatres has somewhat modified the nature of the performance; even the + "refined vaudeville" now begins to show the influence of women. It would + be no great advantage to have this department of human life feminized; the + improvement desired is to have it less masculized; to reduce the excessive + influence of one, and to bring out those broad human interests and + pleasures which men and women can equally participate in and enjoy. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VII. ETHICS AND RELIGION. + </h2> + <p> + The laws of physics were at work before we were on earth, and continued to + work on us long before we had intelligence enough to perceive, much less + understand, them. Our proven knowledge of these processes constitutes "the + science of physics"; but the laws were there before the science. + </p> + <p> + Physics is the science of material relation, how things and natural forces + work with and on one another. Ethics is the science of social relation, + how persons and social forces work with and on one another. + </p> + <p> + Ethics is to the human world what physics is to the material world; + ignorance of ethics leaves us in the same helpless position in regard to + one another that ignorance of physics left us in regard to earth, air, + fire and water. + </p> + <p> + To be sure, people lived and died and gradually improved, while yet + ignorant of the physical sciences; they developed a rough "rule of thumb" + method, as animals do, and used great forces without understanding them. + But their lives were safer and their improvement more rapid as they + learned more, and began to make servants of the forces which had been + their masters. + </p> + <p> + We have progressed, lamely enough, with terrible loss and suffering, from + stark savagery to our present degree of civilization; we shall go on more + safely and swiftly when we learn more of the science of ethics. + </p> + <p> + Let us note first that while the underlying laws of ethics remain steady + and reliable, human notions of them have varied widely and still do so. In + different races, ages, classes, sexes, different views of ethics obtain; + the conduct of the people is modified by their views, and their prosperity + is modified by their conduct. + </p> + <p> + Primitive man became very soon aware that conduct was of importance. As + consciousness increased, with the power to modify action from within, + instead of helplessly reacting to stimuli from without, there arose the + crude first codes of ethics, the "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" of the + blundering savage. It was mostly "Thou shalt not." Inhibition, the + checking of an impulse proven disadvantageous, was an earlier and easier + form of action than the later human power to consciously decide on and + follow a course of action with no stimulus but one's own will. + </p> + <p> + Primitive ethics consists mostly of Tabus—the things that are + forbidden; and all our dim notions of ethics to this day, as well as most + of our religions, deal mainly with forbidding. + </p> + <p> + This is almost the whole of our nursery government, to an extent shown by + the well-worn tale of the child who said her name was "Mary." "Mary what?" + they asked her. And she answered, "Mary Don't." It is also the main body + of our legal systems—a complex mass of prohibitions and preventions. + And even in manners and conventions, the things one should not do far + outnumber the things one should. A general policy of negation colors our + conceptions of ethics and religion. + </p> + <p> + When the positive side began to be developed, it was at first in purely + arbitrary and artificial form. The followers of a given religion were + required to go through certain motions, as prostrating themselves, + kneeling, and the like; they were required to bring tribute to the gods + and their priests, sacrifices, tithes, oblations; they were set little + special performances to go through at given times; the range of things + forbidden was broad; the range of things commanded was narrow. The + Christian religion, practically interpreted, requires a fuller "change of + heart" and change of life than any preceding it; which may account at once + for its wide appeal to enlightened peoples, and to its scarcity of + application. + </p> + <p> + Again, in surveying the field, it is seen that as our grasp of ethical + values widened, as we called more and more acts and tendencies "right" and + "wrong," we have shown astonishing fluctuations and vagaries in our + judgment. Not only in our religions, which have necessarily upheld each + its own set of prescribed actions as most "right," and its own special + prohibitions as most "wrong"; but in our beliefs about ethics and our real + conduct, we have varied absurdly. + </p> + <p> + Take, for instance, the ethical concept among "gentlemen" a century or so + since, which put the paying of one's gambling debts as a well-nigh sacred + duty, and the paying of a tradesman who had fed and clothed one as a quite + negligible matter. If the process of gambling was of social service, and + the furnishing of food and clothes was not, this might be good ethics; but + as the contrary is true, we have to account for this peculiar view on + other grounds. + </p> + <p> + Again, where in Japan a girl, to maintain her parents, is justified in + leading a life of shame, we have a peculiar ethical standard difficult for + Western minds to appreciate. Yet in such an instance as is described in + "Auld Robin Gray," we see precisely the same code; the girl, to benefit + her parents, marries a rich old man she does not love—which is to + lead a life of shame. The ethical view which justifies this, puts the + benefit of parents above the benefit of children, robs the daughter of + happiness and motherhood, injures posterity to assist ancestors. + </p> + <p> + This is one of the products of that very early religion, ancestor worship; + and here we lay a finger on a distinctly masculine influence. + </p> + <p> + We know little of ethical values during the matriarchate; whatever they + were, they must have depended for sanction on a cult of promiscuous but + efficient maternity. Our recorded history begins in the patriarchal + period, and it is its ethics alone which we know. + </p> + <p> + The mother instinct, throughout nature, is one of unmixed devotion, of + love and service, care and defence, with no self-interest. The animal + father, in such cases as he is of service to the young, assists the mother + in her work in similar fashion. But the human father in the family with + the male head soon made that family an instrument of desire, and combat, + and self-expression, following the essentially masculine impulses. The + children were his, and if males, valuable to serve and glorify him. In his + dominance over servile women and helpless children, free rein was given to + the growth of pride and the exercise of irresponsible tyranny. To these + feelings, developed without check for thousands of years, and to the + mental habits resultant, it is easy to trace much of the bias of our early + ethical concepts. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps it is worth while to repeat here that the effort of this book is + by no means to attribute a wholly evil influence to men, and a wholly good + one to women; it is not even claimed that a purely feminine culture would + have advanced the world more successfully. It does claim that the + influence of the two together is better than that of either one alone; and + in especial to point out what special kind of injury is due to the + exclusive influence of one sex heretofore. + </p> + <p> + We have to-day reached a degree of human development where both men and + women are capable of seeing over and across the distinctions of sex, and + mutually working for the advancement of the world. Our progress is, + however, seriously impeded by what we may call the masculine tradition, + the unconscious dominance of a race habit based on this long androcentric + period; and it is well worth while, in the interests of both sexes, to + show the mischievous effects of the predominance of one. + </p> + <p> + We have in our ethics not only a "double standard" in one special line, + but in nearly all. Man, as a sex, has quite naturally deified his own + qualities rather than those of his opposite. In his codes of manners, of + morals, of laws, in his early concepts of God, his ancient religions, we + see masculinity written large on every side. Confining women wholly to + their feminine functions, he has required of them only what he called + feminine virtues, and the one virtue he has demanded, to the complete + overshadowing of all others, is measured by wholly masculine requirements. + </p> + <p> + In the interests of health and happiness, monogamous marriage proves its + superiority in our race as it has in others. It is essential to the best + growth of humanity that we practice the virtue of chastity; it is a human + virtue, not a feminine one. But in masculine hands this virtue was + enforced upon women under penalties of hideous cruelty, and quite ignored + by men. Masculine ethics, colored by masculine instincts, always dominated + by sex, has at once recognized the value of chastity in the woman, which + is right; punished its absence unfairly, which is wrong; and then reversed + the whole matter when applied to men, which is ridiculous. + </p> + <p> + Ethical laws are laws—not idle notions. Chastity is a virtue because + it promotes human welfare—not because men happen to prize it in + women and ignore it themselves. The underlying reason for the whole thing + is the benefit of the child; and to that end a pure and noble fatherhood + is requisite, as well as such a motherhood. Under the limitations of a too + masculine ethics, we have developed on this one line social conditions + which would be absurdly funny if they were not so horrible. + </p> + <p> + Religion, be it noticed, does not bear out this attitude. The immense + human need of religion, the noble human character of the great religious + teachers, has always set its standards, when first established, ahead of + human conduct. + </p> + <p> + Some there are, men of learning and authority, who hold that the deadening + immobility of our religions, their resistance to progress and relentless + preservation of primitive ideals, is due to the conservatism of women. + Men, they say, are progressive by nature; women are conservative. Women + are more religious than men, and so preserve old religious forms unchanged + after men have outgrown them. + </p> + <p> + If we saw women in absolute freedom, with a separate religion devised by + women, practiced by women, and remaining unchanged through the centuries; + while men, on the other hand, bounded bravely forward, making new ones as + fast as they were needed, this belief might be maintained. But what do we + see? All the old religions made by men, and forced on the women whether + they liked it or not. Often women not even considered as part of the + scheme—denied souls—given a much lower place in the system—going + from the service of their father's gods to the service of their husbands—having + none of their own. We see religions which make practically no place for + women, as with the Moslem, as rigidly bigoted and unchanging as any other. + </p> + <p> + We see also this: that the wider and deeper the religion, the more human, + the more it calls for practical applications in Christianity—the + more it appeals to women. Further, in the diverging sects of the Christian + religion, we find that its progressiveness is to be measured, not by the + numbers of its women adherents, but by their relative freedom. The women + of America, who belong to a thousand sects, who follow new ones with + avidity, who even make them, and who also leave them all as men do, are + women, as well as those of Spain, who remain contented Romanists, but in + America the status of women is higher. + </p> + <p> + The fact is this: a servile womanhood is in a state of arrested + development, and as such does form a ground for the retention of ancient + ideas. But this is due to the condition of servility, not to womanhood. + That women at present are the bulwark of the older forms of our religions + is due to the action of two classes of men: the men of the world, who keep + women in their restricted position, and the men of the church, who take + every advantage of the limitations of women. When we have for the first + time in history a really civilized womanhood, we can then judge better of + its effect on religion. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, we can see quite clearly the effect of manhood. Keeping in mind + those basic masculine impulses—desire and combat—we see them + reflected from high heaven in their religious concepts. Reward! Something + to want tremendously and struggle to achieve! This is a concept perfectly + masculine and most imperfectly religious. A religion is partly explanation—a + theory of life; it is partly emotion—an attitude of mind, it is + partly action—a system of morals. Man's special effect on this large + field of human development is clear. He pictured his early gods as like to + himself, and they behaved in accordance with his ideals. In the dimmest, + oldest religions, nearest the matriarchate, we find great goddesses—types + of Motherhood, Mother-love, Mother-care and Service. But under masculine + dominance, Isis and Ashteroth dwindle away to an alluring Aphrodite—not + Womanhood for the child and the World—but the incarnation of female + attractiveness for man. + </p> + <p> + As the idea of heaven developed in the man's mind it became the Happy + Hunting Ground of the savage, the beery and gory Valhalla of the Norseman, + the voluptuous, many-houri-ed Paradise of the Mohammedan. These are men's + heavens all. Women have never been so fond of hunting, beer or blood; and + their houris would be of the other kind. It may be said that the early + Christian idea of heaven is by no means planned for men. That is trite, + and is perhaps the reason why it has never had so compelling an attraction + for them. + </p> + <p> + Very early in his vague efforts towards religious expression, man voiced + his second strongest instinct—that of combat. His universe is always + dual, always a scene of combat. Born with that impulse, exercising it + continually, he naturally assumed it to be the major process in life. It + is not. Growth is the major process. Combat is a useful subsidiary + process, chiefly valuable for its initial use, to transmit the physical + superiority of the victor. Psychic and social advantages are not thus + secured or transmitted. + </p> + <p> + In no one particular is the androcentric character of our common thought + more clearly shown than in the general deification of what are now + described as "conflict stimuli." That which is true of the male creature + as such is assumed to be true of life in general; quite naturally, but by + no means correctly. To this universal masculine error we may trace in the + field of religion and ethics the great devil theory, which has for so long + obscured our minds. A God without an Adversary was inconceivable to the + masculine mind. From this basic misconception we find all our ideas of + ethics distorted; that which should have been treated as a group of truths + to be learned and habits to be cultivated was treated in terms of combat, + and moral growth made an everlasting battle. This combat theory we may + follow later into our common notions of discipline, government, law and + punishment; here is it enough to see its painful effects in this primary + field of ethics and religion? + </p> + <p> + The third essential male trait of self-expression we may follow from its + innocent natural form in strutting cock or stamping stag up to the + characteristics we label vanity and pride. The degradation of women in + forcing them to adopt masculine methods of personal decoration as a means + of livelihood, has carried with the concomitant of personal vanity: but to + this day and at their worst we do not find in women the <i>naive</i> + exultant glow of pride which swells the bosom of the men who march in + procession with brass bands, in full regalia of any sort, so that it be + gorgeous, exhibiting their glories to all. + </p> + <p> + It is this purely masculine spirit which has given to our early concepts + of Deity the unadmirable qualities of boundless pride and a thirst for + constant praise and prostrate admiration, characteristics certainly + unbefitting any noble idea of God. Desire, combat and self-expression all + have had their unavoidable influence on masculine religions. What deified + Maternity a purely feminine culture might have put forth we do not know, + having had none such. Women are generally credited with as much moral + sense as men, and as much religious instinct; but so far it has had small + power to modify our prevailing creeds. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact, no special sex attributes should have any weight in + our ideas of right and wrong. Ethics and religion are distinctly human + concerns; they belong to us as social factors, not as physical ones. As we + learn to recognize our humanness, and to leave our sex characteristics + where they belong, we shall at last learn something about ethics as a + simple and practical science, and see that religions grow as the mind + grows to formulate them. + </p> + <p> + If anyone seeks for a clear, simple, easily grasped proof of our ethics, + it is to be found in a popular proverb. Struggling upward from beast and + savage into humanness, man has seen, reverenced, and striven to attain + various human virtues. + </p> + <p> + He was willing to check many primitive impulses, to change many barbarous + habits, to manifest newer, nobler powers. Much he would concede to + Humanness, but not his sex—that was beyond the range of Ethics or + Religion. By the state of what he calls "morals," and the laws he makes to + regulate them, by his attitude in courtship and in marriage, and by the + gross anomaly of militarism, in all its senseless waste of life and wealth + and joy, we may perceive this little masculine exception: + </p> + <p> + "All's fair in love and war." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + VIII. EDUCATION. + </h2> + <p> + The origin of education is maternal. The mother animal is seen to teach + her young what she knows of life, its gains and losses; and, whether + consciously done or not, this is education. In our human life, education, + even in its present state, is the most important process. Without it we + could not maintain ourselves, much less dominate and improve conditions as + we do; and when education is what it should be, our power will increase + far beyond present hopes. + </p> + <p> + In lower animals, speaking generally, the powers of the race must be + lodged in each individual. No gain of personal experience is of avail to + the others. No advantages remain, save those physically transmitted. The + narrow limits of personal gain and personal inheritance rigidly hem in + sub-human progress. With us, what one learns may be taught to the others. + Our life is social, collective. Our gain is for all, and profits us in + proportion as we extend it to all. As the human soul develops in us, we + become able to grasp more fully our common needs and advantages; and with + this growth has come the extension of education to the people as a whole. + Social functions are developed under natural laws, like physical ones, and + may be studied similarly. + </p> + <p> + In the evolution of this basic social function, what has been the effect + of wholly masculine influence? + </p> + <p> + The original process, instruction of individual child by individual + mother, has been largely neglected in our man-made world. That was + considered as a subsidiary sex-function of the woman, and as such, left to + her "instinct." This is the main reason why we show such great progress in + education for older children, and especially for youths, and so little + comparatively in that given to little ones. + </p> + <p> + We have had on the one side the natural current of maternal education, + with its first assistant, the nursemaid, and its second, the + "dame-school"; and on the other the influence of the dominant class, + organized in university, college, and public school, slowly filtering + downward. + </p> + <p> + Educational forces are many. The child is born into certain conditions, + physical and psychic, and "educated" thereby. He grows up into social, + political and economic conditions, and is further modified by them. All + these conditions, so far, have been of androcentric character; but what we + call education as a special social process is what the child is + deliberately taught and subjected to; and it is here we may see the same + dominant influence so clearly. + </p> + <p> + This conscious education was, for long, given to boys alone, the girls + being left to maternal influence, each to learn what her mother knew, and + no more. This very clear instance of the masculine theory is glaring + enough by itself to rest a case on. It shows how absolute was the + assumption that the world was composed of men, and men alone were to be + fitted for it. Women were no part of the world, and needed no training for + its uses. As females they were born and not made; as human beings they + were only servants, trained as such by their servant mothers. + </p> + <p> + This system of education we are outgrowing more swiftly with each year. + The growing humanness of women, and its recognition, is forcing an equal + education for boy and girl. When this demand was first made, by women of + unusual calibre, and by men sufficiently human to overlook sex-prejudice, + how was it met? What was the attitude of woman's "natural protector" when + she began to ask some share in human life? + </p> + <p> + Under the universal assumption that men alone were humanity, that the + world was masculine and for men only, the efforts of the women were met as + a deliberate attempt to "unsex" themselves and become men. To be a woman + was to be ignorant, uneducated; to be wise, educated, was to be a man. + Women were not men, visibly; therefore they could not be educated, and + ought not to want to be. + </p> + <p> + Under this androcentric prejudice, the equal extension of education to + women was opposed at every step, and is still opposed by many. Seeing in + women only sex, and not humanness, they would confine her exclusively to + feminine interests. This is the masculine view, <i>par excellence</i>. In + spite of it, the human development of women, which so splendidly + characterizes our age, has gone on; and now both woman's colleges and + those for both sexes offer "the higher education" to our girls, as well as + the lower grades in school and kindergarten. + </p> + <p> + In the special professional training, the same opposition was experienced, + even more rancorous and cruel. One would think that on the entrance of a + few straggling and necessarily inferior feminine beginners into a trade or + profession, those in possession would extend to them the right hand of + fellowship, as comrades, extra assistance as beginners, and special + courtesy as women. + </p> + <p> + The contrary occurred. Women were barred out, discriminated against, taken + advantage of, as competitors; and as women they have had to meet special + danger and offence instead of special courtesy. An unforgettable instance + of this lies in the attitude of the medical colleges toward women + students. The men, strong enough, one would think, in numbers, in + knowledge, in established precedent, to be generous, opposed the newcomers + first with absolute refusal; then, when the patient, persistent applicants + did get inside, both students and teachers met them not only with + unkindness and unfairness, but with a weapon ingeniously well chosen, and + most discreditable—namely, obscenity. Grave professors, in lecture + and clinic, as well as grinning students, used offensive language, and + played offensive tricks, to drive the women out—a most androcentric + performance. + </p> + <p> + Remember that the essential masculine attitude is one of opposition, of + combat; his desire is obtained by first overcoming a competitor; and then + see how this dominant masculinity stands out where it has no possible use + or benefit—in the field of education. All along the line, man, long + master of a subject sex, fought every step of woman toward mental + equality. Nevertheless, since modern man has become human enough to be + just, he has at last let her have a share in the advantages of education; + and she has proven her full power to appreciate and use these advantages. + </p> + <p> + Then to-day rises a new cry against "women in education." Here is Mr. + Barrett Wendell, of Harvard, solemnly claiming that teaching women weakens + the intellect of the teacher, and every now and then bursts out a frantic + sputter of alarm over the "feminization" of our schools. It is true that + the majority of teachers are now women. It is true that they do have an + influence on growing children. It would even seem to be true that that is + largely what women are for. + </p> + <p> + But the male assumes his influence to be normal, human, and the female + influence as wholly a matter of sex; therefore, where women teach boys, + the boys become "effeminate"—a grievous fall. When men teach girls, + do the girls become ——-? Here again we lack the analogue. + Never has it occurred to the androcentric mind to conceive of such a thing + as being too masculine. There is no such word! It is odd to notice that + which ever way the woman is placed, she is supposed to exert this + degrading influence; if the teacher, she effeminizes her pupils; if the + pupil, she effeminizes her teachers. + </p> + <p> + Now let us shake ourselves free, if only for a moment, from the + androcentric habit of mind. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of sex, the female is the more important. Her share of the + processes which sex distinction serves is by far the greater. To be + feminine—if one were nothing else, is a far more extensive and + dignified office than to be masculine—and nothing else. + </p> + <p> + But as a matter of humanity the male of our species is at present far + ahead of the female. By this superior humanness, his knowledge, his skill, + his experience, his organization and specialization, he makes and manages + the world. All this is human, not male. All this is as open to the woman + as the man by nature, but has been denied her during our androcentric + culture. + </p> + <p> + But even if, in a purely human process, such as education, she does bring + her special feminine characteristics to bear, what are they, and what are + the results? + </p> + <p> + We can see the masculine influence everywhere still dominant and superior. + There is the first spur, Desire, the base of the reward system, the + incentive of self-interest, the attitude which says, "Why should I make an + effort unless it will give me pleasure?" with its concomitant laziness, + unwillingness to work without payment. There is the second spur, Combat, + the competitive system, which sets one against another, and finds pleasure + not in learning, not exercising the mind, but in getting ahead of one's + fellows. Under these two wholly masculine influences we have made the + educational process a joy to the few who successfully attain, and a weary + effort, with failure and contumely attached, to all the others. This may + be a good method in sex-competition, but is wholly out of place and + mischievous in education. Its prevalence shows the injurious masculization + of this noble social process. + </p> + <p> + What might we look for in a distinctly feminine influence? What are these + much-dreaded feminine characteristics? + </p> + <p> + The maternal ones, of course. The sex instincts of the male are of a + preliminary nature, leading merely to the union preceding parenthood. The + sex instincts of the female cover a far larger field, spending themselves + most fully in the lasting love, the ceaseless service, the ingenuity and + courage of efficient motherhood. To feminize education would be to make it + more motherly. The mother does not rear her children by a system of prizes + to be longed for and pursued; nor does she set them to compete with one + another, giving to the conquering child what he needs, and to the + vanquished, blame and deprivation. That would be "unfeminine." + </p> + <p> + Motherhood does all it knows to give to each child what is most needed, to + teach all to their fullest capacity, to affectionately and efficiently + develop the whole of them. + </p> + <p> + But this is not what is meant by those who fear so much the influence of + women. Accustomed to a wholly male standard of living, to masculine + ideals, virtues, methods and conditions, they say—and say with some + justice—that feminine methods and ideals would be destructive to + what they call "manliness." For instance, education to-day is closely + interwoven with games and sports, all of an excessively masculine nature. + "The education of a boy is carried on largely on the playground!" say the + objectors to women teachers. Women cannot join them there; therefore, they + cannot educate them. + </p> + <p> + What games are these in which women cannot join? There are forms of + fighting, of course, violent and fierce, modern modifications of the + instinct of sex-combat. It is quite true that women are not adapted, or + inclined, to baseball or football or any violent game. They are perfectly + competent to take part in all normal athletic development, the human range + of agility and skill is open to them, as everyone knows who has been to + the circus; but they are not built for physical combat; nor do they find + ceaseless pleasure in throwing, hitting or kicking things. + </p> + <p> + But is it true that these strenuous games have the educational value + attributed to them? It seems like blasphemy to question it. The whole + range of male teachers, male pupils, male critics and spectators, are loud + in their admiration for the "manliness" developed by the craft, courage, + co-ordinative power and general "sportsmanship" developed by the game of + football, for instance; that a few young men are killed and many maimed, + is nothing in comparison to these advantages. + </p> + <p> + Let us review the threefold distinction on which this whole study rests, + between masculine, feminine and human. Grant that woman, being feminine, + cannot emulate man in being masculine—and does not want to. Grant + that the masculine qualities have their use and value, as well as feminine + ones. There still remain the human qualities shared by both, owned by + neither, most important of all. Education is a human process, and should + develop human qualities—not sex qualities. Surely our boys are + sufficiently masculine, without needing a special education to make them + more so. + </p> + <p> + The error lies here. A strictly masculine world, proud of its own sex and + despising the other, seeing nothing in the world but sex, either male or + female, has "viewed with alarm" the steady and rapid growth of humanness. + Here, for instance, is a boy visibly tending to be an artist, a musician, + a scientific discoverer. Here is another boy not particularly clever in + any line, nor ambitious for any special work, though he means in a general + way to "succeed"; he is, however, a big, husky fellow, a good fighter, + mischievous as a monkey, and strong in the virtues covered by the word + "sportsmanship." This boy we call "a fine manly fellow." + </p> + <p> + We are quite right. He is. He is distinctly and excessively male, at the + expense of his humanness. He may make a more prepotent sire than the + other, though even that is not certain; he may, and probably will, appeal + more strongly to the excessively feminine girl, who has even less + humanness than he; but he is not therefore a better citizen. + </p> + <p> + The advance of civilization calls for human qualities, in both men and + women. Our educational system is thwarted and hindered, not as Prof. + Wendell and his life would have us believe, by "feminization," but by an + overweening masculization. + </p> + <p> + Their position is a simple one. "We are men. Men are human beings. Women + are only women. This is a man's world. To get on in it you must do it + man-fashion—i.e., fight, and overcome the others. Being civilized, + in part, we must arrange a sort of 'civilized warfare,' and learn to play + the game, the old crude, fierce male game of combat, and we must educate + our boys thereto." No wonder education was denied to women. No wonder + their influence is dreaded by an ultra-masculine culture. + </p> + <p> + It will change the system in time. It will gradually establish an equal + place in life for the feminine characteristics, so long belittled and + derided, and give pre-eminent dignity to the human power. + </p> + <p> + Physical culture, for both boys and girls, will be part of such a modified + system. All things that both can do together will be accepted as human; + but what either boys or girls have to retire apart to practice will be + frankly called masculine and feminine, and not encouraged in children. + </p> + <p> + The most important qualities are the human ones, and will be so named and + honored. Courage is a human quality, not a sex-quality. What is commonly + called courage in male animals is mere belligerence, the fighting + instinct. To meet an adversary of his own sort is a universal masculine + trait; two father cats may fight fiercely each other, but both will run + from a dog as quickly as a mother cat. She has courage enough, however, in + defence of her kittens. + </p> + <p> + What this world most needs to-day in both men and women, is the power to + recognize our public conditions; to see the relative importance of + measures; to learn the processes of constructive citizenship. We need an + education which shall give its facts in the order of their importance; + morals and manners based on these facts; and train our personal powers + with careful selection, so that each may best serve the community. + </p> + <p> + At present, in the larger processes of extra-scholastic education, the + advantage is still with the boy. From infancy we make the gross mistake of + accentuating sex in our children, by dress and all its limitations, by + special teaching of what is "ladylike" and "manly." The boy is allowed a + freedom of experience far beyond the girl. He learns more of his town and + city, more of machinery, more of life, passing on from father to son the + truths as well as traditions of sex superiority. + </p> + <p> + All this is changing before our eyes, with the advancing humanness of + women. Not yet, however, has their advance affected, to any large extent, + the base of all education; the experience of a child's first years. Here + is where the limitations of women have checked race progress most + thoroughly. Here hereditary influence was constantly offset by the advance + of the male. Social selection did develop higher types of men, though + sex-selection reversed still insisted on primitive types of women. But the + educative influence of these primitive women, acting most exclusively on + the most susceptible years of life, has been a serious deterrent to race + progress. + </p> + <p> + Here is the dominant male, largely humanized, yet still measuring life + from male standards. He sees women only as a sex. (Note here the criticism + of Europeans on American women. "Your women are so sexless!" they say, + meaning merely that our women have human qualities as well as feminine.) + And children he considers as part and parcel of the same domain, both + inferior classes, "women and children." + </p> + <p> + I recall in Rimmer's beautiful red chalk studies, certain profiles of man, + woman and child, and careful explanation that the proportion of the + woman's face and head were far more akin to the child than to the man. + What Mr. Rimmer should have shown, and could have, by profuse + illustration, was that the faces of boy and girl differ but slightly, and + the faces of old men and women differ as little, sometimes not at all; + while the face of the woman approximates the human more closely than that + of the man; while the child, representing race more than sex, is naturally + more akin to her than to him. The male reserves more primitive qualities, + the hairiness, the more pugnacious jaw; the female is nearer to the higher + human types. + </p> + <p> + An ultra-male selection has chosen women for their femininity first, and + next for qualities of submissiveness and patient service bred by long ages + of servility. + </p> + <p> + This servile womanhood, or the idler and more excessively feminine type, + has never appreciated the real power and place of the mother, and has + never been able to grasp or to carry out any worthy system of education + for little children. Any experienced teacher, man or woman, will own how + rare it is to find a mother capable of a dispassionate appreciation of + educative values. Books in infant education and child culture generally + are read by teachers more than mothers, so our public libraries prove. The + mother-instinct, quite suitable and sufficient in animals, is by no means + equal to the requirements of civilized life. Animal motherhood furnishes a + fresh wave of devotion for each new birth; primitive human motherhood + extends that passionate tenderness over the growing family for a longer + period; but neither can carry education beyond its rudiments. + </p> + <p> + So accustomed are we to our world-old method of entrusting the first years + of the child to the action of untaught, unbridled mother-instinct, that + suggestions as to a better education for babies are received with the + frank derision of massed ignorance. + </p> + <p> + That powerful and brilliant writer, Mrs. Josephine Daskam Bacon, among + others has lent her able pen to ridicule and obstruct the gradual + awakening of human intelligence in mothers, the recognition that babies + are no exception to the rest of us in being better off for competent care + and service. It seems delightfully absurd to these reactionaries that ages + of human progress should be of any benefit to babies, save, indeed, as + their more human fathers, specialized and organized, are able to provide + them with better homes and a better world to grow up in. The idea that + mothers, more human, should specialize and organize as well, and extend to + their babies these supreme advantages, is made a laughing stock. + </p> + <p> + It is easy and profitable to laugh with the majority; but in the judgment + of history, those who do so, hold unenviable positions. The time is coming + when the human mother will recognize the educative possibilities of early + childhood, learn that the ability to rightly teach little children is rare + and precious, and be proud and glad to avail themselves of it. + </p> + <p> + We shall then see a development of the most valuable human qualities in + our children's minds such as would now seem wildly Utopian. We shall learn + from wide and long experience to anticipate and provide for the steps of + the unfolding mind, and train it, through carefully prearranged + experiences, to a power of judgment, of self-control, of social + perception, now utterly unthought of. + </p> + <p> + Such an education would begin at birth; yes, far before it, in the + standards of a conscious human motherhood. It would require a quite + different status of wifehood, womanhood, girlhood. It would be wholly + impossible if we were never to outgrow our androcentric culture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IX. "SOCIETY" AND "FASHION" + </h2> + <p> + Among our many naive misbeliefs is the current fallacy that "society" is + made by women; and that women are responsible for that peculiar social + manifestation called "fashion." + </p> + <p> + Men and women alike accept this notion; the serious essayist and + philosopher, as well as the novelist and paragrapher, reflect it in their + pages. The force of inertia acts in the domain of psychics as well as + physics; any idea pushed into the popular mind with considerable force + will keep on going until some opposing force—or the slow resistance + of friction—stops it at last. + </p> + <p> + "Society" consists mostly of women. Women carry on most of its processes, + therefore women are its makers and masters, they are responsible for it, + that is the general belief. + </p> + <p> + We might as well hold women responsible for harems—or prisoners for + jails. To be helplessly confined to a given place or condition does not + prove that one has chosen it; much less made it. + </p> + <p> + No; in an androcentric culture "society," like every other social + relation, is dominated by the male and arranged for his convenience. There + are, of course, modifications due to the presence of the other sex; where + there are more women than men there are inevitable results of their + influence; but the character and conditions of the whole performance are + dictated by men. + </p> + <p> + Social intercourse is the prime condition of human life. To meet, to + mingle, to know one another, to exchange, not only definite ideas, facts, + and feelings, but to experience that vague general stimulus and enlarged + power that comes of contact—all this is essential to our happiness + as well as to our progress. + </p> + <p> + This grand desideratum has always been monopolized by men as far as + possible. What intercourse was allowed to women has been rigidly hemmed + its by man-made conventions. Women accept these conventions, repeat them, + enforce them upon their daughters; but they originate with men. + </p> + <p> + The feet of the little Chinese girl are bound by her mother and her nurse—but + it is not for woman's pleasure that this crippling torture was invented. + The Oriental veil is worn by women, but it is not for any need of theirs + that veils were decreed them. + </p> + <p> + When we look at society in its earlier form we find that the public house + has always been with us. It is as old almost as the private house; the + need for association is as human as the need for privacy. But the public + house was—and is—for men only. The woman was kept as far as + possible at home. Her female nature was supposed to delimit her life + satisfactorily, and her human stature was completely ignored. + </p> + <p> + Under the pressure of that human nature she has always rebelled at the + social restrictions which surrounded her; and from the women of older + lands gathered at the well, or in the market place, to our own women on + the church steps or in the sewing circle, they have ceaselessly struggled + for the social intercourse which was as much a law of their being as of + man's. + </p> + <p> + When we come to the modern special field that we call "society," we find + it to consist of a carefully arranged set of processes and places wherein + women may meet one another and meet men. These vary, of course, with race, + country, class, and period; from the clean licence of our western customs + to the strict chaperonage of older lands; but free as it is in America, + even here there are bounds. + </p> + <p> + Men associate without any limit but that of inclination and financial + capacity. Even class distinction only works one way—the low-class + man may not mingle with high-class women; but the high-class man may—and + does—mingle with low-class women. It is his society—may not a + man do what he will with his own? + </p> + <p> + Caste distinctions, as have been ably shown by Prof. Lester F. Ward, are + relics of race distinction; the subordinate caste was once a subordinate + race; and while mating, upward, was always forbidden to the subject race; + mating, downward, was always practiced by the master race. + </p> + <p> + The elaborate shading of "the color line" in slavery days, from pure black + up through mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, quinteroon, griffada, mustafee, + mustee, and sang d'or—to white again; was not through white mothers—but + white fathers; never too exclusive in their tastes. Even in slavery, the + worst horrors were strictly androcentric. + </p> + <p> + "Society" is strictly guarded—that is its women are. As always, the + main tabu is on the woman. Consider carefully the relation between + "society" and the growing girl. She must, of course, marry; and her + education, manners, character, must of course be pleasing to the + prospective wooer. That which is desirable in young girls means, + naturally, that which is desirable to men. Of all cultivated + accomplishments the first is "innocence." Beauty may or may not be + forthcoming; but "innocence" is "the chief charm of girlhood." + </p> + <p> + Why? What good does it do <i>her?</i> Her whole life's success is made to + depend on her marrying; her health and happiness depends on her marrying + the right man. The more "innocent" she is, the less she knows, the easier + it is for the wrong man to get her. + </p> + <p> + As is so feelingly described in "The Sorrows of Amelia," in "The Ladies' + Literary Cabinet," a magazine taken by my grandmother; "The only foible + which the delicate Amelia possessed was an unsuspecting breast to lavish + esteem. Unversed in the secret villanies of a base degenerate world, she + ever imagined all mankind to be as spotless as herself. Alas for Amelia! + This fatal credulity was the source of all her misfortunes." It was. It is + yet. + </p> + <p> + Just face the facts with new eyes—look at it as if you had never + seen "society" before; and observe the position of its "Queen." + </p> + <p> + Here is Woman. Let us grant that Motherhood is her chief purpose. (As a + female it is. As a human being she has others!) Marriage is our way of + safeguarding motherhood; of ensuring "support" and "protection" to the + wife and children. + </p> + <p> + "Society" is very largely used as a means to bring together young people, + to promote marriage. If "society" is made and governed by women we should + naturally look to see its restrictions and encouragements such as would + put a premium on successful maternity and protect women—and their + children—from the evils of ill-regulated fatherhood. + </p> + <p> + Do we find this? By no means. + </p> + <p> + "Society" allows the man all liberty—all privilege—all + license. There are certain offences which would exclude him; such as not + paying gambling debts, or being poor; but offences against womanhood—against + motherhood—do not exclude him. + </p> + <p> + How about the reverse? + </p> + <p> + If "society" is made by women, for women, surely a misstep by a helplessly + "innocent" girl, will not injure her standing! + </p> + <p> + But it does. She is no longer "innocent." She knows now. She has lost her + market value and is thrown out of the shop. Why not? It is his shop—not + hers. What women may and may not be, what they must and must not do, all + is measured from the masculine standard. + </p> + <p> + A really feminine "society" based on the needs and pleasures of women, + both as females and as human beings, would in the first place accord them + freedom and knowledge; the knowledge which is power. It would not show us + "the queen of the ballroom" in the position of a wall-flower unless + favored by masculine invitation; unable to eat unless he brings her + something; unable to cross the floor without his arm. Of all blind + stultified "royal sluggards" she is the archetype. No, a feminine society + would grant <i>at least</i> equality to women in this, their so-called + special field. + </p> + <p> + Its attitude toward men, however, would be rigidly critical. + </p> + <p> + Fancy a real Mrs. Grundy (up to date it has been a Mr., his whiskers hid + in capstrings) saying, "No, no, young man. You won't do. You've been + drinking. The habit's growing on you. You'll make a bad husband." + </p> + <p> + Or still more severely, "Out with you, sir! You've forfeited your right to + marry! Go into retirement for seven years, and when you come back bring a + doctor's certificate with you." + </p> + <p> + That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it—for "Society" to say? It is + ridiculous, in a man's "society." + </p> + <p> + The required dress and decoration of "society"; the everlasting eating and + drinking of "society," the preferred amusements of "society," the absolute + requirements and absolute exclusions of "society," are of men, by men, for + men,—to paraphrase a threadbare quotation. And then, upon all that + vast edifice of masculine influence, they turn upon women as Adam did; and + blame <i>them</i> for severity with their fallen sisters! "Women are so + hard upon women!" + </p> + <p> + They have to be. What man would "allow" his wife, his daughters, to visit + and associate with "the fallen"? His esteem would be forfeited, they would + lose their "social position," the girl's chance of marrying would be gone. + </p> + <p> + Men are not so stern. They may visit the unfortunate women, to bring them + help, sympathy, re-establishment—or for other reasons; and it does + not forfeit their social position. Why should it? They make the + regulation. + </p> + <p> + Women are to-day, far more conspicuously than men, the exponents and + victims of that mysterious power we call "Fashion." As shown in mere + helpless imitation of one another's idea, customs, methods, there is not + much difference; in patient acquiescence with prescribed models of + architecture, furniture, literature, or anything else; there is not much + difference; but in personal decoration there is a most conspicuous + difference. Women do to-day submit to more grotesque ugliness and + absurdity than men; and there are plenty of good reasons for it. Confining + our brief study of fashion to fashion in dress, let us observe why it is + that women wear these fine clothes at all; and why they change them as + they do. + </p> + <p> + First, and very clearly, the human female carries the weight of sex + decoration, solely because of her economic dependence on the male. She + alone in nature adds to the burdens of maternity, which she was meant for, + this unnatural burden of ornament, which she was not meant for. Every + other female in the world is sufficiently attractive to the male without + trimmings. He carries the trimmings, sparing no expense of spreading + antlers or trailing plumes; no monstrosity of crest and wattles, to win + her favor. + </p> + <p> + She is only temporarily interested in him. The rest of the time she is + getting her own living, and caring for her own young. But our women get + their bread from their husbands, and every other social need. The woman + depends on the man for her position in life, as well as the necessities of + existence. For herself and for her children she must win and hold him who + is the source of all supplies. Therefore she is forced to add to her own + natural attractions this "dance of the seven veils," of the seventeen + gowns, of the seventy-seven hats of gay delirium. + </p> + <p> + There are many who think in one syllable, who say, "women don't dress to + please men—they dress to please themselves—and to outshine + other women." To these I would suggest a visit to some summer shore resort + during the week and extending over Saturday night. The women have all the + week to please themselves and outshine one another; but their array on + Saturday seems to indicate the approach of some new force or attraction. + </p> + <p> + If all this does not satisfy I would then call their attention to the + well-known fact that the young damsel previous to marriage spends far more + time and ingenuity in decoration than she does afterward. This has long + been observed and deprecated by those who write Advice to Wives, on the + ground that this difference is displeasing to the husband—that she + loses her influence over him; which is true. But since his own "society," + knowing his weakness, has tied him to her by law; why should she keep up + what is after all an unnatural exertion? + </p> + <p> + That excellent magazine "Good Housekeeping" has been running for some + months a rhymed and illustrated story of "Miss Melissa Clarissa McRae," an + extremely dainty and well-dressed stenographer, who captured and married a + fastidious young man, her employer, by the force of her artificial + attractions—and then lost his love after marriage by a sudden + unaccountable slovenliness—the same old story. + </p> + <p> + If this in not enough, let me instance further the attitude toward + "Fashion" of that class of women who live most openly and directly upon + the favor of men. These know their business. To continually attract the + vagrant fancy of the male, nature's born "variant," they must not only + pile on artificial charms, but change them constantly. They do. From the + leaders of this profession comes a steady stream of changing fashions; the + more extreme and bizarre, the more successful—and because they are + successful they are imitated. + </p> + <p> + If men did not like changes in fashion be assured these professional + men-pleasers would not change them, but since Nature's Variant tires of + any face in favor of a new one, the lady who would hold her sway and + cannot change her face (except in color) must needs change her hat and + gown. + </p> + <p> + But the Arbiter, the Ruling Cause, he who not only by choice demands, but + as a business manufactures and supplies this amazing stream of fashions; + again like Adam blames the woman—for accepting what he both demands + and supplies. + </p> + <p> + A further proof, if more were needed, is shown in this; that in exact + proportion as women grow independent, educated, wise and free, do they + become less submissive to men-made fashions. Was this improvement hailed + with sympathy and admiration—crowned with masculine favor? + </p> + <p> + The attitude of men toward those women who have so far presumed to "unsex + themselves" is known to all. They like women to be foolish, changeable, + always newly attractive; and while women must "attract" for a living—why + they do, that's all. + </p> + <p> + It is a pity. It is humiliating to any far-seeing woman to have to + recognize this glaring proof of the dependent, degraded position of her + sex; and it ought to be humiliating to men to see the results of their + mastery. These crazily decorated little creatures do not represent + womanhood. + </p> + <p> + When the artist uses the woman as the type of every highest ideal; as + Justice, Liberty, Charity, Truth—he does not represent her trimmed. + In any part of the world where women are even in part economically + independent there we find less of the absurdities of fashion. Women who + work cannot be utterly absurd. + </p> + <p> + But the idle woman, the Queen of Society, who must please men within their + prescribed bounds; and those of the half-world, who must please them at + any cost—these are the vehicles of fashion. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + X. LAW AND GOVERNMENT. + </h2> + <p> + It is easy to assume that men are naturally the lawmakers and + law-enforcers, under the plain historic fact that they have been such + since the beginning of the patriarchate. + </p> + <p> + Back of law lies custom and tradition. Back of government lies the + correlative activity of any organized group. What group-insects and + group-animals evolve unconsciously and fulfill by their social instincts, + we evolve consciously and fulfill by arbitrary systems called laws and + governments. In this, as in all other fields of our action, we must + discriminate between the humanness of the function in process of + development, and the influence of the male or female upon it. Quite apart + from what they may like or dislike as sexes, from their differing tastes + and faculties, lies the much larger field of human progress, in which they + equally participate. + </p> + <p> + On this plane the evolution of law and government proceeds somewhat as + follows:—The early woman-centered group organized on maternal lines + of common love and service. The early combinations of men were first a + grouped predacity—organized hunting; then a grouped belligerency,—organized + warfare. + </p> + <p> + By special development some minds are able to perceive the need of certain + lines of conduct over others, and to make this clear to their fellows; + whereby, gradually, our higher social nature establishes rules and + precedents to which we personally agree to submit. The process of social + development is one of progressive co-ordination. + </p> + <p> + From independent individual action for individual ends, up to + interdependent social action for social ends we slowly move; the "devil" + in the play being the old Ego, which has to be harmonized with the new + social spirit. This social process, like all others, having been in + masculine hands, we may find in it the same marks of one-sided + Specialization so visible in our previous studies. + </p> + <p> + The coersive attitude is essentially male. In the ceaseless age-old + struggle of sex combat he developed the desire to overcome, which is + always stimulated by resistance; and in this later historic period of his + supremacy, he further developed the habit of dominance and mastery. We may + instance the contrast between the conduct of a man when "in love" and + while courting; in which period he falls into the natural position of his + sex towards the other—namely, that of a wooer; and his behavior + when, with marriage, they enter the, artificial relation of the master + male and servile female. His "instinct of dominance" does not assert + itself during the earlier period, which was a million times longer than + the latter; it only appears in the more modern and arbitrary relation. + </p> + <p> + Among other animals monogamous union is not accompanied by any such + discordant and unnatural features. However recent as this habit is when + considered biologically, it is as old as civilization when we consider it + historically: quite old enough to be a serious force. Under its pressure + we see the legal systems and forms of government slowly evolving, the + general human growth always heavily perverted by the special masculine + influence. First we find the mere force of custom governing us, the <i>mores</i> + of the ancient people. Then comes the gradual appearance of authority, + from the purely natural leadership of the best hunter or fighter up + through the unnatural mastery of the patriarch, owning and governing his + wives, children, slaves and cattle, and making such rules and regulations + as pleased him. + </p> + <p> + Our laws as we support them now are slow, wasteful, cumbrous systems, + which require a special caste to interpret and another to enforce; wherein + the average citizen knows nothing of the law, and cares only to evade it + when he can, obey it when he must. In the household, that stunted, + crippled rudiment of the matriarchate, where alone we can find what is + left of the natural influence of woman, the laws and government, so far as + she is responsible for them, are fairly simple, and bear visible relation + to the common good, which relation is clearly and persistently taught. + </p> + <p> + In the larger household of city and state the educational part of the law + is grievously neglected. It makes no allowance for ignorance. If a man + breaks a law of which he never heard he is not excused therefore; the + penalty rolls on just the same. Fancy a mother making solemn rules and + regulations for her family, telling the children nothing about them, and + then punishing them when they disobeyed the unknown laws! + </p> + <p> + The use of force is natural to the male; while as a human being he must + needs legislate somewhat in the interests of the community, as a male + being he sees no necessity for other enforcement than by penalty. To + violently oppose, to fight, to trample to the earth, to triumph in loud + bellowings of savage joy,—these are the primitive male instincts; + and the perfectly natural social instinct which leads to peaceful + persuasion, to education, to an easy harmony of action, are contemptuously + ranked as "feminine," or as "philanthropic,"—which is almost as bad. + "Men need stronger measures" they say proudly. Yes, but four-fifths of the + world are women and children! + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact the woman, the mother, is the first co-ordinator, + legislator, administrator and executive. From the guarding and guidance of + her cubs and kittens up to the longer, larger management of human youth, + she is the first to consider group interests and co-relate them. + </p> + <p> + As a father the male grows to share in these original feminine functions, + and with us, fatherhood having become socialized while motherhood has not, + he does the best he can, alone, to do the world's mother-work in his + father way. + </p> + <p> + In study of any long established human custom it is very difficult to see + it clearly and dispassionately. Our minds are heavily loaded with + precedent, with race-custom, with the iron weight called authority. These + heavy forces reach their most perfect expression in the absolutely + masculine field of warfare. The absolute authority; the brainless, + voiceless obedience; the relentless penalty. Here we have male coercion at + its height; law and government wholly arbitrary. The result is as might be + expected, a fine machine of destruction. But destruction is not a human + process—merely a male process of eliminating the unfit. + </p> + <p> + The female process is to select the fit; her elimination is negative and + painless. + </p> + <p> + Greater than either is the human process, to <i>develop fitness.</i> + </p> + <p> + Men are at present far more human than women. Alone upon their self-seized + thrones they have carried as best they might the burdens of the state; and + the history of law and government shows them as changing slowly but + irresistably in the direction of social improvement. + </p> + <p> + The ancient kings were the joyous apotheosis of masculinity. Power and + Pride were theirs; Limitless Display; Boundless Self-indulgence; + Irresistable Authority. Slaves and courtiers bowed before them, subjects + obeyed them, captive women filled their harems. But the day of the + masculine monarchy is passing, and the day of the human democracy is + coming in. In a Democracy Law and Government both change. Laws are no + longer imposed on the people by one above them, but are evolved from the + people themselves. How absurd that the people should not be educated in + the laws they make; that the trailing remnants of blind submission should + still becloud their minds and make them bow down patiently under the + absurd pressure of outgrown tradition! + </p> + <p> + Democratic government is no longer an exercise of arbitrary authority from + one above, but is an organization for public service of the people + themselves—or will be when it is really attained. + </p> + <p> + In this change government ceases to be compulsion, and becomes agreement; + law ceases to be authority and becomes co-ordination. When we learn the + rules of whist or chess we do not obey them because we fear to be punished + if we don't, but because we want to play the game. The rules of human + conduct are for our own happiness and service—any child can see + that. Every child will see it when laws are simplified, based on + sociology, and taught in schools. A child of ten should be considered + grossly uneducated who could not rewrite the main features of the laws of + his country, state, and city; and those laws should be so simple in their + principles that a child of ten could understand them. + </p> + <p> + Teacher: "What is a tax?" + </p> + <p> + Child: "A tax is the money we agree to pay to keep up our common + advantages." + </p> + <p> + Teacher: "Why do we all pay taxes?" + </p> + <p> + Child: "Because the country belongs to all of us, and we must all pay our + share to keep it up." + </p> + <p> + Teacher: "In what proportion do we pay taxes?" + </p> + <p> + Child: "In proportion to how much money we have." (<i>Sotto voce</i>: "Of + course!") + </p> + <p> + Teacher: "What is it to evade taxes?" + </p> + <p> + Child: "It is treason." (<i>Sotto voce</i>: "And a dirty mean trick.") + </p> + <p> + In masculine administration of the laws we may follow the instinctive love + of battle down through the custom of "trial by combat"—only recently + outgrown, to our present method, where each contending party hires a + champion to represent him, and these fight it out in a wordy war, with + tricks and devices of complex ingenuity, enjoying this kind of struggle as + they enjoy all other kinds. + </p> + <p> + It is the old masculine spirit of government as authority which is so slow + in adapting itself to the democratic idea of government as service. That + it should be a representative government they grasp, but representative of + what? of the common will, they say; the will of the majority;—never + thinking that it is the common good, the common welfare, that government + should represent. + </p> + <p> + It is the inextricable masculinity in our idea of government which so + revolts at the idea of women as voters. "To govern:" that means to boss, + to control, to have authority; and that only, to most minds. They cannot + bear to think of the woman as having control over even their own affairs; + to control is masculine, they assume. Seeing only self-interest as a + natural impulse, and the ruling powers of the state as a sort of umpire, + an authority to preserve the rules of the game while men fight it out + forever; they see in a democracy merely a wider range of self interest, + and a wider, freer field to fight in. + </p> + <p> + The law dictates the rules, the government enforces them, but the main + business of life, hitherto, has been esteemed as one long fierce struggle; + each man seeking for himself. To deliberately legislate for the service of + all the people, to use the government as the main engine of that service, + is a new process, wholly human, and difficult of development under an + androcentric culture. + </p> + <p> + Furthermore they put forth those naively androcentric protests,—women + cannot fight, and in case their laws were resisted by men they could not + enforce them,—<i>therefore</i> they should not vote! + </p> + <p> + What they do not so plainly say, but very strongly think, is that women + should not share the loot which to their minds is so large a part of + politics. + </p> + <p> + Here we may trace clearly the social heredity of male government. + </p> + <p> + Fix clearly in your mind the first head-ship of man—the leader of + the pack as it were—the Chief Hunter. Then the second head-ship, the + Chief Fighter. Then the third head-ship, the Chief of the Family. Then the + long line of Chiefs and Captains, Warlords and Landlords, Rulers and + Kings. + </p> + <p> + The Hunter hunted for prey, and got it. The Fighter enriched himself with + the spoils of the vanquished. The Patriarch lived on the labor of women + and slaves. All down the ages, from frank piracy and robbery to the + measured toll of tribute, ransom and indemnity, we see the same natural + instinct of the hunter and fighter. In his hands the government is a thing + to sap and wreck, to live on. It is his essential impulse to want + something very much; to struggle and fight for it; to take all he can get. + </p> + <p> + Set against this the giving love that comes with motherhood; the endless + service that comes of motherhood; the peaceful administration in the + interest of the family that comes of motherhood. We prate much of the + family as the unit of the state. If it is—why not run the state on + that basis? Government by women, so far as it is influenced by their sex, + would be influenced by motherhood; and that would mean care, nurture, + provision, education. We have to go far down the scale for any instance of + organized motherhood, but we do find it in the hymenoptera; in the + overflowing industry, prosperity, peace and loving service of the ant-hill + and bee-hive. These are the most highly socialized types of life, next to + ours, and they are feminine types. + </p> + <p> + We as human beings have a far higher form of association, with further + issues than mere wealth and propagation of the species. In this human + process we should never forget that men are far more advanced than women, + at present. Because of their humanness has come all the noble growth of + civilization, in spite of their maleness. + </p> + <p> + As human beings both male and female stand alike useful and honorable, and + should in our government be alike used and honored; but as creatures of + sex, the female is fitter than the male for administration of constructive + social interests. The change in governmental processes which marks our + times is a change in principle. Two great movements convulse the world + to-day, the woman's movement and the labor movement. Each regards the + other as of less moment than itself. Both are parts of the same + world-process. + </p> + <p> + We are entering upon a period of social consciousness. Whereas so far + almost all of us have seen life only as individuals, and have regarded the + growing strength and riches of the social body as merely so much the more + to fatten on; now we are beginning to take an intelligent interest in our + social nature, to understand it a little, and to begin to feel the vast + increase of happiness and power that comes of real Human Life. + </p> + <p> + In this change of systems a government which consisted only of prohibition + and commands; of tax collecting and making war; is rapidly giving way to a + system which intelligently manages our common interests, which is a + growing and improving method of universal service. Here the socialist is + perfectly right in his vision of the economic welfare to be assured by the + socialization of industry, though that is but part of the new development; + and the individualist who opposes socialism, crying loudly for the + advantage of "free competition" is but voicing the spirit of the + predacious male. + </p> + <p> + So with the opposers to the suffrage of women. They represent, whether men + or women, the male viewpoint. They see the woman only as a female, utterly + absorbed in feminine functions, belittled and ignored as her long tutelage + has made her; and they see the man as he sees himself, the sole master of + human affairs for as long as we have historic record. + </p> + <p> + This, fortunately, is not long. We can now see back of the period of his + supremacy, and are beginning to see beyond it. We are well under way + already in a higher stage of social development, conscious, + well-organized, wisely managed, in which the laws shall be simple and + founded on constructive principles instead of being a set of + ring-regulations within which people may fight as they will; and in which + the government shall be recognized in its full use; not only the sternly + dominant father, and the wisely servicable mother, but the real union of + all people to sanely and economically manage their affairs. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XI. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. + </h2> + <p> + The human concept of Sin has had its uses no doubt; and our special + invention of a thing called Punishment has also served a purpose. + </p> + <p> + Social evolution has worked in many ways wastefully, and with unnecessary + pain, but it compares very favorably with natural evolution. + </p> + <p> + As we grow wiser; as our social consciousness develops, we are beginning + to improve on nature in more ways than one; a part of the same great + process, but of a more highly sublimated sort. + </p> + <p> + Nature shows a world of varied and changing environment. Into this comes + Life—flushing and spreading in every direction. A pretty hard time + Life has of it. In the first place it is dog eat dog in every direction; + the joy of the hunter and the most unjoyous fear of the hunted. + </p> + <p> + But quite outside of this essential danger, the environment waits, grim + and unappeasable, and continuously destroys the innocent myriads who fail + to meet the one requirement of life—Adaptation. So we must not be + too severe in self-condemnation when we see how foolish, cruel, crazily + wasteful, is our attitude toward crime and punishment. + </p> + <p> + We become socially conscious largely through pain, and as we begin to see + how much of the pain is wholly of our own causing we are overcome with + shame. But the right way for society to face its past is the same as for + the individual; to see where it was wrong and stop it—but to waste + no time and no emotion over past misdeeds. + </p> + <p> + What is our present state as to crime? It is pretty bad. Some say it is + worse than it used to be; others that it is better. At any rate it is bad + enough, and a disgrace to our civilization. We have murderers by the + thousand and thieves by the million, of all kinds and sizes; we have what + we tenderly call "immorality," from the "errors of youth" to the sodden + grossness of old age; married, single, and mixed. We have all the old + kinds of wickedness and a lot of new ones, until one marvels at the purity + and power of human nature, that it should carry so much disease and still + grow on to higher things. + </p> + <p> + Also we have punishment still with us; private and public; applied like a + rabbit's foot, with as little regard to its efficacy. Does a child offend? + Punish it! Does a woman offend? Punish her! Does a man offend? Punish him! + Does a group offend? Punish them! + </p> + <p> + "What for?" some one suddenly asks. + </p> + <p> + "To make them stop doing it!" + </p> + <p> + "But they have done it!" + </p> + <p> + "To make them not do it again, then." + </p> + <p> + "But they do do it again—and worse." + </p> + <p> + "To prevent other people's doing it, then." + </p> + <p> + "But it does not prevent them—the crime keeps on. What good is your + punishment?" + </p> + <p> + What indeed! + </p> + <p> + What is the application of punishment to crime? Its base, its prehistoric + base, is simple retaliation; and this is by no means wholly male, let us + freely admit. The instinct of resistance, of opposition, of retaliation, + lies deeper than life itself. Its underlying law is the law of physics—action + and reaction are equal. Life's expression of this law is perfectly + natural, but not always profitable. Hit your hand on a stone wall, and the + stone wall hits your hand. Very good; you learn that stone walls are hard, + and govern yourself accordingly. + </p> + <p> + Conscious young humanity observed and philosophized, congratulating itself + on its discernment. "A man hits me—I hit the man a little harder—then + he won't do it again." Unfortunately he did do it again—a little + harder still. The effort to hit harder carried on the action and reaction + till society, hitting hardest of all, set up a system of legal punishment, + of unlimited severity. It imprisoned, it mutilated, it tortured, it + killed; it destroyed whole families, and razed contumelious cities to the + ground. + </p> + <p> + Therefore all crime ceased, of course? No? But crime was mitigated, + surely! Perhaps. This we have proven at last; that crime does not decrease + in proportion to the severest punishment. Little by little we have ceased + to raze the cities, to wipe out the families, to cut off the ears, to + torture; and our imprisonment is changing from slow death and insanity to + a form of attempted improvement. + </p> + <p> + But punishment as a principle remains in good standing, and is still the + main reliance where it does the most harm—in the rearing of + children. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" remains in belief, + unmodified by the millions of children spoiled by the unspared rod. + </p> + <p> + The breeders of racehorses have learned better, but not the breeders of + children. Our trouble is simply the lack of intelligence. We face the + babyish error and the hideous crime in exactly the same attitude. + </p> + <p> + "This person has done something offensive." + </p> + <p> + Yes?—and one waits eagerly for the first question of the rational + mind—but does not hear it. One only hears "Punish him!" + </p> + <p> + What is the first question of the rational mind? + </p> + <p> + "Why?" + </p> + <p> + Human beings are not first causes. They do not evolve conduct out of + nothing. The child does this, the man does that, <i>because</i> of + something; because of many things. If we do not like the way people + behave, and wish them to behave better, we should, if we are rational + beings, study the conditions that produce the conduct. + </p> + <p> + The connection between our archaic system of punishment and our + androcentric culture is two-fold. The impulse of resistance, while, as we + have seen, of the deepest natural origin, is expressed more strongly in + the male than in the female. The tendency to hit back and hit harder has + been fostered in him by sex-combat till it has become of great intensity. + The habit of authority too, as old as our history; and the cumulative + weight of all the religions and systems of law and government, have + furthermore built up and intensified the spirit of retaliation and + vengeance. + </p> + <p> + They have even deified this concept, in ancient religions, crediting to + God the evil passions of men. As the small boy recited; "Vengeance. A mean + desire to get even with your enemies: 'Vengeance is mine saith the Lord'—'I + will repay.'" + </p> + <p> + The Christian religion teaches better things; better than its expositors + and upholders have ever understood—much less practised. + </p> + <p> + The teaching of "Love your enemies, do good unto them that hate you, and + serve them that despitefully use you and persecute you," has too often + resulted, when practised at all, in a sentimental negation; a pathetically + useless attitude of non-resistance. You might as well base a religion on a + feather pillow! + </p> + <p> + The advice given was active; direct; concrete. "<i>Love!</i>" Love is not + non-resistance. "Do good!" Doing good is not non-resistance. "Serve!" + Service is not non-resistance. + </p> + <p> + Again we have an overwhelming proof of the far-reaching effects of our + androcentric culture. Consider it once more. Here is one by nature + combative and desirous, and not by nature intended to monopolize the + management of his species. He assumes to be not only the leader, but the + whole thing—to be humanity itself, and to see in woman as Grant + Allen so clearly put it "Not only not the race; she is not even half the + race, but a subspecies, told off for purposes of reproduction merely." + </p> + <p> + Under this monstrous assumption, his sex-attributes wholly identified with + his human attributes, and overshadowing them, he has imprinted on every + human institution the tastes and tendencies of the male. As a male he + fought, as a male human being he fought more, and deified fighting; and in + a culture based on desire and combat, loud with strident self-expression, + there could be but slow acceptance of the more human methods urged by + Christianity. "It is a religion for slaves and women!" said the warrior of + old. (Slaves and women were largely the same thing.) "It is a religion for + slaves and women" says the advocate of the Superman. + </p> + <p> + Well? Who did the work of all the ancient world? Who raised the food and + garnered it and cooked it and served it? Who built the houses, the + temples, the aqueducts, the city wall? Who made the furniture, the tools, + the weapons, the utensils, the ornaments—made them strong and + beautiful and useful? Who kept the human race going, somehow, in spite of + the constant hideous waste of war, and slowly built up the real industrial + civilization behind that gory show?—Why just the slaves and the + women. + </p> + <p> + A religion which had attractions for the real human type is not therefore + to be utterly despised by the male. + </p> + <p> + In modern history we may watch with increasing ease the slow, sure + progress of our growing humanness beneath the weakening shell of an + all-male dominance. And in this field of what begins in the nurse as + "discipline," and ends on the scaffold as "punishment," we can clearly see + that blessed change. + </p> + <p> + What is the natural, the human attribute? What does this "Love," and "Do + good," and "Serve" mean? In the blundering old church, still androcentric, + there was a great to-do to carry out this doctrine, in elaborate + symbolism. A set of beggars and cripples, gathered for the occasion, was + exhibited, and kings and cardinals went solemnly through the motions of + serving them. As the English schoolboy phrased it, "Thomas Becket washed + the feet of leopards." + </p> + <p> + Service and love and doing good must always remain side issues in a male + world. Service and love and doing good are the spirit of motherhood, and + the essence of human life. + </p> + <p> + Human life is service, and is not combat. There you have the nature of the + change now upon us. + </p> + <p> + What has the male mind made of Christianity? + </p> + <p> + Desire—to save one's own soul. Combat—with the Devil. + Self-expression—the whole gorgeous outpouring of pageant and + display, from the jewels of the high priest's breastplate to the choir of + mutilated men to praise a male Deity no woman may so serve. + </p> + <p> + What kind of mind can imagine a kind of god who would like a eunuch better + than a woman? + </p> + <p> + For woman they made at last a place—the usual place—of + renunciation, sacrifice and service, the Sisters of Mercy and their kind; + and in that loving service the woman soul has been content, not yearning + for cardinal's cape or bishop's mitre. + </p> + <p> + All this is changing—changing fast. Everywhere the churches are + broadening out into more service, and the service broadening out beyond a + little group of widows and fatherless, of sick and in prison, to embrace + its true field—all human life. In this new attitude, how shall we + face the problems of crime? + </p> + <p> + Thus: "It is painfully apparent that a certain percentage of our people do + not function properly. They perform antisocial acts. Why? What is the + matter with them?" + </p> + <p> + Then the heart and mind of society is applied to the question, and certain + results are soon reached; others slowly worked toward. + </p> + <p> + First result. Some persons are so morally diseased that they must have + hospital treatment. The world's last prison will be simply a hospital for + moral incurables. They must by no means reproduce their kind,—that + can be attended to at once. Some are morally diseased, but may be cured, + and the best powers of society will be used to cure them. Some are only + morally diseased because of the conditions in which they are born and + reared, and here society can save millions at once. + </p> + <p> + An intelligent society will no more neglect its children than an + intelligent mother will neglect her children; and will see as clearly that + ill-fed, ill-dressed, ill-taught and vilely associated little ones must + grow up gravely injured. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact we make our crop of criminals, just as we make our + idiots, blind, crippled, and generally defective. Everyone is a baby + first, and a baby is not a criminal, unless we make it so. It never would + be,—in right conditions. Sometimes a pervert is born, as sometimes a + two-headed calf is born, but they are not common. + </p> + <p> + The older, simpler forms of crime we may prevent with case and despatch, + but how of the new ones?—big, terrible, far-reaching, wide-spread + crimes, for which we have as yet no names; and before which our old system + of anti-personal punishment falls helpless? What of the crimes of + poisoning a community with bad food; of defiling the water; of blackening + the air; of stealing whole forests? What of the crimes of working little + children; of building and renting tenements that produce crime and + physical disease as well? What of the crime of living on the wages of + fallen women—of hiring men to ruin innocent young girls; of holding + them enslaved and selling them for profit? (These things are only + "misdemeanors" in a man-made world!) + </p> + <p> + And what about a crime like this; to use the public press to lie to the + public for private ends? No name yet for this crime; much less a penalty. + </p> + <p> + And this: To bring worse than leprosy to an innocent clean wife who loves + and trusts you? + </p> + <p> + Or this: To knowingly plant poison in an unborn child? + </p> + <p> + No names, for these; no "penalties"; no conceivable penalty that could + touch them. + </p> + <p> + The whole punishment system falls to the ground before the huge mass of + evil that confronts us. If we saw a procession of air ships flying over a + city and dropping bombs, should we rush madly off after each one crying, + "Catch him! Punish him!" or should we try to stop the procession? + </p> + <p> + The time is coming when the very word "crime" will be disused, except in + poems and orations; and "punishment," the word and deed, be obliterated. + We are beginning to learn a little of the nature of humanity its goodness, + its beauty, its lovingness; and to see that even its stupidity is only due + to our foolish old methods of education. + </p> + <p> + It is not new power, new light, new hope that we need, but <i>to + understand what ails us.</i> + </p> + <p> + We know enough now, we care enough now, we are strong enough now, to make + the whole world a thousand fold better in a generation; but we are + shackled, chained, blinded, by old false notions. The ideas of the past, + the sentiments of the past, the attitude and prejudices of the past, are + in our way; and among them none more universally mischievous than this + great body of ideas and sentiments, prejudices and habits, which make up + the offensive network of the androcentric culture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0013" id="link2H_4_0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XII. POLITICS AND WARFARE. + </h2> + <p> + I go to my old dictionary, and find; "Politics, I. The science of + government; that part of ethics which has to do with the regulation and + government of a nation or state, the preservation of its safety, peace and + prosperity; the defence of its existence and rights against foreign + control or conquest; the augmentation of its strength and resources, and + the protection of its citizens in their rights; with the preservation and + improvement of their morals. 2. The management of political parties; the + advancement of candidates to office; in a bad sense, artful or dishonest + management to secure the success of political measures or party schemes, + political trickery." + </p> + <p> + From present day experience we might add, 3. Politics, practical; The art + of organizing and handling men in large numbers, manipulating votes, and, + in especial, appropriating public wealth. + </p> + <p> + We can easily see that the "science of government" may be divided into + "pure" and "applied" like other sciences, but that it is "a part of + ethics" will be news to many minds. + </p> + <p> + Yet why not? Ethics is the science of conduct, and politics is merely one + field of conduct; a very common one. Its connection with Warfare in this + chapter is perfectly legitimate in view of the history of politics on the + one hand, and the imperative modern issues which are to-day opposed to + this established combination. + </p> + <p> + There are many to-day who hold that politics need not be at all connected + with warfare, and others who hold that politics is warfare from start to + finish. + </p> + <p> + In order to dissociate the two ideas completely let us give a paraphrase + of the above definition, applying it to domestic management;—that + part of ethics which has to do with the regulation and government of a + family; the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity; the defense + of its existence and rights against any strangers' interference or + control; the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the + protection of its members in their rights; with the preservation and + improvement of their morals. + </p> + <p> + All this is simple enough, and in no way masculine; neither is it + feminine, save in this; that the tendency to care for, defend and manage a + group, is in its origin maternal. + </p> + <p> + In every human sense, however, politics has left its maternal base far in + the background; and as a field of study and of action is as well adapted + to men as to women. There is no reason whatever why men should not develop + great ability in this department of ethics, and gradually learn how to + preserve the safety, peace and prosperity of their nation; together with + those other services as to resources, protection of citizens, and + improvement of morals. + </p> + <p> + Men, as human beings, are capable of the noblest devotion and efficiency + in these matters, and have often shown them; but their devotion and + efficiency have been marred in this, as in so many other fields, by the + constant obtrusion of an ultra-masculine tendency. + </p> + <p> + In warfare, <i>per se</i>, we find maleness in its absurdest extremes. + Here is to be studied the whole gamut of basic masculinity, from the + initial instinct of combat, through every form of glorious ostentation, + with the loudest possible accompaniment of noise. + </p> + <p> + Primitive warfare had for its climax the possession of the primitive + prize, the female. Without dogmatising on so remote a period, it may be + suggested as a fair hypothesis that this was the very origin of our + organized raids. We certainly find war before there was property in land, + or any other property to tempt aggressors. Women, however, there were + always, and when a specially androcentric tribe had reduced its supply of + women by cruel treatment, or they were not born in sufficient numbers, + owing to hard conditions, men must needs go farther afield after other + women. Then, since the men of the other tribes naturally objected to + losing their main labor supply and comfort, there was war. + </p> + <p> + Thus based on the sex impulse, it gave full range to the combative + instinct, and further to that thirst for vocal exultation so exquisitely + male. The proud bellowings of the conquering stag, as he trampled on his + prostrate rival, found higher expression in the "triumphs" of old days, + when the conquering warrior returned to his home, with victims chained to + his chariot wheels, and braying trumpets. + </p> + <p> + When property became an appreciable factor in life, warfare took on a new + significance. What was at first mere destruction, in the effort to defend + or obtain some hunting ground or pasture; and, always, to secure the + female; now coalesced with the acquisitive instinct, and the long black + ages of predatory warfare closed in upon the world. + </p> + <p> + Where the earliest form exterminated, the later enslaved, and took + tribute; and for century upon century the "gentleman adventurer," i.e., + the primitive male, greatly preferred to acquire wealth by the simple old + process of taking it, to any form of productive industry. + </p> + <p> + We have been much misled as to warfare by our androcentric literature. + With a history which recorded nothing else; a literature which praised and + an art which exalted it; a religion which called its central power "the + God of Battles"—never the God of Workshops, mind you!—with a + whole complex social structure man-prejudiced from center to + circumference, and giving highest praise and honor to the Soldier; it is + still hard for its to see what warfare really is in human life. + </p> + <p> + Someday we shall have new histories written, histories of world progress, + showing the slow uprising, the development, the interservice of the + nations; showing the faint beautiful dawn of the larger spirit of + world-consciousness, and all its benefitting growth. + </p> + <p> + We shall see people softening, learning, rising; see life lengthen with + the possession of herds, and widen in rich prosperity with agriculture. + Then industry, blossoming, fruiting, spreading wide; art, giving light and + joy; the intellect developing with companionship and human intercourse; + the whole spreading tree of social progress, the trunk of which is + specialized industry, and the branches of which comprise every least and + greatest line of human activity and enjoyment. This growing tree, + springing up wherever conditions of peace and prosperity gave it a chance, + we shall see continually hewed down to the very root by war. + </p> + <p> + To the later historian will appear throughout the ages, like some Hideous + Fate, some Curse, some predetermined check, to drag down all our hope and + joy and set life forever at its first steps over again, this Red Plague of + War. + </p> + <p> + The instinct of combat, between males, worked advantageously so long as it + did not injure the female or the young. It is a perfectly natural + instinct, and therefore perfectly right, in its place; but its place is in + a pre-patriarchal era. So long as the animal mother was free and competent + to care for herself and her young; then it was an advantage to have "the + best man win;" that is the best stag or lion; and to have the vanquished + die, or live in sulky celibacy, was no disadvantage to any one but + himself. + </p> + <p> + Humanity is on a stage above this plan. The best man in the social + structure is not always the huskiest. When a fresh horde of ultra-male + savages swarmed down upon a prosperous young civilization, killed off the + more civilized males and appropriated the more civilized females; they + did, no doubt, bring in a fresh physical impetus to the race; but they + destroyed the civilization. + </p> + <p> + The reproduction of perfectly good savages is not the main business of + humanity. Its business is to grow, socially; to develop, to improve; and + warfare, at its best, retards human progress; at its worst, obliterates + it. + </p> + <p> + Combat is not a social process at all; it is a physical process, a + subsidiary sex process, purely masculine, intended to improve the species + by the elimination of the unfit. Amusingly enough, or absurdly enough; + when applied to society, it eliminates the fit, and leaves the unfit to + perpetuate the race! + </p> + <p> + We require, to do our organized fighting, a picked lot of vigorous young + males, the fittest we can find. The too old or too young; the sick, + crippled, defective; are all left behind, to marry and be fathers; while + the pick of the country, physically, is sent off to oppose the pick of + another country, and kill—kill—kill! + </p> + <p> + Observe the result on the population! In the first place the balance is + broken—there are not enough men to go around, at home; many women + are left unmated. In primitive warfare, where women were promptly + enslaved, or, at the best, polygamously married, this did not greatly + matter to the population; but as civilization advances and monogamy + obtains, whatever eugenic benefits may once have sprung from warfare are + completely lost, and all its injuries remain. + </p> + <p> + In what we innocently call "civilized warfare" (we might as well speak of + "civilized cannibalism!"), this steady elimination of the fit leaves an + everlowering standard of parentage at home. It makes a widening margin of + what we call "surplus women," meaning more than enough to be monogamously + married; and these women, not being economically independent, drag + steadily upon the remaining men, postponing marriage, and increasing its + burdens. + </p> + <p> + The birth rate is lowered in quantity by the lack of husbands, and lowered + in quality both by the destruction of superior stock, and by the wide + dissemination of those diseases which invariably accompany the + wife-lessness of the segregated males who are told off to perform our + military functions. + </p> + <p> + The external horrors and wastes of warfare we are all familiar with; A. It + arrests industry and all progress. B. It destroys the fruits of industry + and progress. C. It weakens, hurts and kills the combatants. D. It lowers + the standard of the non-combatants. Even the conquering nation is heavily + injured; the conquered sometimes exterminated, or at least absorbed by the + victor. + </p> + <p> + This masculine selective process, when applied to nations, does not + produce the same result as when applied to single opposing animals. When + little Greece was overcome it did not prove that the victors were + superior, nor promote human interests in any way; it injured them. + </p> + <p> + The "stern arbitrament of war" may prove which of two peoples is the + better fighter, but ft does not prove it therefor the fittest to survive. + </p> + <p> + Beyond all these more or less obvious evils, comes a further result, not + enough recognized; the psychic effects of military standard of thought and + feeling. + </p> + <p> + Remember that an androcentric culture has always exempted its own + essential activities from the restraints of ethics,—"All's fair in + love and war!" Deceit, trickery, lying, every kind of skulking underhand + effort to get information; ceaseless endeavor to outwit and overcome "the + enemy"; besides as cruelty and destruction; are characteristic of the + military process; as well as the much praised virtues of courage, + endurance and loyalty, personal and public. + </p> + <p> + Also classed as a virtue, and unquestionably such from the military point + of view, is that prime factor in making and keeping an army, obedience. + </p> + <p> + See how the effect of this artificial maintenance of early mental + attitudes acts on our later development. True human progress requires + elements quite other than these. If successful warfare made one nation + unquestioned master of the earth its social progress would not be promoted + by that event. The rude hordes of Genghis Khan swarmed over Asia and into + Europe, but remained rude hordes; conquest is not civilization, nor any + part of it. + </p> + <p> + When the northern tribes-men overwhelmed the Roman culture they paralysed + progress for a thousand years or so; set back the clock by that much. So + long as all Europe was at war, so long the arts and sciences sat still, or + struggled in hid corners to keep their light alive. + </p> + <p> + When warfare itself ceases, the physical, social and psychic results do + not cease. Our whole culture is still hag-ridden by military ideals. + </p> + <p> + Peace congresses have begun to meet, peace societies write and talk, but + the monuments to soldiers and sailors (naval sailors of course), still go + up, and the tin soldier remains a popular toy. We do not see boxes of tin + carpenters by any chance; tin farmers, weavers, shoemakers; we do not + write our "boys books" about the real benefactors and servers of society; + the adventurer and destroyer remains the idol of an Androcentric Culture. + </p> + <p> + In politics the military ideal, the military processes, are so predominant + as to almost monopolise "that part of ethics." The science of government, + the plain wholesome business of managing a community for its own good; + doing its work, advancing its prosperity, improving its morals—this + is frankly understood and accepted as A Fight from start to finish. + Marshall your forces and try to get in, this is the political campaign. + When you are in, fight to stay in, and to keep the other fellow out. Fight + for your own hand, like an animal; fight for your master like any hired + bravo; fight always for some desired "victory"—and "to the victors + belong the spoils." + </p> + <p> + This is not by any means the true nature of politics. It is not even a + fair picture of politics to-day; in which man, the human being, is doing + noble work for humanity; but it is the effect of man, the male, on + politics. + </p> + <p> + Life, to the "male mind" (we have heard enough of the "female mind" to use + the analogue!) <i>is</i> a fight, and his ancient military institutions + and processes keep up the delusion. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact life is growth. Growth comes naturally, by + multiplication of cells, and requires three factors to promote it; + nourishment, use, rest. Combat is a minor incident of life; belonging to + low levels, and not of a developing influence socially. + </p> + <p> + The science of politics, in a civilized community, should have by this + time a fine accumulation of simplified knowledge for diffusion in public + schools; a store of practical experience in how to promote social + advancement most rapidly, a progressive economy and ease of + administration, a simplicity in theory and visible benefit in practice, + such as should make every child an eager and serviceable citizen. + </p> + <p> + What do we find, here in America, in the field of "politics?" + </p> + <p> + We find first a party system which is the technical arrangement to carry + on a fight. It is perfectly conceivable that a flourishing democratic + government be carried on <i>without any parties at all;</i> public + functionaries being elected on their merits, and each proposed measure + judged on its merits; though this sounds impossible to the androcentric + mind. + </p> + <p> + "There has never been a democracy without factions and parties!" is + protested. + </p> + <p> + There has never been a democracy, so far—only an androcracy. + </p> + <p> + A group composed of males alone, naturally divides, opposes, fights; even + a male church, under the most rigid rule, has its secret undercurrents of + antagonism. + </p> + <p> + "It is the human heart!" is again protested. No, not essentially the human + heart, but the male heart. This is so well recognized by men in general, + that, to their minds, in this mingled field of politics and warfare, women + have no place. + </p> + <p> + In "civilized warfare" they are, it is true, allowed to trail along and + practice their feminine function of nursing; but this is no part of war + proper, it is rather the beginning of the end of war. Some time it will + strike our "funny spot," these strenuous efforts to hurt and destroy, and + these accompanying efforts to heal and save. + </p> + <p> + But in our politics there is not even provision for a nursing corps; women + are absolutely excluded. + </p> + <p> + "They cannot play the game!" cries the practical politician. There is loud + talk of the defilement, the "dirty pool" and its resultant darkening of + fair reputations, the total unfitness of lovely woman to take part in "the + rough and tumble of politics." + </p> + <p> + In other words men have made a human institution into an ultra-masculine + performance; and, quite rightly, feel that women could not take part in + politics <i>as men do.</i> That it is not necessary to fulfill this human + custom in so masculine a way does not occur to them. Few men can overlook + the limitations of their sex and see the truth; that this business of + taking care of our common affairs is not only equally open to women and + men, but that women are distinctly needed in it. + </p> + <p> + Anyone will admit that a government wholly in the hands of women would be + helped by the assistance of men; that a gynaecocracy must, of its own + nature, be one sided. Yet it is hard to win reluctant admission of the + opposite fact; that an androcracy must of its own nature be one sided + also, and would be greatly improved by the participation of the other sex. + </p> + <p> + The inextricable confusion of politics and warfare is part of the + stumbling block in the minds of men. As they see it, a nation is primarily + a fighting organization; and its principal business is offensive and + defensive warfare; therefore the ultimatum with which they oppose the + demand for political equality—"women cannot fight, therefore they + cannot vote." + </p> + <p> + Fighting, when all is said, is to them the real business of life; not to + be able to fight is to be quite out of the running; and ability to solve + our growing mass of public problems; questions of health, of education, of + morals, of economics; weighs naught against the ability to kill. + </p> + <p> + This naive assumption of supreme value in a process never of the first + importance; and increasingly injurious as society progresses, would be + laughable if it were not for its evil effects. It acts and reacts upon us + to our hurt. Positively, we see the ill effects already touched on; the + evils not only of active war; but of the spirit and methods of war; + idealized, inculcated and practiced in other social processes. It tends to + make each man-managed nation an actual or potential fighting organization, + and to give us, instead of civilized peace, that "balance of power" which + is like the counted time in the prize ring—only a rest between + combats. + </p> + <p> + It leaves the weaker nations to be "conquered" and "annexed" just as they + used to be; with tariffs instead of tribute. It forces upon each the + burden of armament; upon many the dreaded conscription; and continually + lowers the world's resources in money and in life. + </p> + <p> + Similarly in politics, it adds to the legitimate expenses of governing the + illegitimate expenses of fighting; and must needs have a "spoils system" + by which to pay its mercenaries. + </p> + <p> + In carrying out the public policies the wheels of state are continually + clogged by the "opposition;" always an opposition on one side or the + other; and this slow wiggling uneven progress, through shorn victories and + haggling concessions, is held to be the proper and only political method. + </p> + <p> + "Women do not understand politics," we are told; "Women do not care for + politics;" "Women are unfitted for politics." + </p> + <p> + It is frankly inconceivable, from the androcentric view-point, that + nations can live in peace together, and be friendly and serviceable as + persons are. It is inconceivable also, that in the management of a nation, + honesty, efficiency, wisdom, experience and love could work out good + results without any element of combat. + </p> + <p> + The "ultimate resort" is still to arms. "The will of the majority" is only + respected on account of the guns of the majority. We have but a partial + civilization, heavily modified to sex—the male sex. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + WOMAN AND THE STATE + </h2> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [A Discussion of Political Equality of Men and Women. To be + read in connection with chapter 12 of Our Androcentric + Culture.] +</pre> + <p> + Here are two vital factors in human life; one a prime essential to our + existence; the other a prime essential to our progress. + </p> + <p> + Both of them we idealize in certain lines, and exploit in others. Both of + them are misinterpreted, balked of their full usefulness, and humanity + thus injured. + </p> + <p> + The human race does not get the benefit of the full powers of women, nor + of the full powers of the state. + </p> + <p> + In all civilized races to-day there is a wide and growing sense of + discontent among women; a criticism of their assigned limitations, and a + demand for larger freedom and opportunity. Under different conditions the + demand varies; it is here for higher education, there for justice before + the law; here for economic independence, and there for political equality. + </p> + <p> + This last is at present the most prominent Issue of "the woman question" + in England and America, as the activity of the "militant suffragists" has + forced it upon the attention of the world. + </p> + <p> + Thoughtful people in general are now studying this point more seriously + than ever before, genuinely anxious to adopt the right side, and there is + an alarmed uprising of sincere objection to the political equality of + women. + </p> + <p> + Wasting no time on ignorance, prejudice, or the resistance of special + interests, let us fairly face the honest opposition, and do it justice. + </p> + <p> + The conservative position is this: + </p> + <p> + "Men and women have different spheres in life. To men belong the creation + and management of the state, and the financial maintenance of the home and + family: + </p> + <p> + "To women belong the physical burden of maternity, and the industrial + management of the home and family; these duties require all their time and + strength: + </p> + <p> + "The prosperity of the state may be sufficiently conserved by men alone; + the prosperity of the family requires the personal presence and services + of the mother in the home: if women assume the cares of the state, the + home and family will suffer:" + </p> + <p> + Some go even farther than this, and claim an essential limitation in "the + female mind" which prevents it from grasping large political interests; + holding, therefore, that if women took part in state affairs it would be + to the detriment of the community: + </p> + <p> + Others advance a theory that "society," in the special sense, is the true + sphere of larger service for women, and that those of them not exclusively + confined to "home duties" may find full occupation in "social duties," + including the time honored fields of "religion" and "charity": + </p> + <p> + Others again place their main reliance on the statement that, as to the + suffrage, "women do not want it." + </p> + <p> + Let us consider these points in inverse order, beginning with the last + one. + </p> + <p> + We will admit that at present the majority of women are not consciously + desirous of any extension of their political rights and privileges, but + deny that this indifference is any evidence against the desirability of + such extension. + </p> + <p> + It has long been accepted that the position of women is an index of + civilization. Progressive people are proud of the freedom and honor given + their women, and our nation honestly believes itself the leader in this + line. "American women are the freest in the world!" we say; and boast of + it. + </p> + <p> + Since the agitation for women's rights began, many concessions have been + made to further improve their condition. Men, seeing the justice of + certain demands, have granted in many states such privileges as admission + to schools, colleges, universities, and special instruction for + professions; followed by admission to the bar, the pulpit, and the + practice of medicine. Married women, in many states, have now a right to + their own earnings; and in a few, mothers have an equal right in the + guardianship of their children. + </p> + <p> + We are proud and glad that our women are free to go unveiled, to travel + alone, to choose their own husbands; we are proud and glad of every + extension of justice already granted by men to women. + </p> + <p> + Now:—Have any of these concessions been granted because a majority + of women asked for them? Was it advanced in opposition to any of them that + "women did not want it?" Have as many women ever asked for these things as + are now asking for the ballot? If it was desirable to grant these other + rights and privileges without the demand of a majority, why is the demand + of a majority required before this one is granted? + </p> + <p> + The child widows of India did not unitedly demand the abolition of the + "suttee." + </p> + <p> + The tortured girl children of China did not rise in overwhelming majority + to demand free feet; yet surely no one would refuse to lift these burdens + because only a minority of progressive women insisted on justice. + </p> + <p> + It is a sociological impossibility that a majority of an unorganized class + should unite in concerted demand for a right, a duty, which they have + never known. + </p> + <p> + The point to be decided is whether political equality is to the advantage + of women and of the state—not whether either, as a body, is asking + for it. + </p> + <p> + Now for the "society" theory. There is a venerable fiction to the effect + that women make—and manage, "society." No careful student of + comparative history can hold this belief for a moment. Whatever the + conditions of the age or place; industrial, financial, religious, + political, educational; these conditions are in the hands of men; and + these conditions dictate the "society" of that age or place. + </p> + <p> + "Society" in a constitutional monarchy is one thing; in a primitive + despotism another; among millionaires a third; but women do not make the + despotism, the monarchy, or the millions. They take social conditions as + provided by men, precisely as they take all other conditions at their + hands. They do not even modify an existing society to their own interests, + being powerless to do so. The "double standard of morals," ruling + everywhere in "society," proves this; as does the comparative helplessness + of women to enjoy even social entertainments, without the constant + attendance and invitation of men. + </p> + <p> + Even in its great function of exhibition leading to marriage, it is the + girls who are trained and exhibited, under closest surveillance; while the + men stroll in and out, to chose at will, under no surveillance whatever. + </p> + <p> + That women, otherwise powerful, may use "society" to further their ends, + is as true as that men do; and in England, where women, through their + titled and landed position, have always had more political power than + here, "society" is a very useful vehicle for the activities of both sexes. + </p> + <p> + But, in the main, the opportunities of "society" to women, are merely + opportunities to use their "feminine influence" in extra domestic lines—a + very questionable advantage to the home and family, to motherhood, to + women, or to the state. + </p> + <p> + In religion women have always filled and more than filled the place + allowed them. Needless to say it was a low one. The power of the church, + its whole management and emoluments, were always in the hands of men, save + when the Lady Abbess held her partial sway; but the work of the church has + always been helped by women—the men have preached and the women + practised! + </p> + <p> + Charity, as a vocation, is directly in line with the mother instinct, and + has always appealed to women. Since we have learned how injurious to true + social development this mistaken kindness is, it might almost be + classified as a morbid by-product of suppressed femininity! + </p> + <p> + In passing we may note that charity as a virtue is ranked highest among + those nations and religions where women are held lowest. With the Moslems + it is a universal law—and in the Moslem Paradise there are no women—save + the Houries! + </p> + <p> + The playground of a man-fenced "society"; the work-ground of a man-taught + church; and this "osmosis" of social nutrition, this leakage and seepage + of values which should circulate normally, called charity; these are not a + sufficient field for the activities of women. + </p> + <p> + As for those limitations of the "feminine mind" which render her unfit to + consider the victuallage of a nation, or the justice of a tax on sugar; it + hardly seems as if the charge need be taken seriously. Yet so able a woman + as Mrs. Humphry Ward has recently advanced it in all earnestness. + </p> + <p> + In her view women are capable of handling municipal, but not state + affairs. Since even this was once denied them; and since, in England, they + have had municipal suffrage for some time; it would seem as if their + abilities grew with use, as most abilities do; which is in truth the real + answer. + </p> + <p> + Most women spend their whole lives, and have spent their whole lives for + uncounted generations, in the persistent and exclusive contemplation of + their own family affairs. They are near-sighted, or near-minded, rather; + the trouble is not with the nature of their minds, but with the use of + them. + </p> + <p> + If men as a class had been exclusively confined to the occupation of + house-service since history began, they would be similarly unlikely to + manifest an acute political intelligence. + </p> + <p> + We may agree with Tennyson that "Woman is not undeveloped man, but + diverse;" that is <i>women</i> are not undeveloped <i>men;</i> but the + feminine half of humanity is undeveloped human. They have exercised their + feminine functions, but not their human-functions; at least not to their + full extent. + </p> + <p> + Here appears a distinction which needs to be widely appreciated. + </p> + <p> + We are not merely male and female—all animals are that—our + chief distinction is that of race, our humanness. + </p> + <p> + Male characteristics we share with all males, bird and beast; female + characteristics we share with all females, similarly; but human + characteristics belong to <i>genus homo</i> alone; and are possessed by + both sexes. A female horse is just as much a horse as a male of her + species; a female human being is just as human as the male of her species—or + ought to be! + </p> + <p> + In the special functions and relations of sex there is no contest, no + possible rivalry or confusion; but in the general functions of humanity + there is great misunderstanding. + </p> + <p> + Our trouble is that we have not recognized these human functions as such; + but supposed them to be exclusively masculine; and, acting under that + idea, strove to prevent women from an unnatural imitation of men. + </p> + <p> + Hence this minor theory of the limitations of the "female mind." + </p> + <p> + The mind is pre-eminently human. That degree of brain development which + distinguishes our species, is a human, not a sex characteristic. + </p> + <p> + There may be, has been, and still is, a vast difference in our treatment + of the minds of the two sexes. We have given them a different education, + different exercises, different conditions in all ways. But all these + differences are external, and their effect disappears with them. + </p> + <p> + The "female mind" has proven its identical capacity with the "male mind," + <i>in so far as it has been given identical conditions.</i> It will take a + long time, however, before conditions are so identical, for successive + generations, as to give the "female mind" a fair chance. + </p> + <p> + In the meantime, considering its traditional, educational and associative + drawbacks, the "female mind" has made a remarkably good showing. + </p> + <p> + The field of politics is an unfortunate one in which to urge this alleged + limitation; because politics is one of the few fields in which some women + have been reared and exercised under equal conditions with men. + </p> + <p> + We have had queens as long as we have had kings, perhaps longer; and + history does not show the male mind, in kings, to have manifested a + numerically proportionate superiority over the female mind, in queens. + There have been more kings than queens, but have there been more good and + great ones, in proportion? + </p> + <p> + Even one practical and efficient queen is proof enough that being a woman + does not preclude political capacity. Since England has had such an able + queen for so long, and that within Mrs. Humphry Ward's personal memory, + her position seems fatuous in the extreme. + </p> + <p> + It has been advanced that great queens owed their power to the association + and advice of the noble and high-minded men who surrounded them; and, + further, that the poor showing made by many kings, was due to the + association and vice of the base and low-minded women who surrounded them. + </p> + <p> + This is a particularly pusillanimous claim in the first place; is not + provable in the second place; and, if it were true, opens up a very pretty + field of study in the third place. It would seem to prove, if it proves + anything, that men are not fit to be trusted with political power on + account of an alarming affinity for the worst of women; and, conversely, + that women, as commanding the assistance of the best of men, are visibly + the right rulers! Also it opens a pleasant sidelight on that + oft-recommended tool—"feminine influence." + </p> + <p> + We now come to our opening objection; that society and state, home, and + family, are best served by the present division of interests: and its + corollary, that if women enlarge that field of interest it would reduce + their usefulness in their present sphere. + </p> + <p> + The corollary is easily removed. We are now on the broad ground of + established facts; of history, recent, but still achieved. + </p> + <p> + Women have had equal political rights with men in several places, for + considerable periods of time. In Wyoming, to come near home, they have + enjoyed this status for more than a generation. Neither here nor in any + other state or country where women vote, is there the faintest proof of + injury to the home or family relation. In Wyoming, indeed, divorce has + decreased, while gaining so fast in other places. + </p> + <p> + Political knowledge, political interest, does not take up more time and + strength than any other form of mental activity; nor does it preclude a + keen efficiency in other lines; and as for the actual time required to + perform the average duties of citizenship—it is a contemptible bit + of trickery in argument, if not mere ignorance and confusion of idea, to + urge the occasional attendance on political meetings, or the annual or + bi-annual dropping of a ballot, as any interference with the management of + a house. + </p> + <p> + It is proven, by years on years of established experience, that women can + enjoy full political equality and use their power, without in the least + ceasing to be contented and efficient wives and mothers, cooks and + housekeepers. + </p> + <p> + What really horrifies the popular mind at the thought of women in + politics, is the picture of woman as a "practical politician;" giving her + time to it as a business, and making money by it, in questionable, or + unquestionable, ways; and, further, as a politician in office, as sheriff, + alderman, senator, judge. + </p> + <p> + The popular mind becomes suffused with horror at the first idea, and + scarcely less so at the second. It pictures blushing girlhood on the + Bench; tender motherhood in the Senate; the housewife turned + "ward-heeler;" and becomes quite sick in contemplation of these + abominations. + </p> + <p> + No educated mind, practical mind, no mind able and willing to use its + faculties, need be misled for a moment by these sophistries. + </p> + <p> + There is absolutely no evidence that women as a class will rush into + "practical politics." Where they have voted longest they do not manifest + this dread result. Neither is there any proof that they will all desire to + hold office; or that any considerable portion of them will; or that, if + they did, they would get it. + </p> + <p> + We seem unconsciously to assume that when women begin to vote, men will + stop; or that the women will outnumber the men; also that, outnumbering + them, they will be completely united in their vote; and, still further, + that so outnumbering and uniting, they will solidly vote for a ticket + composed wholly of women candidates. + </p> + <p> + Does anyone seriously imagine this to be likely? + </p> + <p> + This may be stated with assurance; if ever we do see a clever, designing, + flirtatious, man-twisting woman; or a pretty, charming, irresistable young + girl, elected to office—it will not be by the votes of women! + </p> + <p> + Where women are elected to office, by the votes of both men and women, + they are of suitable age and abilities, and do their work well. They have + already greatly improved some of the conditions of local politics, and the + legislation they advocate is of a beneficial character. + </p> + <p> + What is the true relation of women to the state? + </p> + <p> + It is precisely identical with that of men. Their forms of service may + vary, but their duty, their interest, their responsibility, is the same. + </p> + <p> + Here are the people on earth, half of them women, all of them her + children. It is her earth as much as his; the people are their people, the + state their state; compounded of them all, in due relation. + </p> + <p> + As the father and mother, together; shelter, guard, teach and provide for + their children in the home; so should all fathers and mothers, together; + shelter, guard, teach and provide for their common children, the + community. + </p> + <p> + The state is no mystery; no taboo place of masculine secrecy; it is simply + us. + </p> + <p> + Democracy is but a half-grown child as yet, one of twins? Its boy-half is + a struggling thing, with "the diseases of babyhood"; its girl-half has + hardly begun to take notice. + </p> + <p> + As human creatures we have precisely the same duty and privilege, + interest, and power in the state; sharing its protection, its advantages, + and its services. As women we have a different relation. + </p> + <p> + Here indeed we will admit, and glory in, our "diversity." The "eternal + womanly" is a far more useful thing in the state than the "eternal manly." + </p> + <p> + To be woman means to be mother. To be mother means to give love, defense, + nourishment, care, instruction. Too long, far too long has motherhood + neglected its real social duties, its duties to humanity at large. Even in + her position of retarded industrial development, as the housekeeper and + houseworker of the world, woman has a contribution of special value to the + state. + </p> + <p> + As the loving mother, the patient teacher, the tender nurse, the wise + provider and care-taker, she can serve the state, and the state needs her + service. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0015" id="link2H_4_0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIII. INDUSTRY AND ECONOMICS. + </h2> + <p> + The forest of Truth, on the subject of industry and economics, is + difficult to see on account of the trees. + </p> + <p> + We have so many Facts on this subject; so many Opinions; so many + Traditions and Habits; and the pressure of Immediate Conclusions is so + intense upon us all; that it is not easy to form a clear space in one's + mind and consider the field fairly. + </p> + <p> + Possibly the present treatment of the subject will appeal most to the + minds of those who know least about it; such as the Average Woman. To her, + Industry is a daylong and lifelong duty, as well as a natural impulse; and + economics means going without things. To such untrained but also + unprejudiced minds it should be easy to show the main facts on these + lines. + </p> + <p> + Let us dispose of Economics first, as having a solemn scientific + appearance. + </p> + <p> + Physical Economics treats of the internal affairs of the body; the whole + machinery and how it works; all organs, members, functions; each last and + littlest capillary and leucocyte, are parts of that "economy." + </p> + <p> + Nature's "economy" is not in the least "economical." The waste of life, + the waste of material, the waste of time and effort, are prodigious, yet + she achieves her end as we see. + </p> + <p> + Domestic Economics covers the whole care and government of the household; + the maintenance of peace, health, order, and morality; the care and + nourishment of children as far as done at home; the entire management of + the home, as well as the spending and saving of money; are included in it. + Saving is the least and poorest part of it; especially as in mere + abstinence from needed things; most especially when this abstinence is + mainly "Mother's." How best to spend; time, strength, love, care, labor, + knowledge, and money—this should be the main study in Domestic + Economics. + </p> + <p> + Social, or, as they are used to call it, Political Economics, covers a + larger, but not essentially different field. A family consists of people, + and the Mother is their natural manager. Society consists of people—<i>the + same people</i>—only more of them. All the people, who are members + of Society, are also members of families—except some incubated + orphans maybe. Social Economics covers the whole care and management of + the people, the maintenance of peace and health and order and morality; + the care of children, as far as done out of the home; as well as the + spending and saving of the public money—all these are included in + it. + </p> + <p> + This great business of Social Economics is at present little understood + and most poorly managed, for this reason; we approach it from an + individual point of view; seeking not so much to do our share in the + common service, as to get our personal profit from the common wealth. + Where the whole family labors together to harvest fruit and store it for + the winter, we have legitimate Domestic Economics: but where one member + takes and hides a lot for himself, to the exclusion of the others, we have + no Domestic Economics at all—merely individual selfishness. + </p> + <p> + In Social Economics we have a large, but simple problem. Here is the + earth, our farm. Here are the people, who own the earth. How can the most + advantage to the most people be obtained from the earth with the least + labor? That is the problem of Social Economics. + </p> + <p> + Looking at the world as if you held it in your hands to study and discuss, + what do we find at present? + </p> + <p> + We find people living too thickly for health and comfort in some places, + and too thinly for others; we find most people working too hard and too + long at honest labor; some people working with damaging intensity at + dishonest labor; and a few wretched paupers among the rich and poor, + degenerate idlers who do not work at all, the scum and the dregs of + Society. + </p> + <p> + All this is bad economics. We do not get the comfort out of life we easily + could; and work far too hard for what we do get. Moreover, there is no + peace, no settled security. No man is sure of his living, no matter how + hard he works, a thousand things may occur to deprive him of his job, or + his income. In our time there is great excitement along this line of + study; and more than one proposition is advanced whereby we may improve, + most notably instanced in the world-covering advance of Socialism. + </p> + <p> + In our present study the principal fact to be exhibited is the influence + of a male culture upon Social Economics and Industry. + </p> + <p> + Industry, as a department of Social Economics, is little understood. + Heretofore we have viewed this field from several wholly erroneous + positions. From the Hebrew (and wholly androcentric) religious teaching, + we have regarded labor as a curse. + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be more absurdly false. Labor is not merely a means of + supporting human life—it <i>is</i> human life. Imagine a race of + beings living without labor! They must be the rudest savages. + </p> + <p> + Human work consists in specialized industry and the exchange of its + products; and without it is no civilization. As industry develops, + civilization develops; peace expands; wealth increases; science and art + help on the splendid total. Productive industry, and its concomitant of + distributive industry cover the major field of human life. + </p> + <p> + If our industry was normal, what should we see? + </p> + <p> + A world full of healthy, happy people; each busily engaged in what he or + she most enjoys doing. Normal Specialization, like all our voluntary + processes, is accompanied by keen pleasure; and any check or interruption + to it gives pain and injury. Whosoever works at what he loves is well and + happy. Whoso works at what he does not love is ill and miserable. It is + very bad economics to force unwilling industry. That is the weakness of + slave labor; and of wage labor also where there is not full industrial + education and freedom of choice. + </p> + <p> + Under normal conditions we should see well developed, well trained + specialists happily engaged in the work they most enjoyed; for reasonable + hours (any work, or play either, becomes injurious if done too long); and + as a consequence the whole output of the world would be vastly improved, + not only in quantity but in quality. + </p> + <p> + Plain are the melancholy facts of what we do see. Following that pitiful + conception of labor as a curse, comes the very old and androcentric habit + of despising it as belonging to women, and then to slaves. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact industry is in its origin feminine; that is, maternal. + It is the overflowing fountain of mother-love and mother-power which first + prompts the human race to labor; and for long ages men performed no + productive industry at all; being merely hunters and fighters. + </p> + <p> + It is this lack of natural instinct for labor in the male of our species, + together with the ideas and opinions based on that lack, and voiced by him + in his many writings, religious and other, which have given to the world + its false estimate of this great function, human work. That which is our + very life, our greatest joy, our road to all advancement, we have scorned + and oppressed; so that "working people," the "working classes," "having to + work," etc., are to this day spoken of with contempt. Perhaps drones speak + so among themselves of the "working bees!" + </p> + <p> + Normally, widening out from the mother's careful and generous service in + the family, to careful, generous service in the world, we should find + labor freely given, with love and pride. + </p> + <p> + Abnormally, crushed under the burden of androcentric scorn and prejudice, + we have labor grudgingly produced under pressure of necessity; labor of + slaves under fear of the whip, or of wage-slaves, one step higher, under + fear of want. Long ages wherein hunting and fighting were the only manly + occupations, have left their heavy impress. The predacious instinct and + the combative instinct weigh down and disfigure our economic development. + What Veblen calls "the instinct of workmanship" grows on, slowly and + irresistably; but the malign features of our industrial life are + distinctively androcentric: the desire to get, of the hunter; interfering + with the desire to give, of the mother; the desire to overcome an + antagonist—originally masculine, interfering with the desire to + serve and benefit—originally feminine. + </p> + <p> + Let the reader keep in mind that as human beings, men are able to + over-live their masculine natures and do noble service to the world; also + that as human beings they are today far more highly developed than women, + and doing far more for the world. The point here brought out is that as + males their unchecked supremacy has resulted in the abnormal predominance + of masculine impulses in our human processes; and that this predominance + has been largely injurious. + </p> + <p> + As it happens, the distinctly feminine or maternal impulses are far more + nearly in line with human progress than are those of the male; which makes + her exclusion from human functions the more mischievous. + </p> + <p> + Our current teachings in the infant science of Political Economy are + naively masculine. They assume as unquestionable that "the economic man" + will never do anything unless he has to; will only do it to escape pain or + attain pleasure; and will, inevitably, take all he can get, and do all he + can to outwit, overcome, and if necessary destroy his antagonist. + </p> + <p> + Always the antagonist; to the male mind an antagonist is essential to + progress, to all achievement. He has planted that root-thought in all the + human world; from that old hideous idea of Satan, "The Adversary," down to + the competitor in business, or the boy at the head of the class, to be + superseded by another. + </p> + <p> + Therefore, even in science, "the struggle for existence" is the dominant + law—to the male mind, with the "survival of the fittest" and "the + elimination of the unfit." + </p> + <p> + Therefore in industry and economics we find always and everywhere the + antagonist; the necessity for somebody or something to be overcome—else + why make an effort? If you have not the incentive of reward, or the + incentive of combat, why work? "Competition is the life of trade." + </p> + <p> + Thus the Economic Man. + </p> + <p> + But how about the Economic Woman? + </p> + <p> + To the androcentric mind she does not exist. Women are females, and that's + all; their working abilities are limited to personal service. + </p> + <p> + That it would be possible to develop industry to far greater heights, and + to find in social economics a simple and beneficial process for the + promotion of human life and prosperity, under any other impulse than these + two, Desire and Combat, is hard indeed to recognize—for the "male + mind." + </p> + <p> + So absolutely interwoven are our existing concepts of maleness and + humanness, so sure are we that men are people and women only females, that + the claim of equal weight and dignity in human affairs of the feminine + instincts and methods is scouted as absurd. We find existing industry + almost wholly in male hands; find it done as men do it; assume that that + is the way it must be done. + </p> + <p> + When women suggest that it could be done differently, their proposal is + waved aside—they are "only women"—their ideas are "womanish." + </p> + <p> + Agreed. So are men "only men," their ideas are "mannish"; and of the two + the women are more vitally human than the men. + </p> + <p> + The female is the race-type—the man the variant. + </p> + <p> + The female, as a race-type, having the female processes besides; best + performs the race processes. The male, however, has with great difficulty + developed them, always heavily handicapped by his maleness; being in + origin essentially a creature of sex, and so dominated almost exclusively + by sex impulses. + </p> + <p> + The human instinct of mutual service is checked by the masculine instinct + of combat; the human tendency to specialize in labor, to rejoicingly pour + force in lines of specialized expression, is checked by the predacious + instinct, which will exert itself for reward; and disfigured by the + masculine instinct of self-expression, which is an entirely different + thing from the great human outpouring of world force. + </p> + <p> + Great men, the world's teachers and leaders, are great in humanness; mere + maleness does not make for greatness unless it be in warfare—a + disadvantageous glory! Great women also must be great in humanness; but + their female instincts are not so subversive of human progress as are the + instincts of the male. To be a teacher and leader, to love and serve, to + guard and guide and help, are well in line with motherhood. + </p> + <p> + "Are they not also in line with fatherhood?" will be asked; and, "Are not + the father's paternal instincts masculine?" + </p> + <p> + No, they are not; they differ in no way from the maternal, in so far as + they are beneficial. Parental functions of the higher sort, of the human + sort, are identical. The father can give his children many advantages + which the mother can not; but that is due to his superiority as a human + being. He possesses far more knowledge and power in the world, the human + world; he himself is more developed in human powers and processes; and is + therefore able to do much for his children which the mother can not; but + this is in no way due to his masculinity. It is in this development of + human powers in man, through fatherhood, that we may read the explanation + of our short period of androcentric culture. + </p> + <p> + So thorough and complete a reversal of previous relation, such continuance + of what appears in every way an unnatural position, must have had some + justification in racial advantages, or it could not have endured. This is + its justification; the establishment of humanness in the male; he being + led into it, along natural lines, by the exercise of previously existing + desires. + </p> + <p> + In a male culture the attracting forces must inevitably have been, we have + seen, Desire and Combat. These masculine forces, acting upon human + processes, while necessary to the uplifting of the man, have been anything + but uplifting to civilization. A sex which thinks, feels and acts in terms + of combat is difficult to harmonize in the smooth bonds of human + relationship; that they have succeeded so well is a beautiful testimony to + the superior power of race tendency over sex tendency. Uniting and + organizing, crudely and temporarily, for the common hunt; and then, with + progressive elaboration, for the common fight; they are now using the same + tactics—and the same desires, unfortunately—in common work. + </p> + <p> + Union, organization, complex interservice, are the essential processes of + a growing society; in them, in the ever-increasing discharge of power + along widening lines of action, is the joy and health of social life. But + so far men combine in order to better combat; the mutual service held + incidental to the common end of conquest and plunder. + </p> + <p> + In spite of this the overmastering power of humanness is now developing + among modern men immense organizations of a wholly beneficial character, + with no purpose but mutual advantage. This is true human growth, and as + such will inevitably take the place of the sex-prejudiced earlier + processes. + </p> + <p> + The human character of the Christian religion is now being more and more + insisted on; the practical love and service of each and all; in place of + the old insistence on Desire—for a Crown and Harp in Heaven, and + Combat—with that everlasting adversary. + </p> + <p> + In economics this great change is rapidly going on before our eyes. It is + a change in idea, in basic concept, in our theory of what the whole thing + is about. We are beginning to see the world, not as "a fair field and no + favor"—not a place for one man to get ahead of others, for a price; + but as an establishment belonging to us, the proceeds of which are to be + applied, as a matter of course, to human advantage. + </p> + <p> + In the old idea, the wholly masculine idea, based on the processes of + sex-combat, the advantage of the world lay in having "the best man win." + Some, in the first steps of enthusiasm for Eugenics, think so still; + imagining that the primal process of promoting evolution through the + paternity of the conquering male is the best process. + </p> + <p> + To have one superior lion kill six or sixty inferior lions, and leave a + progeny of more superior lions behind him, is all right—for lions; + the superiority in fighting being all the superiority they need. + </p> + <p> + But the man able to outwit his follows, to destroy them in physical, or + ruin in financial, combat, is not therefore a superior human creature. + Even physical superiority, as a fighter, does not prove the kind of vigor + best calculated to resist disease, or to adapt itself to changing + conditions. + </p> + <p> + That our masculine culture in its effect on Economics and Industry is + injurious, is clearly shown by the whole open page of history. From the + simple beneficent activities of a matriarchal period we follow the same + lamentable steps; nation after nation. Women are enslaved and captives are + enslaved; a military despotism is developed; labor is despised and + discouraged. Then when the irresistible social forces do bring us onward, + in science, art, commerce, and all that we call civilization, we find the + same check acting always upon that progress; and the really vital social + processes of production and distribution heavily injured by the financial + combat and carnage which rages ever over and among them. + </p> + <p> + The real development of the people, the forming of finer physiques, finer + minds, a higher level of efficiency, a broader range of enjoyment and + accomplishment—is hindered and not helped by this artificially + maintained "struggle for existence," this constant endeavor to eliminate + what, from a masculine standard, is "unfit." + </p> + <p> + That we have progressed thus far, that we are now moving forward so + rapidly, is in spite of and not because of our androcentric culture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0016" id="link2H_4_0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + XIV. A HUMAN WORLD. + </h2> + <p> + In the change from the dominance of one sex to the equal power of two, to + what may we look forward? What effect upon civilization is to be expected + from the equality of womanhood in the human race? + </p> + <p> + To put the most natural question first—what will men lose by it? + Many men are genuinely concerned about this; fearing some new position of + subservience and disrespect. Others laugh at the very idea of change in + their position, relying as always on the heavier fist. So long as fighting + was the determining process, the best fighter must needs win; but in the + rearrangement of processes which marks our age, superior physical strength + does not make the poorer wealthy, nor even the soldier a general. + </p> + <p> + The major processes of life to-day are quite within the powers of women; + women are fulfilling their new relations more and more successfully; + gathering new strength, new knowledge, new ideals. The change is upon us; + what will it do to men? + </p> + <p> + No harm. + </p> + <p> + As we are a monogamous race, there will be no such drastic and cruel + selection among competing males as would eliminate the vast majority as + unfit. Even though some be considered unfit for fatherhood, all human life + remains open to them. Perhaps the most important feature of this change + comes in right here; along this old line of sex-selection, replacing that + power in the right hands, and using it for the good of the race. + </p> + <p> + The woman, free at last, intelligent, recognizing her real place and + responsibility in life as a human being, will be not less, but more, + efficient as a mother. She will understand that, in the line of physical + evolution, motherhood is the highest process; and that her work, as a + contribution to an improved race, must always involve this great function. + She will see that right parentage is the purpose of the whole scheme of + sex-relationship, and act accordingly. + </p> + <p> + In our time, his human faculties being sufficiently developed, civilized + man can look over and around his sex limitations, and begin to see what + are the true purposes and methods of human life. + </p> + <p> + He is now beginning to learn that his own governing necessity of Desire is + not <i>the</i> governing necessity of parentage, but only a contributory + tendency; and that, in the interests of better parentage, motherhood is + the dominant factor, and must be so considered. + </p> + <p> + In slow reluctant admission of this fact, man heretofore has recognized + one class of women as mothers; and has granted them a varying amount of + consideration as such; but he has none the less insisted on maintaining + another class of women, forbidden motherhood, and merely subservient to + his desires; a barren, mischievous unnatural relation, wholly aside from + parental purposes, and absolutely injurious to society. This whole field + of morbid action will be eliminated from human life by the normal + development of women. + </p> + <p> + It is not a question of interfering with or punishing men; still less of + interfering with or punishing women; but purely a matter of changed + education and opportunity for every child. + </p> + <p> + Each and all shall be taught the real nature and purpose of motherhood; + the real nature and purpose of manhood; what each is for, and which is the + more important. A new sense of the power and pride of womanhood will + waken; a womanhood no longer sunk in helpless dependence upon men; no + longer limited to mere unpaid house-service; no longer blinded by the + false morality which subjects even motherhood to man's dominance; but a + womanhood which will recognize its pre-eminent responsibility to the human + race, and live up to it. Then, with all normal and right competition among + men for the favor of women, those best fitted for fatherhood will be + chosen. Those who are not chosen will live single—perforce. + </p> + <p> + Many, under the old mistaken notion of what used to be called the "social + necessity" of prostitution, will protest at the idea of its extinction. + </p> + <p> + "It is necessary to have it," they will say. + </p> + <p> + "Necessary <i>to whom?</i>" + </p> + <p> + Not to the women hideously sacrificed to it, surely. + </p> + <p> + Not to society, honey-combed with diseases due to this cause. + </p> + <p> + Not to the family, weakened and impoverished by it. + </p> + <p> + To whom then? To the men who want it? + </p> + <p> + But it is not good for them, it promotes all manner of disease, of vice, + of crime. It is absolutely and unquestionably a "social evil." + </p> + <p> + An intelligent and powerful womanhood will put an end to this indulgence + of one sex at the expense of the other; and to the injury of both. + </p> + <p> + In this inevitable change will lie what some men will consider a loss. But + only those of the present generation. For the sons of the women now + entering upon this new era of world life will be differently reared. They + will recognize the true relation of men to the primal process; and be + amazed that for so long the greater values have been lost sight of in + favor of the less. + </p> + <p> + This one change will do more to promote the physical health and beauty of + the race; to improve the quality of children born, and the general vigor + and purity of social life, than any one measure which could be proposed. + It rests upon a recognition of motherhood as the real base and cause of + the family; and dismisses to the limbo of all outworn superstition that + false Hebraic and grossly androcentric doctrine that the woman is to be + subject to the man, and that he shall rule over her. He has tried this + arrangement long enough—to the grievous injury of the world. A + higher standard of happiness will result; equality and mutual respect + between parents; pure love, undefiled by self-interests on either side; + and a new respect for Childhood. + </p> + <p> + With the Child, seen at last to be the governing purpose of this relation, + with all the best energies of men and women bent on raising the standard + of life for all children, we shall have a new status of family life which + will be clean and noble, and satisfying to all its members. + </p> + <p> + The change in all the varied lines of human work is beyond the powers of + any present day prophet to forecast with precision. A new grade of + womanhood we can clearly foresee; proud, strong, serene, independent; + great mothers of great women and great men. These will hold high standards + and draw men up to them; by no compulsion save nature's law of attraction. + A clean and healthful world, enjoying the taste of life as it never has + since racial babyhood, with homes of quiet and content—this we can + foresee. + </p> + <p> + Art—in the extreme sense will perhaps always belong most to men. It + would seem as if that ceaseless urge to expression, was, at least + originally, most congenial to the male. But applied art, in every form, + and art used directly for transmission of ideas, such as literature, or + oratory, appeals to women as much, if not more, than to men. + </p> + <p> + We can make no safe assumption as to what, if any, distinction there will + be in the free human work of men and women, until we have seen generation + after generation grow up under absolutely equal conditions. In all our + games and sports and minor social customs, such changes will occur as must + needs follow upon the rising dignity alloted to the woman's temperament, + the woman's point of view; not in the least denying to men the fullest + exercise of their special powers and preferences; but classifying these + newly, as not human—merely male. At present we have pages or columns + in our papers, marked as "The Woman's Page" "Of Interest to Women," and + similar delimiting titles. Similarly we might have distinctly masculine + matters so marked and specified; not assumed as now to be of general human + interest. + </p> + <p> + The effect of the change upon Ethics and Religion is deep and wide. With + the entrance of women upon full human life, a new principle comes into + prominence; the principle of loving service. That this is the governing + principle of Christianity is believed by many; but an androcentric + interpretation has quite overlooked it; and made, as we have shown, the + essential dogma of their faith the desire of an eternal reward and the + combat with an eternal enemy. + </p> + <p> + The feminine attitude in life is wholly different. As a female she has + merely to be herself and passively attract; neither to compete nor to + pursue; as a mother her whole process is one of growth; first the + development of the live child within her, and the wonderful nourishment + from her own body; and then all the later cultivation to make the child + grow; all the watching, teaching, guarding, feeding. In none of this is + there either desire, combat, or self-expression. The feminine attitude, as + expressed in religion, makes of it a patient practical fulfillment of law; + a process of large sure improvements; a limitless comforting love and + care. + </p> + <p> + This full assurance of love and of power; this endless cheerful service; + the broad provision for all people; rather than the competitive selection + of a few "victors;" is the natural presentation of religious truth from + the woman's viewpoint. Her governing principle being growth and not + combat; her main tendency being to give and not to get; she more easily + and naturally lives and teaches these religious principles. It is for this + reason that the broader gentler teaching of the Unitarian and Universalist + sects have appealed so especially to women, and that so many women preach + in their churches. + </p> + <p> + This principle of growth, as applied and used in general human life will + work to far other ends than those now so painfully visible. + </p> + <p> + In education, for instance, with neither reward nor punishment as spur or + bait; with no competition to rouse effort and animosity, but rather with + the feeling of a gardener towards his plants; the teacher will teach and + the children learn, in mutual ease and happiness. The law of passive + attraction applies here, leading to such ingenuity in presentation as + shall arouse the child's interest; and, in the true spirit of promoting + growth, each child will have his best and fullest training, without regard + to who is "ahead" of him, or her, or who "behind." + </p> + <p> + We do not sadly measure the cabbage-stalk by the corn-stalk, and praise + the corn for getting ahead of the cabbage—nor incite the cabbage to + emulate the corn. We nourish both, to its best growth—and are the + richer. + </p> + <p> + That every child on earth shall have right conditions to make the best + growth possible to it; that every citizen, from birth to death, shall have + a chance to learn all he or she can assimilate, to develop every power + that is in them—for the common good—this will be the aim of + education, under human management. + </p> + <p> + In the world of "society" we may look for very radical changes. + </p> + <p> + With all women full human beings, trained and useful in some form of work; + the class of busy idlers, who run about forever "entertaining" and being + "entertained" will disappear as utterly as will the prostitute. No woman + with real work to do could have the time for such petty amusements; or + enjoy them if she did have time. No woman with real work to do, work she + loved and was well fitted for, work honored and well-paid, would take up + the Unnatural Trade. Genuine relaxation and recreation, all manner of + healthful sports and pastimes, beloved of both sexes to-day, will remain, + of course; but the set structure of "social functions"—so laughably + misnamed—will disappear with the "society women" who make it + possible. Once active members of real Society; no woman could go back to + "society," any more than a roughrider could return to a hobbyhorse. + </p> + <p> + New development in dress, wise, comfortable, beautiful, may be confidently + expected, as woman becomes more human. No fully human creature could hold + up its head under the absurdities our women wear to-day—and have + worn for dreary centuries. + </p> + <p> + So on through all the aspects of life we may look for changes, rapid and + far-reaching; but natural and all for good. The improvement is not due to + any inherent moral superiority of women; nor to any moral inferiority of + men; men at present, as more human, are ahead of women in all distinctly + human ways; yet their maleness, as we have shown repeatedly, warps and + disfigures their humanness. The woman, being by nature the race-type; and + her feminine functions being far more akin to human functions than are + those essential to the male; will bring into human life a more normal + influence. + </p> + <p> + Under this more normal influence our present perversities of functions + will, of course, tend to disappear. The directly serviceable tendency of + women, as shown in every step of their public work, will have small + patience with hoary traditions of absurdity. We need but look at long + recorded facts to see what women do—or try to do, when they have + opportunity. Even in their crippled, smothered past, they have made + valiant efforts—not always wise—in charity and philanthropy. + </p> + <p> + In our own time this is shown through all the length and breadth of our + country, by the Woman's Clubs. Little groups of women, drawing together in + human relation, at first, perhaps, with no better purpose than to "improve + their minds," have grown and spread; combined and federated; and in their + great reports, representing hundreds of thousands of women—we find a + splendid record of human work. They strive always to improve something, to + take care of something, to help and serve and benefit. In "village + improvement," in traveling libraries, in lecture courses and exhibitions, + in promoting good legislation; in many a line of noble effort our Women's + Clubs show what women want to do. + </p> + <p> + Men do not have to do these things through their clubs, which are mainly + for pleasure; they can accomplish what they wish to through regular + channels. But the character and direction of the influence of women in + human affairs is conclusively established by the things they already do + and try to do. In those countries, and in our own states, where they are + already full citizens, the legislation introduced and promoted by them is + of the same beneficent character. The normal woman is a strong creature, + loving and serviceable. The kind of woman men are afraid to entrust with + political power, selfish, idle, over-sexed, or ignorant and narrow-minded, + is not normal, but is the creature of conditions men have made. We need + have no fear of her, for she will disappear with the conditions which + created her. + </p> + <p> + In older days, without knowledge of the natural sciences, we accepted life + as static. If, being born in China, we grew up with foot-bound women, we + assumed that women were such, and must so remain. Born in India, we + accepted the child-wife, the pitiful child-widow, the ecstatic <i>suttee</i>, + as natural expressions of womanhood. In each age, each country, we have + assumed life to be necessarily what it was—a moveless fact. + </p> + <p> + All this is giving way fast in our new knowledge of the laws of life. We + find that Growth is the eternal law, and that even rocks are slowly + changing. Human life is seen to be as dynamic as any other form; and the + most certain thing about it is that it will change. In the light of this + knowledge we need no longer accept the load of what we call "sin;" the + grouped misery of poverty, disease and crime; the cumbrous, inefficacious, + wasteful processes of life today, as needful or permanent. + </p> + <p> + We have but to learn the <i>real</i> elements in humanity; its true powers + and natural characteristics; to see wherein we are hampered by the wrong + ideas and inherited habits of earlier generations, and break loose from + them—then we can safely and swiftly introduce a far nobler grade of + living. + </p> + <p> + Of all crippling hindrances in false ideas, we have none more universally + mischievous than this root error about men and women. Given the old + androcentric theory, and we have an androcentric culture—the kind we + so far know; this short stretch we call "history;" with its proud and + pitiful record. We have done wonders of upward growth—for growth is + the main law, and may not be wholly resisted. But we have hindered, + perverted, temporarily checked that growth, age after age; and again and + again has a given nation, far advanced and promising, sunk to ruin, and + left another to take up its task of social evolution; repeat its errors—and + its failure. + </p> + <p> + One major cause of the decay of nations is "the social evil"—a thing + wholly due to the androcentric culture. Another steady endless check is + warfare—due to the same cause. Largest of all is poverty; that + spreading disease which grows with our social growth and shows most + horribly when and where we are most proud, keeping step, as it were, with + private wealth. This too, in large measure, is due to the false ideas on + industry and economics, based, like the others mentioned, on a wholly + masculine view of life. + </p> + <p> + By changing our underlying theory in this matter we change all the + resultant assumptions; and it is this alteration in our basic theory of + life which is being urged. + </p> + <p> + The scope and purpose of human life is entirely above and beyond the field + of sex relationship. Women are human beings, as much as men, by nature; + and as women, are even more sympathetic with human processes. To develop + human life in its true powers we need full equal citizenship for women. + </p> + <p> + The great woman's movement and labor movement of to-day are parts of the + same pressure, the same world-progress. An economic democracy must rest on + a free womanhood; and a free womanhood inevitably leads to an economic + democracy. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man +Made World, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 3015-h.htm or 3015-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/1/3015/ + +Produced by Christopher Hapka, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man Made World + +Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman + +Posting Date: January 15, 2009 [EBook #3015] +Release Date: January, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE *** + + + + +Produced by Christopher Hapka + + + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE, + +OR THE MAN MADE WORLD + + +By Charlotte Perkins Gilman + + + +CONTENTS + + I. AS TO HUMANNESS. + II. THE MAN-MADE FAMILY. + III. HEALTH AND BEAUTY. + IV. MEN AND ART. + V. MASCULINE LITERATURE. + VI. GAMES AND SPORTS + VII. ETHICS AND RELIGION. + VIII. EDUCATION. + IX. "SOCIETY" AND "FASHION" + X. LAW AND GOVERNMENT. + XI. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. + XII. POLITICS AND WARFARE. (with WOMAN AND THE STATE.) + XIII. INDUSTRY AND ECONOMICS. + XIV. A HUMAN WORLD. + + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE, or THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + + + +I. AS TO HUMANNESS. + + +Let us begin, inoffensively, with sheep. The sheep is a beast with which +we are all familiar, being much used in religious imagery; the common +stock of painters; a staple article of diet; one of our main sources of +clothing; and an everyday symbol of bashfulness and stupidity. + +In some grazing regions the sheep is an object of terror, destroying +grass, bush and forest by omnipresent nibbling; on the great plains, +sheep-keeping frequently results in insanity, owing to the loneliness of +the shepherd, and the monotonous appearance and behavior of the sheep. + +By the poet, young sheep are preferred, the lamb gambolling gaily; +unless it be in hymns, where "all we like sheep" are repeatedly +described, and much stress is laid upon the straying propensities of the +animal. + +To the scientific mind there is special interest in the sequacity of +sheep, their habit of following one another with automatic imitation. +This instinct, we are told, has been developed by ages of wild crowded +racing on narrow ledges, along precipices, chasms, around sudden spurs +and corners, only the leader seeing when, where and how to jump. If +those behind jumped exactly as he did, they lived. If they stopped to +exercise independent judgment, they were pushed off and perished; they +and their judgment with them. + +All these things, and many that are similar, occur to us when we think +of sheep. They are also ewes and rams. Yes, truly; but what of it? All +that has been said was said of sheep, _genus ovis,_ that bland beast, +compound of mutton, wool, and foolishness so widely known. If we think +of the sheep-dog (and dog-ess), the shepherd (and shepherd-ess), of the +ferocious sheep-eating bird of New Zealand, the Kea (and Kea-ess), +all these herd, guard, or kill the sheep, both rams and ewes alike. In +regard to mutton, to wool, to general character, we think only of their +sheepishness, not at all of their ramishness or eweishness. That which +is ovine or bovine, canine, feline or equine, is easily recognized as +distinguishing that particular species of animal, and has no relation +whatever to the sex thereof. + +Returning to our muttons, let us consider the ram, and wherein his +character differs from the sheep. We find he has a more quarrelsome +disposition. He paws the earth and makes a noise. He has a tendency to +butt. So has a goat--Mr. Goat. So has Mr. Buffalo, and Mr. Moose, and +Mr. Antelope. This tendency to plunge head foremost at an adversary--and +to find any other gentleman an adversary on sight--evidently does not +pertain to sheep, to _genus ovis;_ but to any male creature with horns. + +As "function comes before organ," we may even give a reminiscent +glance down the long path of evolution, and see how the mere act of +butting--passionately and perpetually repeated--born of the belligerent +spirit of the male--produced horns! + +The ewe, on the other hand, exhibits love and care for her little ones, +gives them milk and tries to guard them. But so does a goat--Mrs. Goat. +So does Mrs. Buffalo and the rest. Evidently this mother instinct is no +peculiarity of _genus ovis,_ but of any female creature. + +Even the bird, though not a mammal, shows the same mother-love and +mother-care, while the father bird, though not a butter, fights with +beak and wing and spur. His competition is more effective through +display. The wish to please, the need to please, the overmastering +necessity upon him that he secure the favor of the female, has made the +male bird blossom like a butterfly. He blazes in gorgeous plumage, rears +haughty crests and combs, shows drooping wattles and dangling blobs such +as the turkey-cock affords; long splendid feathers for pure ornament +appear upon him; what in her is a mere tail-effect becomes in him a mass +of glittering drapery. + +Partridge-cock, farmyard-cock, peacock, from sparrow to ostrich, observe +his mien! To strut and languish; to exhibit every beauteous lure; +to sacrifice ease, comfort, speed, everything--to beauty--for +her sake--this is the nature of the he-bird of any species; the +characteristic, not of the turkey, but of the cock! With drumming of +loud wings, with crow and quack and bursts of glorious song, he woos +his mate; displays his splendors before her; fights fiercely with his +rivals. To butt--to strut--to make a noise--all for love's sake; these +acts are common to the male. + +We may now generalize and clearly state: That is masculine which belongs +to the male--to any or all males, irrespective of species. That +is feminine which belongs to the female, to any or all females, +irrespective of species. That is ovine, bovine, feline, canine, equine +or asinine which belongs to that species, irrespective of sex. + +In our own species all this is changed. We have been so taken up with +the phenomena of masculinity and femininity, that our common humanity +has largely escaped notice. We know we are human, naturally, and are +very proud of it; but we do not consider in what our humanness consists; +nor how men and women may fall short of it, or overstep its bounds, in +continual insistence upon their special differences. It is "manly" to do +this; it is "womanly" to do that; but what a human being should do under +the circumstances is not thought of. + +The only time when we do recognize what we call "common humanity" is in +extreme cases, matters of life and death; when either man or woman is +expected to behave as if they were also human creatures. Since the range +of feeling and action proper to humanity, as such, is far wider than +that proper to either sex, it seems at first somewhat remarkable that we +have given it so little recognition. + +A little classification will help us here. We have certain qualities in +common with inanimate matter, such as weight, opacity, resilience. It is +clear that these are not human. We have other qualities in common with +all forms of life; cellular construction, for instance, the reproduction +of cells and the need of nutrition. These again are not human. We +have others, many others, common to the higher mammals; which are not +exclusively ours--are not distinctively "human." What then are true +human characteristics? In what way is the human species distinguished +from all other species? + +Our human-ness is seen most clearly in three main lines: it is +mechanical, psychical and social. Our power to make and use things is +essentially human; we alone have extra-physical tools. We have added to +our teeth the knife, sword, scissors, mowing machine; to our claws the +spade, harrow, plough, drill, dredge. We are a protean creature, using +the larger brain power through a wide variety of changing weapons. This +is one of our main and vital distinctions. Ancient animal races are +traced and known by mere bones and shells, ancient human races by their +buildings, tools and utensils. + +That degree of development which gives us the human mind is a clear +distinction of race. The savage who can count a hundred is more human +than the savage who can count ten. + +More prominent than either of these is the social nature of humanity. We +are by no means the only group-animal; that ancient type of industry the +ant, and even the well-worn bee, are social creatures. But insects of +their kind are found living alone. Human beings never. Our human-ness +begins with some low form of social relation and increases as that +relation develops. + +Human life of any sort is dependent upon what Kropotkin calls "mutual +aid," and human progress keeps step absolutely with that interchange of +specialized services which makes society organic. The nomad, living on +cattle as ants live on theirs, is less human than the farmer, raising +food by intelligently applied labor; and the extension of trade and +commerce, from mere village market-places to the world-exchanges of +to-day, is extension of human-ness as well. + +Humanity, thus considered, is not a thing made at once and unchangeable, +but a stage of development; and is still, as Wells describes it, "in +the making." Our human-ness is seen to lie not so much in what we +are individually, as in our relations to one another; and even that +individuality is but the result of our relations to one another. It +is in what we do and how we do it, rather than in what we are. Some, +philosophically inclined, exalt "being" over "doing." To them this +question may be put: "Can you mention any form of life that merely 'is,' +without doing anything?" + +Taken separately and physically, we are animals, _genus homo_; taken +socially and psychically, we are, in varying degree, human; and our real +history lies in the development of this human-ness. + +Our historic period is not very long. Real written history only goes +back a few thousand years, beginning with the stone records of ancient +Egypt. During this period we have had almost universally what is here +called an Androcentric Culture. The history, such as it was, was made +and written by men. + +The mental, the mechanical, the social development, was almost wholly +theirs. We have, so far, lived and suffered and died in a man-made +world. So general, so unbroken, has been this condition, that to mention +it arouses no more remark than the statement of a natural law. We have +taken it for granted, since the dawn of civilization, that "mankind" +meant men-kind, and the world was theirs. + +Women we have sharply delimited. Women were a sex, "the sex," according +to chivalrous toasts; they were set apart for special services peculiar +to femininity. As one English scientist put it, in 1888, "Women are not +only not the race--they are not even half the race, but a subspecies +told off for reproduction only." + +This mental attitude toward women is even more clearly expressed by +Mr. H. B. Marriot-Watson in his article on "The American Woman" in the +"Nineteenth Century" for June, 1904, where he says: "Her constitutional +restlessness has caused her to abdicate those functions which alone +excuse or explain her existence." This is a peculiarly happy and +condensed expression of the relative position of women during our +androcentric culture. The man was accepted as the race type without one +dissentient voice; and the woman--a strange, diverse creature, quite +disharmonious in the accepted scheme of things--was excused and +explained only as a female. + +She has needed volumes of such excuse and explanation; also, apparently, +volumes of abuse and condemnation. In any library catalogue we may find +books upon books about women: physiological, sentimental, didactic, +religious--all manner of books about women, as such. Even to-day in the +works of Marholm--poor young Weininger, Moebius, and others, we find the +same perpetual discussion of women--as such. + +This is a book about men--as such. It differentiates between the human +nature and the sex nature. It will not go so far as to allege man's +masculine traits to be all that excuse, or explain his existence: but +it will point out what are masculine traits as distinct from human +ones, and what has been the effect on our human life of the unbridled +dominance of one sex. + +We can see at once, glaringly, what would have been the result of +giving all human affairs into female hands. Such an extraordinary and +deplorable situation would have "feminized" the world. We should have +all become "effeminate." + +See how in our use of language the case is clearly shown. The adjectives +and derivatives based on woman's distinctions are alien and derogatory +when applied to human affairs; "effeminate"--too female, connotes +contempt, but has no masculine analogue; whereas "emasculate"--not +enough male, is a term of reproach, and has no feminine analogue. +"Virile"--manly, we oppose to "puerile"--childish, and the very word +"virtue" is derived from "vir"--a man. + +Even in the naming of other animals we have taken the male as the race +type, and put on a special termination to indicate "his female," as in +lion, lioness; leopard, leopardess; while all our human scheme of things +rests on the same tacit assumption; man being held the human type; woman +a sort of accompaniment and subordinate assistant, merely essential to +the making of people. + +She has held always the place of a preposition in relation to man. She +has been considered above him or below him, before him, behind him, +beside him, a wholly relative existence--"Sydney's sister," "Pembroke's +mother"--but never by any chance Sydney or Pembroke herself. + +Acting on this assumption, all human standards have been based on male +characteristics, and when we wish to praise the work of a woman, we say +she has "a masculine mind." + +It is no easy matter to deny or reverse a universal assumption. The +human mind has had a good many jolts since it began to think, but after +each upheaval it settles down as peacefully as the vine-growers on +Vesuvius, accepting the last lava crust as permanent ground. + +What we see immediately around us, what we are born into and grow up +with, be it mental furniture or physical, we assume to be the order of +nature. + +If a given idea has been held in the human mind for many generations, as +almost all our common ideas have, it takes sincere and continued effort +to remove it; and if it is one of the oldest we have in stock, one of +the big, common, unquestioned world ideas, vast is the labor of those +who seek to change it. + +Nevertheless, if the matter is one of importance, if the previous idea +was a palpable error, of large and evil effect, and if the new one is +true and widely important, the effort is worth making. + +The task here undertaken is of this sort. It seeks to show that what we +have all this time called "human nature" and deprecated, was in great +part only male nature, and good enough in its place; that what we have +called "masculine" and admired as such, was in large part human, and +should be applied to both sexes: that what we have called "feminine" +and condemned, was also largely human and applicable to both. Our +androcentric culture is so shown to have been, and still to be, a +masculine culture in excess, and therefore undesirable. + +In the preliminary work of approaching these facts it will be well to +explain how it can be that so wide and serious an error should have been +made by practically all men. The reason is simply that they were men. +They were males, avid saw women as females--and not otherwise. + +So absolute is this conviction that the man who reads will say, "Of +course! How else are we to look at women except as females? They are +females, aren't they?" Yes, they are, as men are males unquestionably; +but there is possible the frame of mind of the old marquise who was +asked by an English friend how she could bear to have the footman serve +her breakfast in bed--to have a man in her bed-chamber--and replied +sincerely, "Call you that thing there a man?" + +The world is full of men, but their principal occupation is human +work of some sort; and women see in them the human distinction +preponderantly. Occasionally some unhappy lady marries her +coachman--long contemplation of broad shoulders having an effect, +apparently; but in general women see the human creature most; the male +creature only when they love. + +To the man, the whole world was his world; his because he was male; and +the whole world of woman was the home; because she was female. She had +her prescribed sphere, strictly limited to her feminine occupations and +interests; he had all the rest of life; and not only so, but, having it, +insisted on calling it male. + +This accounts for the general attitude of men toward the now rapid +humanization of women. From her first faint struggles toward freedom +and justice, to her present valiant efforts toward full economic and +political equality, each step has been termed "unfeminine" and resented +as an intrusion upon man's place and power. Here shows the need of our +new classification, of the three distinct fields of life--masculine, +feminine and human. + +As a matter of fact, there is a "woman's sphere," sharply defined and +quite different from his; there is also a "man's sphere," as sharply +defined and even more limited; but there remains a common sphere--that +of humanity, which belongs to both alike. + +In the earlier part of what is known as "the woman's movement," it was +sharply opposed on the ground that women would become "unsexed." Let us +note in passing that they have become unsexed in one particular, most +glaringly so, and that no one has noticed or objected to it. + +As part of our androcentric culture we may point to the peculiar +reversal of sex characteristics which make the human female carry the +burden of ornament. She alone, of all human creatures, has adopted the +essentially masculine attribute of special sex-decoration; she does not +fight for her mate as yet, but she blooms forth as the peacock and +bird of paradise, in poignant reversal of nature's laws, even wearing +masculine feathers to further her feminine ends. + +Woman's natural work as a female is that of the mother; man's natural +work as a male is that of the father; their mutual relation to this end +being a source of joy and well-being when rightly held: but human work +covers all our life outside of these specialties. Every handicraft, +every profession, every science, every art, all normal amusements and +recreations, all government, education, religion; the whole living world +of human achievement: all this is human. + +That one sex should have monopolized all human activities, called them +"man's work," and managed them as such, is what is meant by the phrase +"Androcentric Culture." + + + + +II. THE MAN-MADE FAMILY. + + +The family is older than humanity, and therefore cannot be called +a human institution. A post office, now, is wholly human; no other +creature has a post office, but there are families in plenty among birds +and beasts; all kinds permanent and transient; monogamous, polygamous +and polyandrous. + +We are now to consider the growth of the family in humanity; what is +its rational development in humanness; in mechanical, mental and social +lines; in the extension of love and service; and the effect upon it of +this strange new arrangement--a masculine proprietor. + +Like all natural institutions the family has a purpose; and is to be +measured primarily as it serves that purpose; which is, the care and +nurture of the young. To protect the helpless little ones, to feed and +shelter them, to ensure them the benefits of an ever longer period of +immaturity, and so to improve the race--this is the original purpose of +the family. + +When a natural institution becomes human it enters the plane of +consciousness. We think about it; and, in our strange new power of +voluntary action do things to it. We have done strange things to the +family; or, more specifically, men have. + +Balsac, at his bitterest, observed, "Women's virtue is man's best +invention." Balsac was wrong. Virtue--the unswerving devotion to one +mate--is common among birds and some of the higher mammals. If +Balsac meant celibacy when he said virtue, why that is one of man's +inventions--though hardly his best. + +What man has done to the family, speaking broadly, is to change it from +an institution for the best service of the child to one modified to his +own service, the vehicle of his comfort, power and pride. + +Among the heavy millions of the stirred East, a child--necessarily a +male child--is desired for the credit and glory of the father, and his +fathers; in place of seeing that all a parent is for is the best service +of the child. Ancestor worship, that gross reversal of all natural law, +is of wholly androcentric origin. It is strongest among old patriarchal +races; lingers on in feudal Europe; is to be traced even in America +today in a few sporadic efforts to magnify the deeds of our ancestors. + +The best thing any of us can do for our ancestors is to be better than +they were; and we ought to give our minds to it. When we use our past +merely as a guide-book, and concentrate our noble emotions on the +present and future, we shall improve more rapidly. + +The peculiar changes brought about in family life by the predominance +of the male are easily traced. In these studies we must keep clearly +in mind the basic masculine characteristics: desire, combat, +self-expression--all legitimate and right in proper use; only +mischievous when excessive or out of place. Through them the male is led +to strenuous competition for the favor of the female; in the overflowing +ardours of song, as in nightingale and tomcat; in wasteful splendor +of personal decoration, from the pheasant's breast to an embroidered +waistcoat; and in direct struggle for the prize, from the stag's locked +horns to the clashing spears of the tournament. + +It is earnestly hoped that no reader will take offence at the +necessarily frequent, reference to these essential features of maleness. +In the many books about women it is, naturally, their femaleness that +has been studied and enlarged upon. And though women, after thousands +of years of such discussion, have become a little restive under the +constant use of the word female: men, as rational beings, should +not object to an analogous study--at least not for some time--a few +centuries or so. + +How, then, do we find these masculine tendencies, desire, combat and +self-expression, affect the home and family when given too much power? + +First comes the effect in the preliminary work of selection. One of the +most uplifting forces of nature is that of sex selection. The males, +numerous, varied, pouring a flood of energy into wide modifications, +compete for the female, and she selects the victor, this securing to the +race the new improvements. + +In forming the proprietary family there is no such competition, no such +selection. The man, by violence or by purchase, does the choosing--he +selects the kind of woman that pleases him. Nature did not intend him +to select; he is not good at it. Neither was the female intended to +compete--she is not good at it. + +If there is a race between males for a mate--the swiftest gets her +first; but if one male is chasing a number of females he gets the +slowest first. The one method improves our speed: the other does not. +If males struggle and fight with one another for a mate, the strongest +secures her; if the male struggles and fights with the female--(a +peculiar and unnatural horror, known only among human beings) he most +readily secures the weakest. The one method improves our strength--the +other does not. + +When women became the property of men; sold and bartered; "given +away" by their paternal owner to their marital owner; they lost this +prerogative of the female, this primal duty of selection. The males were +no longer improved by their natural competition for the female; and the +females were not improved; because the male did not select for points of +racial superiority, but for such qualities as pleased him. + +There is a locality in northern Africa, where young girls are +deliberately fed with a certain oily seed, to make them fat,--that +they may be the more readily married,--as the men like fat wives. Among +certain more savage African tribes the chief's wives are prepared for +him by being kept in small dark huts and fed on "mealies" and molasses; +precisely as a Strasbourg goose is fattened for the gourmand. Now +fatness is not a desirable race characteristic; it does not add to the +woman's happiness or efficiency; or to the child's; it is merely an +accessory pleasant to the master; his attitude being much as the amorous +monad ecstatically puts it, in Sill's quaint poem, "Five Lives," + + + "O the little female monad's lips! + O the little female monad's eyes! + O the little, little, female, female monad!" + + +This ultra littleness and ultra femaleness has been demanded and +produced by our Androcentric Culture. + +Following this, and part of it, comes the effect on motherhood. This +function was the original and legitimate base of family life; and +its ample sustaining power throughout the long early period of "the +mother-right;" or as we call it, the matriarchate; the father being +her assistant in the great work. The patriarchate, with its proprietary +family, changed this altogether; the woman, as the property of the man +was considered first and foremost as a means of pleasure to him; and +while she was still valued as a mother, it was in a tributary capacity. +Her children were now his; his property, as she was; the whole enginery +of the family was turned from its true use to this new one, hitherto +unknown, the service of the adult male. + +To this day we are living under the influence of the proprietary +family. The duty of the wife is held to involve man-service as well +as child-service, and indeed far more; as the duty of the wife to the +husband quite transcends the duty of the mother to the child. + +See for instance the English wife staying with her husband in India and +sending the children home to be brought up; because India is bad +for children. See our common law that the man decides the place of +residence; if the wife refuses to go with him to howsoever unfit a place +for her and for the little ones, such refusal on her part constitutes +"desertion" and is ground for divorce. + +See again the idea that the wife must remain with the husband though a +drunkard, or diseased; regardless of the sin against the child involved +in such a relation. Public feeling on these matters is indeed changing; +but as a whole the ideals of the man-made family still obtain. + +The effect of this on the woman has been inevitably to weaken and +overshadow her sense of the real purpose of the family; of the +relentless responsibilities of her duty as a mother. She is first taught +duty to her parents, with heavy religious sanction; and then duty to +her husband, similarly buttressed; but her duty to her children has been +left to instinct. She is not taught in girlhood as to her preeminent +power and duty as a mother; her young ideals are all of devotion to the +lover and husband: with only the vaguest sense of results. + +The young girl is reared in what we call "innocence;" poetically +described as "bloom;" and this condition is held one of her chief +"charms." The requisite is wholly androcentric. This "innocence" does +not enable her to choose a husband wisely; she does not even know the +dangers that possibly confront her. We vaguely imagine that her father +or brother, who do know, will protect her. Unfortunately the father and +brother, under our current "double standard" of morality do not judge +the applicants as she would if she knew the nature of their offenses. + +Furthermore, if her heart is set on one of them, no amount of general +advice and opposition serves to prevent her marrying him. "I love him!" +she says, sublimely. "I do not care what he has done. I will forgive +him. I will save him!" + +This state of mind serves to forward the interests of the lover, but +is of no advantage to the children. We have magnified the duties of the +wife, and minified the duties of the mother; and this is inevitable in +a family relation every law and custom of which is arranged from the +masculine viewpoint. + +From this same viewpoint, equally essential to the proprietary family, +comes the requirement that the woman shall serve the man. Her service +is not that of the associate and equal, as when she joins him in his +business. It is not that of a beneficial combination, as when she +practices another business and they share the profits; it is not even +that of the specialist, as the service of a tailor or barber; it is +personal service--the work of a servant. + +In large generalization, the women of the world cook and wash, sweep and +dust, sew and mend, for the men. + +We are so accustomed to this relation; have held it for so long to be +the "natural" relation, that it is difficult indeed to show that it is +distinctly unnatural and injurious. The father expects to be served by +the daughter, a service quite different from what he expects of the son. +This shows at once that such service is no integral part of motherhood, +or even of marriage; but is supposed to be the proper industrial +position of women, as such. + +Why is this so? Why, on the face of it, given a daughter and a son, +should a form of service be expected of the one, which would be +considered ignominious by the other? + +The underlying reason is this. Industry, at its base, is a feminine +function. The surplus energy of the mother does not manifest itself in +noise, or combat, or display, but in productive industry. Because of her +mother-power she became the first inventor and laborer; being in truth +the mother of all industry as well as all people. + +Man's entrance upon industry is late and reluctant; as will be shown +later in treating his effect on economics. In this field of family life, +his effect was as follows: + +Establishing the proprietary family at an age when the industry was +primitive and domestic; and thereafter confining the woman solely to +the domestic area, he thereby confined her to primitive industry. The +domestic industries, in the hands of women, constitute a survival of +our remotest past. Such work was "woman's work" as was all the work then +known; such work is still considered woman's work because they have been +prevented from doing any other. + +The term "domestic industry" does not define a certain kind of labor, +but a certain grade of labor. Architecture was a domestic industry +once--when every savage mother set up her own tepee. To be confined +to domestic industry is no proper distinction of womanhood; it is an +historic distinction, an economic distinction, it sets a date and limit +to woman's industrial progress. + +In this respect the man-made family has resulted in arresting +the development of half the field. We have a world wherein men, +industrially, live in the twentieth century; and women, industrially, +live in the first--and back of it. + +To the same source we trace the social and educational limitations +set about women. The dominant male, holding his women as property, +and fiercely jealous of them, considering them always as _his,_ not +belonging to themselves, their children, or the world; has hedged them +in with restrictions of a thousand sorts; physical, as in the crippled +Chinese lady or the imprisoned odalisque; moral, as in the oppressive +doctrines of submission taught by all our androcentric religions; +mental, as in the enforced ignorance from which women are now so swiftly +emerging. + +This abnormal restriction of women has necessarily injured motherhood. +The man, free, growing in the world's growth, has mounted with the +centuries, filling an ever wider range of world activities. The +woman, bound, has not so grown; and the child is born to a progressive +fatherhood and a stationary motherhood. Thus the man-made family reacts +unfavorably upon the child. We rob our children of half their social +heredity by keeping the mother in an inferior position; however +legalized, hallowed, or ossified by time, the position of a domestic +servant is inferior. + +It is for this reason that child culture is at so low a level, and for +the most part utterly unknown. Today, when the forces of education are +steadily working nearer to the cradle, a new sense is wakening of the +importance of the period of infancy, and its wiser treatment; yet those +who know of such a movement are few, and of them some are content to +earn easy praise--and pay--by belittling right progress to gratify the +prejudices of the ignorant. + +The whole position is simple and clear; and easily traceable to +its root. Given a proprietary family, where the man holds the woman +primarily for his satisfaction and service--then necessarily he shuts +her up and keeps her for these purposes. Being so kept, she cannot +develop humanly, as he has, through social contact, social service, true +social life. (We may note in passing, her passionate fondness for the +child-game called "society" she has been allowed to entertain herself +withal; that poor simiacrum of real social life, in which people +decorate themselves and madly crowd together, chattering, for what is +called "entertainment.") Thus checked in social development, we have but +a low grade motherhood to offer our children; and the children, reared +in the primitive conditions thus artificially maintained, enter life +with a false perspective, not only toward men and women, but toward life +as a whole. + +The child should receive in the family, full preparation for his +relation to the world at large. His whole life must be spent in the +world, serving it well or ill; and youth is the time to learn how. +But the androcentric home cannot teach him. We live to-day in a +democracy-the man-made family is a despotism. It may be a weak one; the +despot may be dethroned and overmastered by his little harem of one; but +in that case she becomes the despot--that is all. The male is esteemed +"the head of the family;" it belongs to him; he maintains it; and the +rest of the world is a wide hunting ground and battlefield wherein he +competes with other males as of old. + +The girl-child, peering out, sees this forbidden field as belonging +wholly to men-kind; and her relation to it is to secure one for +herself--not only that she may love, but that she may live. He will +feed, clothe and adorn her--she will serve him; from the subjection of +the daughter to that of the wife she steps; from one home to the other, +and never enters the world at all--man's world. + +The boy, on the other hand, considers the home as a place of women, an +inferior place, and longs to grow up and leave it--for the real world. +He is quite right. The error is that this great social instinct, calling +for full social exercise, exchange, service, is considered masculine, +whereas it is human, and belongs to boy and girl alike. + +The child is affected first through the retarded development of his +mother, then through the arrested condition of home industry; +and further through the wrong ideals which have arisen from these +conditions. A normal home, where there was human equality between mother +and father, would have a better influence. + +We must not overlook the effect of the proprietary family on the +proprietor himself. He, too, has been held back somewhat by this +reactionary force. In the process of becoming human we must learn to +recognize justice, freedom, human rights; we must learn self-control and +to think of others; have minds that grow and broaden rationally; we +must learn the broad mutual interservice and unbounded joy of social +intercourse and service. The petty despot of the man-made home is +hindered in his humanness by too much manness. + +For each man to have one whole woman to cook for and wait upon him is +a poor education for democracy. The boy with a servile mother, the man +with a servile wife, cannot reach the sense of equal rights we need +to-day. Too constant consideration of the master's tastes makes the +master selfish; and the assault upon his heart direct, or through that +proverbial side-avenue, the stomach, which the dependent woman needs +must make when she wants anything, is bad for the man, as well as for +her. + +We are slowly forming a nobler type of family; the union of two, based +on love and recognized by law, maintained because of its happiness and +use. We are even now approaching a tenderness and permanence of +love, high pure enduring love; combined with the broad deep-rooted +friendliness and comradeship of equals; which promises us more happiness +in marriage than we have yet known. It will be good for all the parties +concerned--man, woman and child: and promote our general social progress +admirably. + +If it needs "a head" it will elect a chairman pro tem. Friendship does +not need "a head." Love does not need "a head." Why should a family? + + + + +III. HEALTH AND BEAUTY. + + + NOTE--The word "Androcentric" we owe to Prof. Lester F. + Ward. In his book, "Pure Sociology," Chap. 14, he describes + the Androcentric Theory of life, hitherto universally + accepted; and introduces his own "Gyneacocentric Theory." + All who are interested in the deeper scientific aspects of + this question are urged to read that chapter. Prof. Ward's + theory is to my mind the most important that has been + offered the world since the Theory of Evolution; and without + exception the most important that has ever been put forward + concerning women. + + +Among the many paradoxes which we find in human life is our low average +standard of health and beauty, compared with our power and knowledge. +All creatures suffer from conflict with the elements; from enemies +without and within--the prowling devourers of the forest, and "the +terror that walketh in darkness" and attacks the body from inside, in +hidden millions. + +Among wild animals generally, there is a certain standard of excellence; +if you shoot a bear or a bird, it is a fair sample of the species; you +do not say, "O what an ugly one!" or "This must have been an invalid!" + +Where we have domesticated any animal, and interfered with its natural +habits, illness has followed; the dog is said to have the most diseases +second to man; the horse comes next; but the wild ones put us to +shame by their superior health and the beauty that belongs to right +development. + +In our long ages of blind infancy we assume that sickness was a +visitation frown the gods; some still believe this, holding it to be a +special prerogative of divinity to afflict us in this way. We speak of +"the ills that flesh is heir to" as if the inheritance was entailed and +inalienable. Only of late years, after much study and long struggle with +this old belief which made us submit to sickness as a blow from the hand +of God, we are beginning to learn something of the many causes of our +many diseases, and how to remove some of them. + +It is still true, however, that almost every one of us is to some degree +abnormal; the features asymmetrical, the vision defective, the digestion +unreliable, the nervous system erratic--we are but a job lot even in +what we call "good health"; and are subject to a burden of pain +and premature death that would make life hideous if it were not so +ridiculously unnecessary. + +As to beauty--we do not think of expecting it save in the rarely +exceptional case. Look at the faces--the figures--in any crowd you meet; +compare the average man or the average woman with the normal type of +human beauty as given us in picture and statue; and consider if there is +not some general cause for so general a condition of ugliness. + +Moreover, leaving our defective bodies concealed by garments; what are +those garments, as conducive to health and beauty? Is the practical +ugliness of our men's attire, and the impractical absurdity of our +women's, any contribution to human beauty? Look at our houses--are they +beautiful? Even the houses of the rich? + +We do not even know that we ought to live in a world of overflowing +loveliness; and that our contribution to it should be the loveliest of +all. We are so sodden in the dull ugliness of our interiors, so used +to calling a tame weary low-toned color scheme "good taste," that only +children dare frankly yearn for Beauty--and they are speedily educated +out of it. + +The reasons specially given for our low standards of health and beauty +are ignorance, poverty, and the evil effects of special trades. The Man +with the Hoe becomes brother to the ox because of over-much hoeing; the +housepainter is lead-poisoned because of his painting; books have been +written to show the injurious influence of nearly all our industries +upon workers. + +These causes are sound as far as they go; but do not cover the whole +ground. + +The farmer may be muscle-bound and stooping from his labor; but that +does not account for his dyspepsia or his rheumatism. + +Then we allege poverty as covering all. Poverty does cover a good deal. +But when we find even a half-fed savage better developed than a well +paid cashier; and a poor peasant woman a more vigorous mother than the +idle wife of a rich man, poverty is not enough. + +Then we say ignorance explains it. But there are most learned professors +who are ugly and asthmathic; there are even doctors who can boast no +beauty and but moderate health; there are some of the petted children of +the wealthy, upon whom every care is lavished from birth, and who still +are ill to look at and worse to marry. + +All these special causes are admitted, given their due share in +lowering our standards, but there is another far more universal in its +application and its effects. Let us look back on our little ancestors +the beasts, and see what keeps them so true to type. + +The type itself set by that balance of conditions and forces we call +"natural selection." As the environment changes they must be adapted to +it, if they cannot so adapt themselves they die. Those who live are, by +living, proven capable of maintaining themselves. Every creature which +has remained on earth, while so many less effective kinds died out, +remains as a conqueror. The speed of the deer--the constant use of +speed--is what keeps it alive and makes it healthy and beautiful. The +varied activities of the life of a leopard are what have developed the +sinuous gracile strength we so admire. It is what the creature does for +its living, its daily life-long exercise which makes it what it is. + +But there is another great natural force which works steadily to +keep all animals up to the race standard; that is sexual selection. +Throughout nature the male is the variant, as we have already noted. +His energy finds vent not only in that profuse output of decorative +appendages Ward defines as "masculine efflorescence" but in variations +not decorative, not useful or desirable at all. + +The female, on the other hand, varies much less, remaining nearer the +race type; and her function is to select among these varying males +the specimens most valuable to the race. In the intense masculine +competition the victor must necessarily be stronger than his fellows; +he is first proven equal to his environment by having lived to grow +up, then more than equal to his fellows by overcoming them. This higher +grade of selection also develops not only the characteristics necessary +to make a living; but secondary ones, often of a purely aesthetic +nature, which make much of what we call beauty. Between the two, all who +live must be up to a certain grade, and those who become parents must be +above it; a masterly arrangement surely! + +Here is where, during the period of our human history, we in our newborn +consciousness and imperfect knowledge, have grievously interfered with +the laws of nature. The ancient proprietary family, treating the woman +as a slave, keeping her a prisoner and subject to the will of her +master, cut her off at once from the exercise of those activities which +alone develop and maintain the race type. + +Take the one simple quality of speed. We are a creature built for speed, +a free swift graceful animal; and among savages this is still seen--the +capacity for running, mile after mile, hour after hour. Running is as +natural a gait for _genus homo_ as for _genus cervus._ Now suppose among +deer, the doe was prohibited from running; the stag continuing free on +the mountain; the doe living in caves and pens, unequal to any exercise. +The effect on the species would be, inevitably, to reduce its speed. + +In this way, by keeping women to one small range of duties, and in most +cases housebound, we have interfered with natural selection and its +resultant health and beauty. It can easily be seen what the effect on +the race would have been if all men had been veiled and swathed, hidden +in harems, kept to the tent or house, and confined to the activities +of a house-servant. Our stalwart laborers, our proud soldiers, our +athletes, would never have appeared under such circumstances. The +confinement to the house alone, cutting women off from sunshine and air, +is by itself an injury; and the range of occupation allowed them is not +such as to develop a high standard of either health or beauty. Thus we +have cut off half the race from the strengthening influence of natural +selection, and so lowered our race-standards in large degree. + +This alone, however, would not have hid such mischievous effects but +for our further blunder in completely reversing nature's order of +sexual selection. It is quite possible that even under confinement and +restriction women could have kept up the race level, passably, through +this great function of selection; but here is the great fundamental +error of the Androcentric Culture. Assuming to be the possessor of +women, their owner and master, able at will to give, buy and sell, or do +with as he pleases, man became the selector. + +It seems a simple change; and in those early days, wholly ignorant of +natural laws, there was no suspicion that any mischief would result. In +the light of modern knowledge, however, the case is clear. The woman was +deprived of the beneficent action of natural selection, and the man +was then, by his own act, freed from the stern but elevating effect of +sexual selection. Nothing was required of the woman by natural selection +save such capacity as should please her master; nothing was required +of the man by sexual selection save power to take by force, or buy, a +woman. + +It does not take a very high standard of feminine intelligence, +strength, skill, health, or beauty to be a houseservant, or even a +housekeeper; witness the average. + +It does not take a very high standard of masculine, intelligence, +strength, skill, health or beauty to maintain a woman in that +capacity--witness average. + +Here at the very root of our physiological process, at the beginning +of life, we have perverted the order of nature, and are suffering the +consequences. + +It has been held by some that man as the selector has developed beauty, +more beauty than we had before; and we point to the charms of our women +as compared with those of the squaw. The answer to this is that the +squaw belongs to a decadent race; that she too is subject to the man, +that the comparison to have weight should be made between our women and +the women of the matriarchate--an obvious impossibility. We have not on +earth women in a state of normal freedom and full development; but we +have enough difference in their placing to learn that human strength and +beauty grows with woman's freedom and activity. + +The second answer is that much of what man calls beauty in woman is not +human beauty at all, but gross overdevelopment of certain points which +appeal to him as a male. The excessive fatness, previously referred to, +is a case in point; that being considered beauty in a woman which is +in reality an element of weakness, inefficiency and ill-health. The +relatively small size of women, deliberately preferred, steadfastly +chosen, and so built into the race, is a blow at real human progress in +every particular. In our upward journey we should and do grow larger, +leaving far behind us our dwarfish progenitors. Yet the male, in his +unnatural position as selector, preferring for reasons both practical +and sentimental, to have "his woman" smaller than himself, has +deliberately striven to lower the standard of size in the race. We used +to read in the novels of the last generation, "He was a magnificent +specimen of manhood"--"Her golden head reached scarcely to his +shoulder"--"She was a fairy creature--the tiniest of her sex." Thus we +have mated, and yet expected that by some hocus pocus the boys would all +"take after their father," and the girls, their mother. In his +efforts to improve the breed of other animals, man has never tried +to deliberately cross the large and small and expect to keep up the +standard of size. + +As a male he is appealed to by the ultra-feminine, and has given small +thought to effects on the race. He was not designed to do the selecting. +Under his fostering care we have bred a race of women who are physically +weak enough to be handed about like invalids; or mentally weak enough +to pretend they are--and to like it. We have made women who respond so +perfectly to the force which made them, that they attach all their idea +of beauty to those characteristics which attract men; sometimes humanly +ugly without even knowing it. + +For instance, our long restriction to house-limits, the heavy +limitations of our clothing, and the heavier ones of traditional +decorum, have made women disproportionately short-legged. This is a +particularly undignified and injurious characteristic, bred in women +and inherited by men, most seen among those races which keep their women +most closely. Yet when one woman escapes the tendency and appears with +a normal length of femur and tibia, a normal height of hip and shoulder, +she is criticized and called awkward by her squatty sisters! + +The most convenient proof of the inferiority of women in human beauty is +shown by those composite statues prepared by Mr. Sargent for the World's +Fair of '93. These were made from gymnasium measurements of thousands of +young collegians of both sexes all over America. The statue of the girl +has a pretty face, small hands and feet, rather nice arms, though weak; +but the legs are too thick and short; the chest and shoulders poor; and +the trunk is quite pitiful in its weakness. The figure of the man is +much better proportioned. + +Thus the effect on human beauty of masculine selection. + +Beyond this positive deteriorative effect on women through man's +arbitrary choice comes the negative effect of woman's lack of choice. +Bought or stolen or given by her father, she was deprived of the +innately feminine right and duty of choosing. "Who giveth this woman?" +we still inquire in our archaic marriage service, and one man steps +forward and gives her to another man. + +Free, the female chose the victor, and the vanquished went unmated--and +without progeny. Dependent, having to be fed and cared for by some man, +the victors take their pick perhaps, but the vanquished take what is +left; and the poor women, "marrying for a home," take anything. As a +consequence the inferior male is as free to transmit his inferiority as +the superior to give better qualities, and does so--beyond computation. +In modern days, women are freer, in some countries freer than in others; +here in modern America freest of all; and the result is seen in our +improving standards of health and beauty. + +Still there remains the field of inter-masculine competition, does there +not? Do not the males still struggle together? Is not that as of old, a +source of race advantage? + +To some degree it is. When life was simple and our activities consisted +mainly in fighting and hard work; the male who could vanquish the others +was bigger and stronger. But inter-masculine competition ceases to be +of such advantage when we enter the field of social service. What is +required in organized society is the specialization of the individual, +the development of special talents, not always of immediate benefit to +the man himself, but of ultimate benefit to society. The best social +servant, progressive, meeting future needs, is almost always at a +disadvantage besides the well-established lower types. We need, for +social service, qualities quite different from the simple masculine +characteristics--desire, combat, self-expression. + +By keeping what we call "the outside world" so wholly male, we keep up +masculine standards at the expense of human ones. This may be broadly +seen in the slow and painful development of industry and science as +compared to the easy dominance of warfare throughout all history until +our own times. + +The effect of all this ultra masculine competition upon health and +beauty is but too plainly to be seen. Among men the male idea of what +is good looking is accentuated beyond reason. Read about any "hero" +you please; or study the products of the illustrator and note the broad +shoulders, the rugged features, the strong, square, determined jaw. +That jaw is in evidence if everything else fails. He may be cross-eyed, +wide-eared, thick-necked, bandy-legged--what you please; but he must +have a more or less prognathous jaw. + +Meanwhile any anthropologist will show you that the line of human +development is away from that feature of the bulldog and the alligator, +and toward the measured dignity of the Greek type. The possessor of that +kind of jaw may enable male to conquer male, but does not make him of +any more service to society; of any better health or higher beauty. + +Further, in the external decoration of our bodies, what is the influence +here of masculine dominance. + +We have before spoken of the peculiar position of our race in that +the woman is the only female creature who carries the burden of sex +ornament. This amazing reversal of the order of nature results at its +mildest in a perversion of the natural feminine instincts of love and +service, and an appearance of the masculine instincts of self-expression +and display. Alone among all female things do women decorate and preen +themselves and exhibit their borrowed plumage (literally!) to attract +the favor of the male. This ignominy is forced upon them by their +position of economic dependence; and their general helplessness. As all +broader life is made to depend, for them, on whom they marry, indeed as +even the necessities of life so often depend on their marrying someone, +they have been driven into this form of competition, so alien to the +true female attitude. + +The result is enough to make angels weep--and laugh. Perhaps no step in +the evolution of beauty went farther than our human power of making +a continuous fabric; soft and mobile, showing any color and texture +desired. The beauty of the human body is supreme, and when we add to it +the flow of color, the ripple of fluent motion, that comes of a soft, +light garment over free limbs--it is a new field of loveliness and +delight. Naturally this should have filled the whole world with a new +pleasure. Our garments, first under right natural selection developing +perfect use, under right sex selection developing beauty; and further, +as our human aesthetic sense progresses, showing a noble symbolism, +would have been an added strength and glory, a ceaseless joy. + +What is the case? + +Men, under a too strictly inter-masculine environment, have evolved the +mainly useful but beautiless costume common to-day; and women--? + +Women wear beautiful garments when they happen to be the fashion; and +ugly garments when they are the fashion, and show no signs of knowing +the difference. They show no added pride in the beautiful, no hint +of mortification in the hideous, and are not even sensitive under +criticism, or open to any persuasion or argument. Why should they be? + +Their condition, physical and mental, is largely abnormal, their whole +passionate absorption in dress and decoration is abnormal, and they have +never looked, from a frankly human standpoint, at their position and its +peculiarities, until the present age. + +In the effect of our wrong relation on the world's health, we have +spoken of the check to vigor and growth due to the housebound state +of women and their burdensome clothes. There follow other influences, +similar in origin, even more evil in result. To roughly and briefly +classify we may distinguish the diseases due to bad air, to bad +food, and that field of cruel mischief we are only now beginning to +discuss--the diseases directly due to the erroneous relation between men +and women. + +We are the only race where the female depends on the male for a +livelihood. We are the only race that practices prostitution. From the +first harmless-looking but abnormal general relation follows the well +recognized evil of the second, so long called "a social necessity," and +from it, in deadly sequence, comes the "wages of sin;" death not only of +the guilty, but of the innocent. It is no light part of our criticism +of the Androcentric Culture that a society based on masculine desires +alone, has willingly sacrificed such an army of women; and has repaid +the sacrifice by the heaviest punishments. + +That the unfortunate woman should sicken and die was held to be her just +punishment; that man too should bear part penalty was found unavoidable, +though much legislation and medical effort has been spent to shield him; +but to the further consequences society is but now waking up. + + + + +IV. MEN AND ART. + + +Among the many counts in which women have been proven inferior to men in +human development is the oft-heard charge that there are no great women +artists. Where one or two are proudly exhibited in evidence, they +are either pooh-poohed as not very great, or held to be the trifling +exceptions which do but prove the rule. + +Defenders of women generally make the mistake of over-estimating their +performances, instead of accepting, and explaining, the visible facts. +What are the facts as to the relation of men and women to art? And +what, in especial, has been the effect upon art of a solely masculine +expression? + +When we look for the beginnings of art, we find ourselves in a period +of crude decoration of the person and of personal belongings. Tattooing, +for instance, is an early form of decorative art, still in practice +among certain classes, even in advanced people. Most boys, if they are +in contact with this early art, admire it, and wish to adorn themselves +therewith; some do so--to later mortification. Early personal decoration +consisted largely in direct mutilation of the body, and the hanging upon +it, or fastening to it, of decorative objects. This we see among savages +still, in its gross and primitive forms monopolized by men, then shared +by women, and, in our time, left almost wholly to them. In personal +decoration today, women are still near the savage. The "artists" +developed in this field of art are the tonsorial, the sartorial, and +all those specialized adorners of the body commonly known as "beauty +doctors." + +Here, as in other cases, the greatest artists are men. The greatest +milliners, the greatest dressmakers and tailors, the greatest +hairdressers, and the masters and designers in all our decorative +toilettes and accessories, are men. Women, in this as in so many +other lines, consume rather than produce. They carry the major part +of personal decoration today; but the decorator is the man. In the +decoration of objects, woman, as the originator of primitive industry, +originated also the primitive arts; and in the pottery, basketry, +leatherwork, needlework, weaving, with all beadwork, dyeing and +embroideries of ancient peoples we see the work of the woman decorator. +Much of this is strong and beautiful, but its time is long past. The art +which is part of industry, natural, simple, spontaneous, making beauty +in every object of use, adding pleasure to labor and to life, is not Art +with a large A, the Art which requires Artists, among whom are so few +women of note. + +Art as a profession, and the Artist as a professional, came later; and +by that time women had left the freedom and power of the matriarchate +and become slaves in varying degree. The women who were idle pets in +harems, or the women who worked hard as servants, were alike cut off +from the joy of making things. Where constructive work remained to them, +art remained, in its early decorative form. Men, in the proprietary +family, restricting the natural industry of women to personal service, +cut off their art with their industry, and by so much impoverished the +world. + +There is no more conspicuously pathetic proof of the aborted development +of women than this commonplace--their lack of a civilized art sense. Not +only in the childish and savage display upon their bodies, but in the +pitiful products they hang upon the walls of the home, is seen the +arrest in normal growth. + +After ages of culture, in which men have developed Architecture, +Sculpture, Painting, Music and the Drama, we find women in their +primitive environment making flowers of wax, and hair, and worsted; +doing mottoes of perforated cardboard, making crazy quilts and mats and +"tidies"--as if they lived in a long past age, or belonged to a lower +race. + +This, as part of the general injury to women dating from the beginning +of our androcentric culture, reacts heavily upon the world at large. +Men, specializing, giving their lives to the continuous pursuit of one +line of service, have lifted our standard in aesthetic culture, as they +have in other matters; but by refusing the same growth to women, they +have not only weakened and reduced the output, but ruined the market as +it were, hopelessly and permanently kept down the level of taste. + +Among the many sides of this great question, some so terrible, some +so pathetic, some so utterly absurd, this particular phase of life is +especially easy to study and understand, and has its own elements of +amusement. Men, holding women at the level of domestic service, going +on themselves to lonely heights of achievement, have found their efforts +hampered and their attainments rendered barren and unsatisfactory by +the amazing indifference of the world at large. As the world at large +consists half of women, and wholly of their children, it would seem +patent to the meanest understanding that the women must be allowed +to rise in order to lift the world. But such has not been the +method--heretofore. + +We have spoken so far in this chapter of the effect of men on art +through their interference with the art of women. There are other sides +to the question. Let us consider once more the essential characteristics +of maleness, and see how they have affected art, keeping always in mind +the triune distinction between masculine, feminine and human. Perhaps +we shall best see this difference by considering what the development of +art might have been on purely human terms. + +The human creature, as such, naturally delights in construction, and +adds decoration to construction as naturally. The cook, making little +regular patterns around the edge of the pie, does so from a purely human +instinct, the innate eye-pleasure in regularity, symmetry, repetition, +and alternation. Had this natural social instinct grown unchecked in +us, it would have manifested itself in a certain proportion of +specialists--artists of all sorts--and an accompanying development +of appreciation on the part of the rest of us. Such is the case in +primitive art; the maker of beauty is upheld and rewarded by a popular +appreciation of her work--or his. + +Had this condition remained, we should find a general level of artistic +expression and appreciation far higher than we see now. Take the one +field of textile art, for instance: that wide and fluent medium of +expression, the making of varied fabrics, the fashioning of garments and +the decoration of them--all this is human work and human pleasure. It +should have led us to a condition where every human being was a pleasure +to the eye, appropriately and beautifully clothed. + +Our real condition in this field is too patent to need emphasis; the +stiff, black ugliness of our men's attire; the irritating variegated +folly of our women's; the way in which we spoil the beauty and shame the +dignity of childhood by modes of dress. + +In normal human growth, our houses would be a pleasure to the eye; our +furniture and utensils, all our social products, would blossom into +beauty as naturally as they still do in those low stages of social +evolution where our major errors have not yet borne full fruit. + +Applied art in all its forms is a human function, common to every one to +some degree, either in production or appreciation, or both. "Pure art," +as an ideal, is also human; and the single-hearted devotion of the +true artist to this ideal is one of the highest forms of the social +sacrifice. Of all the thousand ways by which humanity is specialized for +inter-service, none is more exquisite than this; the evolution of the +social Eye, or Ear, or Voice, the development of those whose work is +wholly for others, and to whom the appreciation of others is as the +bread of life. This we should have in a properly developed community; +the pleasure of applied art in the making and using of everything we +have; and then the high joy of the Great Artist, and the noble work +thereof, spread far and wide. + +What do we find? + +Applied art at a very low level; small joy either for the maker or the +user. Pure art, a fine-spun specialty, a process carried on by an elect +few who openly despise the unappreciative many. Art has become an +occult profession requiring a long special education even to enjoy, and +evolving a jargon of criticism which becomes more esoteric yearly. + +Let us now see what part in this undesirable outcome is due to our +Androcentric Culture. + +As soon as the male of our species assumed the exclusive right to +perform all social functions, he necessarily brought to that performance +the advantages--and disadvantages--of maleness, of those dominant +characteristics, desire, combat, self-expression. + +Desire has overweighted art in many visible forms; it is prominent +in painting and music, almost monopolizes fiction, and has pitifully +degraded dancing. + +Combat is not so easily expressed in art, where even competition is on a +high plane; but the last element is the main evil, self-expression. This +impulse is inherently and ineradicably masculine. It rests on that most +basic of distinctions between the sexes, the centripetal and centrifugal +forces of the universe. In the very nature of the sperm-cell and the +germ-cell we find this difference: the one attracts, gathers, draws in; +the other repels, scatters, pushes out. That projective impulse is seen +in the male nature everywhere; the constant urge toward expression, to +all boasting and display. This spirit, like all things masculine, is +perfectly right and admirable in its place. + +It is the duty of the male, as a male, to vary; bursting forth in +a thousand changing modifications--the female, selecting, may so +incorporate beneficial changes in the race. It is his duty to thus +express himself--an essentially masculine duty; but masculinity is one +thing, and art is another. Neither the masculine nor the feminine has +any place in art--Art is Human. + +It is not in any faintest degree allied to the personal processes +of reproduction; but is a social process, a most distinctive social +process, quite above the plane of sex. The true artist transcends his +sex, or her sex. If this is not the case, the art suffers. + +Dancing is an early, and a beautiful art; direct expression of emotion +through the body; beginning in subhuman type, among male birds, as the +bower-bird of New Guinea, and the dancing crane, who swing and caper +before their mates. Among early peoples we find it a common form of +social expression in tribal dances of all sorts, religious, military, +and other. Later it becomes a more explicit form of celebration, as +among the Greeks; in whose exquisite personal culture dancing and music +held high place. + +But under the progressive effects of purely masculine dominance we find +the broader human elements of dancing left out, and the sex-element more +and more emphasized. As practiced by men alone dancing has become a mere +display of physical agility, a form of exhibition common to all males. +As practiced by men and women together we have our social dances, so +lacking in all the varied beauty of posture and expression, so steadily +becoming a pleasant form of dalliance. + +As practiced by women alone we have one of the clearest proofs of the +degrading effect of masculine dominance:--the dancing girl. In the frank +sensualism of the Orient, this personage is admired and enjoyed on her +merits. We, more sophisticated in this matter, joke shamefacedly about +"the bald-headed row," and occasionally burst forth in shrill scandal +over some dinner party where ladies clad in a veil and a bracelet dance +on the table. Nowhere else in the whole range of life on earth, is this +degradation found--the female capering and prancing before the male. +It is absolutely and essentially his function, not hers. That we, as a +race, present this pitiful spectacle, a natural art wrested to unnatural +ends, a noble art degraded to ignoble ends, has one clear cause. + +Architecture, in its own nature, is least affected by that same cause. +The human needs secured by it, are so human, so unescapably human, that +we find less trace of excessive masculinity than in other arts. It meets +our social demands, it expresses in lasting form our social feeling, +up to the highest; and it has been injured not so much by an excess of +masculinity as by a lack of femininity. + +The most universal architectural expression is in the home; the home is +essentially a place for the woman and the child; yet the needs of woman +and child are not expressed in our domestic architecture. The home is +built on lines of ancient precedent, mainly as an industrial form; the +kitchen is its working centre rather than the nursery. + +Each man wishes his home to preserve and seclude his woman, his little +harem of one; and in it she is to labor for his comfort or to manifest +his ability to maintain her in idleness. The house is the physical +expression of the limitations of women; and as such it fills the world +with a small drab ugliness. A dwelling house is rarely a beautiful +object. In order to be such, it should truly express simple and natural +relations; or grow in larger beauty as our lives develop. + +The deadlock for architectural progress, the low level of our general +taste, the everlasting predominance of the commonplace in buildings, is +the natural result of the proprietary family and its expression in this +form. + +In sculpture we have a noble art forcing itself into some service +through many limitations. Its check, as far as it comes under this line +of study, has been indicated in our last chapter; the degradation of the +human body, the vicious standards of sex-consciousness enforced under +the name of modesty, the covered ugliness, which we do not recognize, +all this is a deadly injury to free high work in sculpture. + +With a nobly equal womanhood, stalwart and athletic; with the high +standards of beauty and of decorum which we can never have without free +womanhood; we should show a different product in this great art. + +An interesting note in passing is this: when we seek to express socially +our noblest, ideas, Truth; Justice; Liberty; we use the woman's body as +the highest human type. But in doing this, the artist, true to humanity +and not biassed by sex, gives us a strong, grand figure, beautiful +indeed, but never _decorated_. Fancy Liberty in ruffles and frills, with +rings in her ears--or nose. + +Music is injured by a one-sided handling, partly in the excess of +the one dominant masculine passion, partly by the general presence of +egoism; that tendency to self-expression instead of social expression, +which so disfigures our art; and this is true also of poetry. + +Miles and miles of poetry consist of the ceaseless outcry of the male +for the female, which is by no means so overwhelming as a feature +of human life as he imagines it; and other miles express his other +feelings, with that ingenuous lack of reticence which is at its base +essentially masculine. Having a pain, the poet must needs pour it forth, +that his woe be shared and sympathized with. + +As more and more women writers flock into the field there is room for +fine historic study of the difference in sex feeling, and the gradual +emergence of the human note. + +Literature, and in especial the art of fiction, is so large a field for +this study that it will have a chapter to itself; this one but touching +on these various forms; and indicating lines of observation. + +That best known form of art which to my mind needs no qualifying +description--painting--is also a wide field; and cannot be done +full justice to within these limits. The effect upon it of too much +masculinity is not so much in choice of subject as in method and spirit. +The artist sees beauty of form and color where the ordinary observer +does not; and paints the old and ugly with as much enthusiasm as the +young and beautiful--sometimes. If there is in some an over-emphasis of +feminine attractions it is counterbalanced in others by a far broader +line of work. + +But the main evils of a too masculine art lie in the emphasis laid on +self-expression. The artist, passionately conscious of how he feels, +strives to make other people aware of these sensations. This is now so +generally accepted by critics, so seriously advanced by painters, that +what is called "the art world" accepts it as established. + +If a man paints the sea, it is not to make you see and feel as a +sight of that same ocean would, but to make you see and feel how +he, personally, was affected by it; a matter surely of the narrowest +importance. The ultra-masculine artist, extremely sensitive, +necessarily, and full of the natural urge to expression of the sex, uses +the medium of art as ingenuously as the partridge-cock uses his wings in +drumming on the log; or the bull moose stamps and bellows; not narrowly +as a mate call, but as a form of expression of his personal sensations. + +The higher the artist the more human he is, the broader his vision, +the more he sees for humanity, and expresses for humanity, and the less +personal, the less ultra-masculine, is his expression. + + + + +V. MASCULINE LITERATURE. + + +When we are offered a "woman's" paper, page, or column, we find it +filled with matter supposed to appeal to women as a sex or class; the +writer mainly dwelling upon the Kaiser's four K's--Kuchen, Kinder, +Kirche, Kleider. They iterate and reiterate endlessly the discussion +of cookery, old and new; of the care of children; of the overwhelming +subject of clothing; and of moral instruction. All this is recognized as +"feminine" literature, and it must have some appeal else the women would +not read it. What parallel have we in "masculine" literature? + +"None!" is the proud reply. "Men are people! Women, being 'the sex,' +have their limited feminine interests, their feminine point of view, +which must be provided for. Men, however, are not restricted--to them +belongs the world's literature!" + +Yes, it has belonged to them--ever since there was any. They have +written it and they have read it. It is only lately that women, +generally speaking, have been taught to read; still more lately that +they have been allowed to write. It is but a little while since Harriet +Martineau concealed her writing beneath her sewing when visitors came +in--writing was "masculine"--sewing "feminine." + +We have not, it Is true, confined men to a narrowly construed "masculine +sphere," and composed a special literature suited to it. Their effect on +literature has been far wider than that, monopolizing this form of +art with special favor. It was suited above all others to the dominant +impulse of self-expression; and being, as we have seen essentially +and continually "the sex;" they have impressed that sex upon this art +overwhelmingly; they have given the world a masculized literature. + +It is hard for us to realize this. We can readily see, that if women had +always written the books, no men either writing or reading them, that +would have surely "feminized" our literature; but we have not in our +minds the concept, much less the word, for an overmasculized influence. + +Men having been accepted as humanity, women but a side-issue; (most +literally if we accept the Hebrew legend!), whatever men did or said was +human--and not to be criticized. In no department of life is it easier +to contravert this old belief; to show how the male sex as such +differs from the human type; and how this maleness has monopolized and +disfigured a great social function. + +Human life is a very large affair; and literature is its chief art. We +live, humanly, only through our power of communication. Speech gives +us this power laterally, as it were, in immediate personal contact. +For permanent use speech becomes oral tradition--a poor dependence. +Literature gives not only an infinite multiplication to the lateral +spread of communion but adds the vertical reach. Through it we know the +past, govern the present, and influence the future. In its servicable +common forms it is the indispensable daily servant of our lives; in its +nobler flights as a great art no means of human inter-change goes so +far. + +In these brief limits we can touch but lightly on some phases of so +great a subject; and will rest the case mainly on the effect of an +exclusively masculine handling of the two fields of history and fiction. +In poetry and the drama the same influence is easily traced, but in the +first two it is so baldly prominent as to defy objection. + +History is, or should be, the story of our racial life. What have men +made it? The story of warfare and conquest. Begin at the very beginning +with the carven stones of Egypt, the clay records of Chaldea, what do we +find of history? + +"I Pharaoh, King of Kings! Lord of Lords! (etc. etc.), went down into +the miserable land of Kush, and slew of the inhabitants thereof an +hundred and forty and two thousands!" That, or something like it, is the +kind of record early history gives us. + +The story of Conquering Kings, who and how many they killed and +enslaved; the grovelling adulation of the abased; the unlimited +jubilation of the victor; from the primitive state of most ancient +kings, and the Roman triumphs where queens walked in chains, down to our +omni present soldier's monuments: the story of war and conquest--war and +conquest--over and over; with such boasting and triumph, such cock-crow +and flapping of wings as show most unmistakably the natural source. + +All this will strike the reader at first as biased and unfair. "That was +the way people lived in those days!" says the reader. + +No--it was not the way women lived. + +"O, women!" says the reader, "Of course not! Women are different." + +Yea, women are different; and _men are different!_ Both of them, as +sexes, differ from the human norm, which is social life and all social +development. Society was slowly growing in all those black blind years. +The arts, the sciences, the trades and crafts and professions, religion, +philosophy, government, law, commerce, agriculture--all the human +processes were going on as well as they were able, between wars. + +The male naturally fights, and naturally crows, triumphs over his rival +and takes the prize--therefore was he made male. Maleness means war. + +Not only so; but being male, he cares only for male interests. Men, +being the sole arbiters of what should be done and said and written, +have given us not only a social growth scarred and thwarted from the +beginning by continual destruction; but a history which is one unbroken +record of courage and red cruelty, of triumph and black shame. + +As to what went on that was of real consequence, the great slow steps of +the working world, the discoveries and inventions, the real progress of +humanity--that was not worth recording, from a masculine point of view. +Within this last century, "the woman's century," the century of the +great awakening, the rising demand for freedom, political, economic, and +domestic, we are beginning to write real history, human history, and not +merely masculine history. But that great branch of literature--Hebrew, +Greek, Roman, and all down later times, shows beyond all question, the +influence of our androcentric culture. + +Literature is the most powerful and necessary of the arts, and fiction +is its broadest form. If art "holds the mirror up to nature" this art's +mirror is the largest of all, the most used. Since our very life depends +on some communication; and our progress is in proportion to our fullness +and freedom of communication; since real communication requires mutual +understanding; so in the growth of the social consciousness, we note +from the beginning a passionate interest in other people's lives. + +The art which gives humanity consciousness is the most vital art. Our +greatest dramatists are lauded for their breadth of knowledge of "human +nature," their range of emotion and understanding; our greatest poets +are those who most deeply and widely experience and reveal the feelings +of the human heart; and the power of fiction is that it can reach and +express this great field of human life with no limits but those of the +author. + +When fiction began it was the legitimate child of oral tradition; a +product of natural brain activity; the legend constructed instead of +remembered. (This stage is with us yet as seen in the constant changes +in repetition of popular jokes and stories.) + +Fiction to-day has a much wider range; yet it is still restricted, +heavily and most mischievously restricted. + +What is the preferred subject matter of fiction? + +There are two main branches found everywhere, from the Romaunt of the +Rose to the Purplish Magazine;--the Story of Adventure, and the Love +Story. + +The Story-of-Adventure branch is not so thick as the other by any means, +but it is a sturdy bough for all that. Stevenson and Kipling have proved +its immense popularity, with the whole brood of detective stories and +the tales of successful rascality we call "picaresque" Our most popular +weekly shows the broad appeal of this class of fiction. + +All these tales of adventure, of struggle and difficulty; of hunting and +fishing and fighting; of robbing and murdering, catching and punishing, +are distinctly and essentially masculine. They do not touch on human +processes, social processes, but on the special field of predatory +excitement so long the sole province of men. + +It is to be noted here that even in the overwhelming rise of industrial +interests to-day, these, when used as the basis for a story, are +forced into line with one, or both, of these two main branches +of fiction;--conflict or love. Unless the story has one of these +"interests" in it, there is no story--so holds the editor; the dictum +being, put plainly, "life has no interests except conflict and love!" + +It is surely something more than a coincidence that these are the two +essential features of masculinity--Desire and Combat--Love and War. + +As a matter of fact the major interests of life are in line with its +major processes; and these--in our stage of human development--are more +varied than our fiction would have us believe. Half the world consists +of women, we should remember, who are types of human life as well as +men, and their major processes are not those of conflict and adventure, +their love means more than mating. Even on so poor a line of distinction +as the "woman's column" offers, if women are to be kept to their four +Ks, there should be a "men's column" also; and all the "sporting news" +and fish stories be put in that; they are not world interests; they are +male interests. + +Now for the main branch--the Love Story. Ninety per cent. of fiction is +In this line; this is preeminently the major interest of life--given in +fiction. What is the love-story, as rendered by this art? + +It is the story of the pre-marital struggle. It is the Adventures of Him +in Pursuit of Her--and it stops when he gets her! Story after story, +age after age, over and over and over, this ceaseless repetition of the +Preliminaries. + +Here is Human Life. In its large sense, its real sense, it is a matter +of inter-relation between individuals and groups, covering all emotions, +all processes, all experiences. Out of this vast field of human life +fiction arbitrarily selects one emotion, one process, one experience, as +its necessary base. + +"Ah! but we are persons most of all!" protests the reader. "This is +personal experience--it has the universal appeal!" + +Take human life personally then. Here is a Human Being, a life, covering +some seventy years; involving the changing growth of many faculties; +the ever new marvels of youth, the long working time of middle life, the +slow ripening of age. Here is the human soul, in the human body, Living. +Out of this field of personal life, with all of its emotions, processes, +and experiences, fiction arbitrarily selects one emotion, one process, +one experience, mainly of one sex. + +The "love" of our stories is man's love of woman. If any dare dispute +this, and say it treats equally of woman's love for man, I answer, "Then +why do the stories stop at marriage?" + +There is a current jest, revealing much, to this effect: + +The young wife complains that the husband does not wait upon and woo her +as he did before marriage; to which he replies, "Why should I run after +the street-car when I've caught it?" + +Woman's love for man, as currently treated in fiction is largely a +reflex; it is the way he wants her to feel, expects her to feel; not a +fair representation of how she does feel. If "love" is to be selected as +the most important thing in life to write about, then the mother's love +should be the principal subject: This is the main stream. This is the +general underlying, world-lifting force. The "life-force," now so glibly +chattered about, finds its fullest expression in motherhood; not in the +emotions of an assistant in the preliminary stages. + +What has literature, what has fiction, to offer concerning mother-love, +or even concerning father-love, as compared to this vast volume of +excitement about lover-love? Why is the search-light continually +focussed upon a two or three years space of life "mid the blank miles +round about?" Why indeed, except for the clear reason, that on a starkly +masculine basis this is his one period of overwhelming interest and +excitement. + +If the beehive produced literature, the bee's fiction would be rich and +broad; full of the complex tasks of comb-building and filling; the care +and feeding of the young, the guardian-service of the queen; and far +beyond that it would spread to the blue glory of the summer sky, the +fresh winds, the endless beauty and sweetness of a thousand thousand +flowers. It would treat of the vast fecundity of motherhood, the +educative and selective processes of the group-mothers; and the passion +of loyalty, of social service, which holds the hive together. + +But if the drones wrote fiction, it would have no subject matter save +the feasting of many; and the nuptial flight, of one. + +To the male, as such, this mating instinct is frankly the major interest +of life; even the belligerent instincts are second to it. To the +female, as such, it is for all its intensity, but a passing interest. +In nature's economy, his is but a temporary devotion, hers the slow +processes of life's fulfillment. + +In Humanity we have long since, not outgrown, but overgrown, this stage +of feeling. In Human Parentage even the mother's share begins to pale +beside that ever-growing Social love and care, which guards and guides +the children of to-day. + +The art of literature in this main form of fiction is far too great a +thing to be wholly governed by one dominant note. As life widened and +intensified, the artist, if great enough, has transcended sex; and in +the mightier works of the real masters, we find fiction treating of +life, life in general, in all its complex relationships, and refusing to +be held longer to the rigid canons of an androcentric past. + +This was the power of Balzac--he took in more than this one field. This +was the universal appeal of Dickens; he wrote of people, all kinds of +people, doing all kinds of things. As you recall with pleasure some +preferred novel of this general favorite, you find yourself looking +narrowly for the "love story" in it. It is there--for it is part of +life; but it does not dominate the whole scene--any more than it does in +life. + +The thought of the world is made and handed out to us in the main. The +makers of books are the makers of thoughts and feelings for people in +general. Fiction is the most popular form in which this world-food is +taken. If it were true, it would teach us life easily, swiftly, truly; +teach not by preaching but by truly re-presenting; and we should grow up +becoming acquainted with a far wider range of life in books than could +even be ours in person. Then meeting life in reality we should be +wise--and not be disappointed. + +As it is, our great sea of fiction is steeped and dyed and flavored all +one way. A young man faces life--the seventy year stretch, remember, +and is given book upon book wherein one set of feelings is continually +vocalized and overestimated. He reads forever of love, good love and +bad love, natural and unnatural, legitimate and illegitimate; with the +unavoidable inference that there is nothing else going on. + +If he is a healthy young man he breaks loose from the whole thing, +despises "love stories" and takes up life as he finds it. But what +impression he does receive from fiction is a false one, and he suffers +without knowing it from lack of the truer broader views of life it +failed to give him. + +A young woman faces life--the seventy year stretch remember; and +is given the same books--with restrictions. Remember the remark +of Rochefoucauld, "There are thirty good stories in the world and +twenty-nine cannot be told to women." There is a certain broad field of +literature so grossly androcentric that for very shame men have tried +to keep it to themselves. But in a milder form, the spades all named +teaspoons, or at the worst appearing as trowels--the young woman is +given the same fiction. Love and love and love--from "first sight" to +marriage. There it stops--just the fluttering ribbon of announcement, +"and lived happily ever after." + +Is that kind of fiction any sort of picture of a woman's life? Fiction, +under our androcentric culture, has not given any true picture of +woman's life, very little of human life, and a disproportioned section +of man's life. + +As we daily grow more human, both of us, this noble art is changing for +the better so fast that a short lifetime can mark the growth. New fields +are opening and new laborers are working in them. But it is no swift +and easy matter to disabuse the race mind from attitudes and habits +inculcated for a thousand years. What we have been fed upon so long we +are well used to, what we are used to we like, what we like we think is +good and proper. + +The widening demand for broader, truer fiction is disputed by the slow +racial mind: and opposed by the marketers of literature on grounds of +visible self-interest, as well as lethargic conservatism. + +It is difficult for men, heretofore the sole producers and consumers +of literature; and for women, new to the field, and following masculine +canons because all the canons were masculine; to stretch their minds to +a recognition of the change which is even now upon us. + +This one narrow field has been for so long overworked, our minds are so +filled with heroes and heroes continually repeating the one-act play, +that when a book like David Harum is offered the publisher refuses it +repeatedly, and finally insists on a "heart interest" being injected by +force. + +Did anyone read David Harum for that heart interest? Does anyone +remember that heart interest? Has humanity no interests but those of the +heart? + +Robert Ellesmere was a popular book--but not because of its heart +interest. + +Uncle Tom's Cabin appealed to the entire world, more widely than any +work of fiction that was ever written; but if anybody fell in love and +married in it they have been forgotten. There was plenty of love in that +book, love of family, love of friends, love of master for servant and +servant for master; love of mother for child; love of married people for +each other; love of humanity and love of God. + +It was extremely popular. Some say it was not literature. That opinion +will live, like the name of Empedocles. + +The art of fiction is being re-born in these days. Life is discovered to +be longer, wider, deeper, richer, than these monotonous players of one +June would have us believe. + +The humanizing of woman of itself opens five distinctly fresh fields +of fiction: First the position of the young woman who is called upon to +give up her "career"--her humanness--for marriage, and who objects +to it; second, the middle-aged woman who at last discovers that her +discontent is social starvation--that it is not more love that she +wants, but more business in life: Third the interrelation of women with +women--a thing we could never write about before because we never had it +before: except in harems and convents: Fourth the inter-action between +mothers and children; this not the eternal "mother and child," wherein +the child is always a baby, but the long drama of personal relationship; +the love and hope, the patience and power, the lasting joy and triumph, +the slow eating disappointment which must never be owned to a living +soul--here are grounds for novels that a million mothers and many +million children would eagerly read: Fifth the new attitude of the +full-grown woman who faces the demands of love with the high standards +of conscious motherhood. + +There are other fields, broad and brilliantly promising, but this +chapter is meant merely to show that our one-sided culture has, in this +art, most disproportionately overestimated the dominant instincts of the +male--Love and War--an offense against art and truth, and an injury to +life. + + + + +VI. GAMES AND SPORTS + + +One of the sharpest distinctions both between the essential characters +and the artificial positions of men and women, is in the matter of +games and sports. By far the greater proportion of them are essentially +masculine, and as such alien to women; while from those which are +humanly interesting, women have been largely debarred by their arbitrary +restrictions. + +The play instinct is common to girls and boys alike; and endures in some +measure throughout life. As other young animals express their abounding +energies in capricious activities similar to those followed in the +business of living, so small children gambol, physically, like lambs and +kids; and as the young of higher kinds of animals imitate in their play +the more complex activities of their elders, so do children imitate +whatever activities they see about them. In this field of playing there +is no sex. + +Similarly in adult life healthy and happy persons, men and women, +naturally express surplus energy in various forms of sport. We have +here one of the most distinctively human manifestations. The great +accumulation of social energy, and the necessary limitations of one +kind of work, leave a human being tired of one form of action, yet still +uneasy for lack of full expression; and this social need has been met by +our great safety valve of games and sports. + +In a society of either sex, or in a society without sex, there would +still be both pleasure and use in games; they are vitally essential to +human life. In a society of two sexes, wherein one has dictated all the +terms of life, and the other has been confined to an extremely limited +fraction of human living, we may look to see this great field of +enjoyment as disproportionately divided. + +It is not only that we have reduced the play impulse in women by +restricting them to one set of occupations, and overtaxing their +energies with mother-work and housework combined; and not only that by +our androcentric conventions we further restrict their amusements; but +we begin in infancy, and forcibly differentiate their methods of play +long before any natural distinction would appear. + +Take that universal joy the doll, or puppet, as an instance. A small +imitation of a large known object carries delight to the heart of a +child of either sex. The worsted cat, the wooden horse, the little +wagon, the tin soldier, the wax doll, the toy village, the "Noah's Ark," +the omnipresent "Teddy Bear," any and every small model of a real thing +is a delight to the young human being. Of all things the puppet is the +most intimate, the little image of another human being to play with. +The fancy of the child, making endless combinations with these visible +types, plays as freely as a kitten in the leaves; or gravely carries +out some observed forms of life, as the kitten imitates its mother's +hunting. + +So far all is natural and human. + +Now see our attitude toward child's play--under a masculine culture. +Regarding women only as a sex, and that sex as manifest from infancy, +we make and buy for our little girls toys suitable to this view. Being +females--which means mothers, we must needs provide them with babies +before they cease to be babies themselves; and we expect their play to +consist in an imitation of maternal cares. The doll, the puppet, which +interests all children, we have rendered as an eternal baby; and we +foist them upon our girl children by ceaseless millions. + +The doll, as such, is dear to the little boy as well as the girl, but +not as a baby. He likes his jumping-jack, his worsted Sambo, often a +genuine rag-doll; but he is discouraged and ridiculed in this. We do +not expect the little boy to manifest a father's love and care for +an imitation child--but we do expect the little girl to show maternal +feelings for her imitation baby. It has not yet occurred to us that this +is monstrous. + +Little children should not be expected to show, in painful precocity, +feelings which ought never to be experienced till they come at the +proper age. Our kittens play at cat-sports, little Tom and Tabby +together; but little Tabby does not play she is a mother! + +Beyond the continuous dolls and their continuous dressing, we provide +for our little girls tea sets and kitchen sets, doll's houses, little +work-boxes--the imitation tools of their narrow trades. For the boy +there is a larger choice. We make for them not only the essentially +masculine toys of combat--all the enginery of mimic war; but also the +models of human things, like boats, railroads, wagons. For them, too, +are the comprehensive toys of the centuries, the kite, the top, the +ball. As the boy gets old enough to play the games that require skill, +he enters the world-lists, and the little sister, left inside, with her +everlasting dolls, learns that she is "only a girl," and "mustn't play +with boys--boys are so rough!" She has her doll and her tea set. She +"plays house." If very active she may jump rope, in solitary enthusiasm, +or in combination of from two to four. Her brother is playing games. +From this time on he plays the games of the world. The "sporting page" +should be called "the Man's Page" as that array of recipes, fashions and +cheap advice is called "the Woman's Page." + +One of the immediate educational advantages of the boy's position is +that he learns "team work." This is not a masculine characteristic, +it is a human one; a social power. Women are equally capable of it +by nature; but not by education. Tending one's imitation baby is not +team-work; nor is playing house. The little girl is kept forever within +the limitations of her mother's "sphere" of action; while the boy learns +life, and fancies that his new growth is due to his superior sex. + +Now there are certain essential distinctions in the sexes, which would +manifest themselves to some degree even in normally reared children; +as for instance the little male would be more given to fighting and +destroying; the little female more to caring for and constructing +things. + +"Boys are so destructive!" we say with modest pride--as if it was in +some way a credit to them. But early youth is not the time to display +sex distinction; and they should be discouraged rather than approved. + +The games of the world, now the games of men, easily fall into two broad +classes--games of skill and games of chance. + +The interest and pleasure in the latter is purely human, and as such is +shared by the two sexes even now. Women, in the innocent beginnings or +the vicious extremes of this line of amusement, make as wild gamblers as +men. At the races, at the roulette wheel, at the bridge table, this is +clearly seen. + +In games of skill we have a different showing. Most of these are +developed by and for men; but when they are allowed, women take part in +them with interest and success. In card games, in chess, checkers, +and the like, in croquet and tennis, they play, and play well if +well-trained. Where they fall short in so many games, and are so wholly +excluded in others, is not for lack of human capacity, but for lack of +masculinity. Most games are male. In their element of desire to win, +to get the prize, they are male; and in their universal attitude of +competition they are male, the basic spirit of desire and of combat +working out through subtle modern forms. + +There is something inherently masculine also in the universal dominance +of the projectile in their games. The ball is the one unescapable +instrument of sport. From the snapped marble of infancy to the flying +missile of the bat, this form endures. To send something forth with +violence; to throw it, bat it, kick it, shoot it; this impulse seems to +date back to one of the twin forces of the universe--the centrifugal and +centripetal energies between which swing the planets. + +The basic feminine impulse is to gather, to put together, to construct; +the basic masculine impulse to scatter, to disseminate, to destroy. It +seems to give pleasure to a man to bang something and drive it from him; +the harder he hits it and the farther it goes the better pleased he is. + +Games of this sort will never appeal to women. They are not wrong; not +necessarily evil in their place; our mistake is in considering them as +human, whereas they are only masculine. + +Play, in the childish sense is an expression of previous habit; and +to be studied in that light. Play in the educational sense should be +encouraged or discouraged to develop desired characteristics. This we +know, and practice; only we do it under androcentric canons; confining +the girl to the narrow range we consider proper for women, and assisting +the boy to cover life with the expression of masculinity, when we should +be helping both to a more human development. + +Our settled conviction that men are people--the people, and that +masculine qualities are the main desideratam in life, is what keeps +up this false estimate of the value of our present games. Advocates +of football, for instance, proudly claim that it fits a man for life. +Life--from the wholly male point of view--is a battle, with a prize. To +want something beyond measure, and to fight to get--that is the simple +proposition. This view of life finds its most naive expression in +predatory warfare; and still tends to make predatory warfare of the +later and more human processes of industry. Because they see life in +this way they imagine that skill and practice in the art of fighting, +especially in collective fighting, is so valuable in our modern life. +This is an archaism which would be laughable if it were not so dangerous +in its effects. + +The valuable processes to-day are those of invention, discovery, all +grades of industry, and, most especially needed, the capacity for honest +service and administration of our immense advantages. These are not +learned on the football field. This spirit of desire and combat may be +seen further in all parts of this great subject. It has developed into +a cult of sportsmanship; so universally accepted among men as of +superlative merit as to quite blind them to other standards of judgment. + +In the Cook-Peary controversy of 1909, this canon was made manifest. +Here, one man had spent a lifetime in trying to accomplish something; +and at the eleventh hour succeeded. Then, coming out in the rich triumph +long deferred, he finds another man, of character well known to him, +impudently and falsely claiming that he had done it first. Mr. Peary +expressed himself, quite restrainedly and correctly, in regard to the +effrontery and falsity of this claim--and all the country rose up and +denounced him as "unsportsmanlike!" + +Sport and the canons of sport are so dominant in the masculine mind that +what they considered a deviation from these standards was of far more +importance than the question of fact involved; to say nothing of the +moral obliquity of one lying to the whole world, for money; and that at +the cost of another's hard-won triumph. + +If women had condemned the conduct of one or the other as "not good +house-wifery," this would have been considered a most puerile comment. +But to be "unsportsmanlike" is the unpardonable sin. + +Owing to our warped standards we glaringly misjudge the attitude of the +two sexes in regard to their amusements. Of late years more women than +ever before have taken to playing cards; and some, unfortunately, play +for money. A steady stream of comment and blame follows upon this. The +amount of card playing among men--and the amount of money lost and won, +does not produce an equivalent comment. + +Quite aside from this one field of dissipation, look at the share of +life, of time, of strength, of money, given by men to their wide range +of recreation. The primitive satisfaction of hunting and fishing +they maintain at enormous expense. This is the indulgence of a most +rudimentary impulse; pre-social and largely pre-human, of no service +save as it affects bodily health, and of a most deterring influence +on real human development. Where hunting and fishing is of real human +service, done as a means of livelihood, it is looked down upon like any +other industry; it is no longer "sport." + +The human being kills to eat, or to sell and eat from the returns; he +kills for the creature's hide or tusks, for use of some sort; or to +protect his crops from vermin, his flocks from depredation; but the +sportsman kills for the gratification of a primeval instinct, and under +rules of an arbitrary cult. "Game" creatures are his prey; bird, beast +or fish that is hard to catch, that requires some skill to slay; that +will give him not mere meat and bones, but "the pleasure of the chase." + +The pleasure of the chase is a very real one. It is exemplified, in +its broad sense in children's play. The running and catching games, the +hiding and finding games, are always attractive to our infancy, as +they are to that of cubs and kittens. But the long continuance of this +indulgence among mature civilized beings is due to their masculinity. +That group of associated sex instincts, which in the woman prompts to +the patient service and fierce defence of the little child, in the man +has its deepest root in seeking, pursuing and catching. To hunt is more +than a means of obtaining food, in his long ancestry; it is to follow at +any cost, to seek through all difficulties, to struggle for and secure +the central prize of his being--a mate. + +His "protective instincts" are far later and more superficial. To +support and care for his wife, his children, is a recent habit, in plain +sight historically; but "the pleasure of the chase" is older than that. +We should remember that associate habits and impulses last for ages upon +ages in living forms; as in the tree climbing instincts of our earliest +years, of Simian origin; and the love of water, which dates back through +unmeasured time. Where for millions of years the strongest pleasure +a given organism is fitted for, is obtained by a certain group of +activities, those activities will continue to give pleasure long after +their earlier use is gone. + +This is why men enjoy "the ardor of pursuit" far more than women. It is +an essentially masculine ardor. To come easily by what he wants does not +satisfy him. He wants to want it. He wants to hunt it, seek it, chase +it, catch it. He wants it to be "game." He is by virtue of his sex a +sportsman. + +There is no reason why these special instincts should not be gratified +so long as it does no harm to the more important social processes; but +it is distinctly desirable that we should understand their nature. The +reason why we have the present overwhelming mass of "sporting events," +from the ball game to the prize fight, is because our civilization is +so overwhelmingly masculine. We shall criticize them more justly when +we see that all this mass of indulgence is in the first place a form of +sex-expression, and in the second place a survival of instincts older +than the oldest savagery. + +Besides our games and sports we have a large field of "amusements" also +worth examining. We not only enjoy doing things, but we enjoy seeing +them done by others. In these highly specialized days most of our +amusement consists in paying two dollars to sit three hours and see +other people do things. + +This in its largest sense is wholly human. We, as social creatures, +can enjoy a thousand forms of expression quite beyond the personal. The +birds must each sing his own song; the crickets chirp in millionfold +performance; but human being feels the deep thrill of joy in their +special singers, actors, dancers, as well as in their own personal +attempts. That we should find pleasure in watching one another is +humanly natural, but what it is we watch, the kind of pleasure and the +kind of performance, opens a wide field of choice. + +We know, for instance, something of the crude excesses of aboriginal +Australian dances; we know more of the gross license of old Rome; +we know the breadth of the jokes in medieval times, and the childish +brutality of the bull-ring and the cockpit. We know, in a word, that +amusements vary; that they form a ready gauge of character and culture; +that they have a strong educational influence for good or bad. What we +have not hitherto observed is the predominant masculine influence on +our amusements. If we recall once more the statement with regard to +entertaining anecdotes, "There are thirty good stories in the world, and +twenty-nine of them cannot be told to women," we get a glaring sidelight +on the masculine specialization in jokes. + +"Women have no sense of humor" has been frequently said, when "Women +have not a masculine sense of humor" would be truer. If women had thirty +"good stories" twenty-nine of which could not be told to men, it is +possible that men, if they heard some of the twenty-nine, would not +find them funny. The overweight of one sex has told in our amusements as +everywhere else. + +Because men are further developed in humanity than women are as yet, +they have built and organized great places of amusement; because they +carried into their humanity their unchecked masculinity, they have made +these amusements to correspond. Dramatic expression, is in its true +sense, not only a human distinction, but one of our noblest arts. It is +allied with the highest emotions; is religious, educational, patriotic, +covering the whole range of human feeling. Through it we should be able +continually to express, in audible, visible forms, alive and moving, +whatever phase of life we most enjoyed or wished to see. There was a +time when the drama led life; lifted, taught, inspired, enlightened. Now +its main function is to amuse. Under the demand for amusement, it has +cheapened and coarsened, and now the thousand vaudevilles and picture +shows give us the broken fragments of a degraded art of which our one +main demand is that it shall make us laugh. + +There are many causes at work here; and while this study seeks to show +in various fields one cause, it does not claim that cause is the only +one. Our economic conditions have enormous weight upon our amusements, +as on all other human phenomena; but even under economic pressure the +reactions of men and women are often dissimilar. Tired men and women +both need amusement, the relaxation and restful change of irresponsible +gayety. The great majority of women, who work longer hours than +any other class, need it desperately and never get it. Amusement, +entertainment, recreation, should be open to us all, enjoyed by all. +This is a human need, and not a distinction of either sex. Like most +human things it is not only largely monopolized by men, but masculized +throughout. Many forms of amusement are for men only; more for men +mostly; all are for men if they choose to go. + +The entrance of women upon the stage, and their increased attendance at +theatres has somewhat modified the nature of the performance; even the +"refined vaudeville" now begins to show the influence of women. It would +be no great advantage to have this department of human life feminized; +the improvement desired is to have it less masculized; to reduce the +excessive influence of one, and to bring out those broad human interests +and pleasures which men and women can equally participate in and enjoy. + + + + +VII. ETHICS AND RELIGION. + + +The laws of physics were at work before we were on earth, and continued +to work on us long before we had intelligence enough to perceive, +much less understand, them. Our proven knowledge of these processes +constitutes "the science of physics"; but the laws were there before the +science. + +Physics is the science of material relation, how things and natural +forces work with and on one another. Ethics is the science of social +relation, how persons and social forces work with and on one another. + +Ethics is to the human world what physics is to the material world; +ignorance of ethics leaves us in the same helpless position in regard to +one another that ignorance of physics left us in regard to earth, air, +fire and water. + +To be sure, people lived and died and gradually improved, while yet +ignorant of the physical sciences; they developed a rough "rule +of thumb" method, as animals do, and used great forces without +understanding them. But their lives were safer and their improvement +more rapid as they learned more, and began to make servants of the +forces which had been their masters. + +We have progressed, lamely enough, with terrible loss and suffering, +from stark savagery to our present degree of civilization; we shall go +on more safely and swiftly when we learn more of the science of ethics. + +Let us note first that while the underlying laws of ethics remain steady +and reliable, human notions of them have varied widely and still do +so. In different races, ages, classes, sexes, different views of ethics +obtain; the conduct of the people is modified by their views, and their +prosperity is modified by their conduct. + +Primitive man became very soon aware that conduct was of importance. As +consciousness increased, with the power to modify action from within, +instead of helplessly reacting to stimuli from without, there arose the +crude first codes of ethics, the "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" of +the blundering savage. It was mostly "Thou shalt not." Inhibition, the +checking of an impulse proven disadvantageous, was an earlier and easier +form of action than the later human power to consciously decide on and +follow a course of action with no stimulus but one's own will. + +Primitive ethics consists mostly of Tabus--the things that are +forbidden; and all our dim notions of ethics to this day, as well as +most of our religions, deal mainly with forbidding. + +This is almost the whole of our nursery government, to an extent shown +by the well-worn tale of the child who said her name was "Mary." "Mary +what?" they asked her. And she answered, "Mary Don't." It is also the +main body of our legal systems--a complex mass of prohibitions and +preventions. And even in manners and conventions, the things one should +not do far outnumber the things one should. A general policy of negation +colors our conceptions of ethics and religion. + +When the positive side began to be developed, it was at first in purely +arbitrary and artificial form. The followers of a given religion were +required to go through certain motions, as prostrating themselves, +kneeling, and the like; they were required to bring tribute to the gods +and their priests, sacrifices, tithes, oblations; they were set little +special performances to go through at given times; the range of things +forbidden was broad; the range of things commanded was narrow. The +Christian religion, practically interpreted, requires a fuller "change +of heart" and change of life than any preceding it; which may account at +once for its wide appeal to enlightened peoples, and to its scarcity of +application. + +Again, in surveying the field, it is seen that as our grasp of ethical +values widened, as we called more and more acts and tendencies "right" +and "wrong," we have shown astonishing fluctuations and vagaries in our +judgment. Not only in our religions, which have necessarily upheld each +its own set of prescribed actions as most "right," and its own special +prohibitions as most "wrong"; but in our beliefs about ethics and our +real conduct, we have varied absurdly. + +Take, for instance, the ethical concept among "gentlemen" a century or +so since, which put the paying of one's gambling debts as a well-nigh +sacred duty, and the paying of a tradesman who had fed and clothed one +as a quite negligible matter. If the process of gambling was of social +service, and the furnishing of food and clothes was not, this might be +good ethics; but as the contrary is true, we have to account for this +peculiar view on other grounds. + +Again, where in Japan a girl, to maintain her parents, is justified in +leading a life of shame, we have a peculiar ethical standard difficult +for Western minds to appreciate. Yet in such an instance as is described +in "Auld Robin Gray," we see precisely the same code; the girl, to +benefit her parents, marries a rich old man she does not love--which is +to lead a life of shame. The ethical view which justifies this, puts the +benefit of parents above the benefit of children, robs the daughter of +happiness and motherhood, injures posterity to assist ancestors. + +This is one of the products of that very early religion, ancestor +worship; and here we lay a finger on a distinctly masculine influence. + +We know little of ethical values during the matriarchate; whatever they +were, they must have depended for sanction on a cult of promiscuous +but efficient maternity. Our recorded history begins in the patriarchal +period, and it is its ethics alone which we know. + +The mother instinct, throughout nature, is one of unmixed devotion, of +love and service, care and defence, with no self-interest. The animal +father, in such cases as he is of service to the young, assists the +mother in her work in similar fashion. But the human father in the +family with the male head soon made that family an instrument of desire, +and combat, and self-expression, following the essentially masculine +impulses. The children were his, and if males, valuable to serve and +glorify him. In his dominance over servile women and helpless children, +free rein was given to the growth of pride and the exercise of +irresponsible tyranny. To these feelings, developed without check for +thousands of years, and to the mental habits resultant, it is easy to +trace much of the bias of our early ethical concepts. + +Perhaps it is worth while to repeat here that the effort of this book +is by no means to attribute a wholly evil influence to men, and a wholly +good one to women; it is not even claimed that a purely feminine culture +would have advanced the world more successfully. It does claim that the +influence of the two together is better than that of either one alone; +and in especial to point out what special kind of injury is due to the +exclusive influence of one sex heretofore. + +We have to-day reached a degree of human development where both men and +women are capable of seeing over and across the distinctions of sex, +and mutually working for the advancement of the world. Our progress is, +however, seriously impeded by what we may call the masculine +tradition, the unconscious dominance of a race habit based on this long +androcentric period; and it is well worth while, in the interests of +both sexes, to show the mischievous effects of the predominance of one. + +We have in our ethics not only a "double standard" in one special line, +but in nearly all. Man, as a sex, has quite naturally deified his own +qualities rather than those of his opposite. In his codes of manners, of +morals, of laws, in his early concepts of God, his ancient religions, we +see masculinity written large on every side. Confining women wholly to +their feminine functions, he has required of them only what he called +feminine virtues, and the one virtue he has demanded, to the +complete overshadowing of all others, is measured by wholly masculine +requirements. + +In the interests of health and happiness, monogamous marriage proves its +superiority in our race as it has in others. It is essential to the +best growth of humanity that we practice the virtue of chastity; it is a +human virtue, not a feminine one. But in masculine hands this virtue +was enforced upon women under penalties of hideous cruelty, and quite +ignored by men. Masculine ethics, colored by masculine instincts, always +dominated by sex, has at once recognized the value of chastity in the +woman, which is right; punished its absence unfairly, which is wrong; +and then reversed the whole matter when applied to men, which is +ridiculous. + +Ethical laws are laws--not idle notions. Chastity is a virtue because it +promotes human welfare--not because men happen to prize it in women and +ignore it themselves. The underlying reason for the whole thing is the +benefit of the child; and to that end a pure and noble fatherhood is +requisite, as well as such a motherhood. Under the limitations of a too +masculine ethics, we have developed on this one line social conditions +which would be absurdly funny if they were not so horrible. + +Religion, be it noticed, does not bear out this attitude. The immense +human need of religion, the noble human character of the great religious +teachers, has always set its standards, when first established, ahead of +human conduct. + +Some there are, men of learning and authority, who hold that the +deadening immobility of our religions, their resistance to progress and +relentless preservation of primitive ideals, is due to the conservatism +of women. Men, they say, are progressive by nature; women are +conservative. Women are more religious than men, and so preserve old +religious forms unchanged after men have outgrown them. + +If we saw women in absolute freedom, with a separate religion devised +by women, practiced by women, and remaining unchanged through the +centuries; while men, on the other hand, bounded bravely forward, making +new ones as fast as they were needed, this belief might be maintained. +But what do we see? All the old religions made by men, and forced on the +women whether they liked it or not. Often women not even considered +as part of the scheme--denied souls--given a much lower place in the +system--going from the service of their father's gods to the service of +their husbands--having none of their own. We see religions which make +practically no place for women, as with the Moslem, as rigidly bigoted +and unchanging as any other. + +We see also this: that the wider and deeper the religion, the more +human, the more it calls for practical applications in Christianity--the +more it appeals to women. Further, in the diverging sects of the +Christian religion, we find that its progressiveness is to be measured, +not by the numbers of its women adherents, but by their relative +freedom. The women of America, who belong to a thousand sects, who +follow new ones with avidity, who even make them, and who also leave +them all as men do, are women, as well as those of Spain, who remain +contented Romanists, but in America the status of women is higher. + +The fact is this: a servile womanhood is in a state of arrested +development, and as such does form a ground for the retention of ancient +ideas. But this is due to the condition of servility, not to womanhood. +That women at present are the bulwark of the older forms of our +religions is due to the action of two classes of men: the men of the +world, who keep women in their restricted position, and the men of the +church, who take every advantage of the limitations of women. When we +have for the first time in history a really civilized womanhood, we can +then judge better of its effect on religion. + +Meanwhile, we can see quite clearly the effect of manhood. Keeping in +mind those basic masculine impulses--desire and combat--we see them +reflected from high heaven in their religious concepts. Reward! +Something to want tremendously and struggle to achieve! This is a +concept perfectly masculine and most imperfectly religious. A religion +is partly explanation--a theory of life; it is partly emotion--an +attitude of mind, it is partly action--a system of morals. Man's special +effect on this large field of human development is clear. He pictured +his early gods as like to himself, and they behaved in accordance with +his ideals. In the dimmest, oldest religions, nearest the matriarchate, +we find great goddesses--types of Motherhood, Mother-love, Mother-care +and Service. But under masculine dominance, Isis and Ashteroth dwindle +away to an alluring Aphrodite--not Womanhood for the child and the +World--but the incarnation of female attractiveness for man. + +As the idea of heaven developed in the man's mind it became the Happy +Hunting Ground of the savage, the beery and gory Valhalla of the +Norseman, the voluptuous, many-houri-ed Paradise of the Mohammedan. +These are men's heavens all. Women have never been so fond of hunting, +beer or blood; and their houris would be of the other kind. It may be +said that the early Christian idea of heaven is by no means planned for +men. That is trite, and is perhaps the reason why it has never had so +compelling an attraction for them. + +Very early in his vague efforts towards religious expression, man voiced +his second strongest instinct--that of combat. His universe is always +dual, always a scene of combat. Born with that impulse, exercising it +continually, he naturally assumed it to be the major process in life. +It is not. Growth is the major process. Combat is a useful subsidiary +process, chiefly valuable for its initial use, to transmit the physical +superiority of the victor. Psychic and social advantages are not thus +secured or transmitted. + +In no one particular is the androcentric character of our common thought +more clearly shown than in the general deification of what are now +described as "conflict stimuli." That which is true of the male creature +as such is assumed to be true of life in general; quite naturally, but +by no means correctly. To this universal masculine error we may trace in +the field of religion and ethics the great devil theory, which has for +so long obscured our minds. A God without an Adversary was inconceivable +to the masculine mind. From this basic misconception we find all our +ideas of ethics distorted; that which should have been treated as a +group of truths to be learned and habits to be cultivated was treated +in terms of combat, and moral growth made an everlasting battle. This +combat theory we may follow later into our common notions of discipline, +government, law and punishment; here is it enough to see its painful +effects in this primary field of ethics and religion? + +The third essential male trait of self-expression we may follow from +its innocent natural form in strutting cock or stamping stag up to the +characteristics we label vanity and pride. The degradation of women +in forcing them to adopt masculine methods of personal decoration as +a means of livelihood, has carried with the concomitant of personal +vanity: but to this day and at their worst we do not find in women the +_naive_ exultant glow of pride which swells the bosom of the men who +march in procession with brass bands, in full regalia of any sort, so +that it be gorgeous, exhibiting their glories to all. + +It is this purely masculine spirit which has given to our early concepts +of Deity the unadmirable qualities of boundless pride and a thirst for +constant praise and prostrate admiration, characteristics certainly +unbefitting any noble idea of God. Desire, combat and self-expression +all have had their unavoidable influence on masculine religions. What +deified Maternity a purely feminine culture might have put forth we do +not know, having had none such. Women are generally credited with as +much moral sense as men, and as much religious instinct; but so far it +has had small power to modify our prevailing creeds. + +As a matter of fact, no special sex attributes should have any weight in +our ideas of right and wrong. Ethics and religion are distinctly human +concerns; they belong to us as social factors, not as physical ones. +As we learn to recognize our humanness, and to leave our sex +characteristics where they belong, we shall at last learn something +about ethics as a simple and practical science, and see that religions +grow as the mind grows to formulate them. + +If anyone seeks for a clear, simple, easily grasped proof of our ethics, +it is to be found in a popular proverb. Struggling upward from beast and +savage into humanness, man has seen, reverenced, and striven to attain +various human virtues. + +He was willing to check many primitive impulses, to change many +barbarous habits, to manifest newer, nobler powers. Much he would +concede to Humanness, but not his sex--that was beyond the range of +Ethics or Religion. By the state of what he calls "morals," and the laws +he makes to regulate them, by his attitude in courtship and in marriage, +and by the gross anomaly of militarism, in all its senseless waste +of life and wealth and joy, we may perceive this little masculine +exception: + +"All's fair in love and war." + + + + +VIII. EDUCATION. + + +The origin of education is maternal. The mother animal is seen to teach +her young what she knows of life, its gains and losses; and, whether +consciously done or not, this is education. In our human life, +education, even in its present state, is the most important process. +Without it we could not maintain ourselves, much less dominate and +improve conditions as we do; and when education is what it should be, +our power will increase far beyond present hopes. + +In lower animals, speaking generally, the powers of the race must be +lodged in each individual. No gain of personal experience is of avail to +the others. No advantages remain, save those physically transmitted. The +narrow limits of personal gain and personal inheritance rigidly hem +in sub-human progress. With us, what one learns may be taught to the +others. Our life is social, collective. Our gain is for all, and profits +us in proportion as we extend it to all. As the human soul develops in +us, we become able to grasp more fully our common needs and advantages; +and with this growth has come the extension of education to the people +as a whole. Social functions are developed under natural laws, like +physical ones, and may be studied similarly. + +In the evolution of this basic social function, what has been the effect +of wholly masculine influence? + +The original process, instruction of individual child by individual +mother, has been largely neglected in our man-made world. That was +considered as a subsidiary sex-function of the woman, and as such, +left to her "instinct." This is the main reason why we show such great +progress in education for older children, and especially for youths, and +so little comparatively in that given to little ones. + +We have had on the one side the natural current of maternal education, +with its first assistant, the nursemaid, and its second, the +"dame-school"; and on the other the influence of the dominant class, +organized in university, college, and public school, slowly filtering +downward. + +Educational forces are many. The child is born into certain conditions, +physical and psychic, and "educated" thereby. He grows up into social, +political and economic conditions, and is further modified by them. All +these conditions, so far, have been of androcentric character; but +what we call education as a special social process is what the child is +deliberately taught and subjected to; and it is here we may see the same +dominant influence so clearly. + +This conscious education was, for long, given to boys alone, the girls +being left to maternal influence, each to learn what her mother knew, +and no more. This very clear instance of the masculine theory is glaring +enough by itself to rest a case on. It shows how absolute was the +assumption that the world was composed of men, and men alone were to be +fitted for it. Women were no part of the world, and needed no training +for its uses. As females they were born and not made; as human beings +they were only servants, trained as such by their servant mothers. + +This system of education we are outgrowing more swiftly with each year. +The growing humanness of women, and its recognition, is forcing an equal +education for boy and girl. When this demand was first made, by women +of unusual calibre, and by men sufficiently human to overlook +sex-prejudice, how was it met? What was the attitude of woman's "natural +protector" when she began to ask some share in human life? + +Under the universal assumption that men alone were humanity, that the +world was masculine and for men only, the efforts of the women were met +as a deliberate attempt to "unsex" themselves and become men. To be a +woman was to be ignorant, uneducated; to be wise, educated, was to be a +man. Women were not men, visibly; therefore they could not be educated, +and ought not to want to be. + +Under this androcentric prejudice, the equal extension of education to +women was opposed at every step, and is still opposed by many. Seeing in +women only sex, and not humanness, they would confine her exclusively +to feminine interests. This is the masculine view, _par excellence_. +In spite of it, the human development of women, which so splendidly +characterizes our age, has gone on; and now both woman's colleges and +those for both sexes offer "the higher education" to our girls, as well +as the lower grades in school and kindergarten. + +In the special professional training, the same opposition was +experienced, even more rancorous and cruel. One would think that on the +entrance of a few straggling and necessarily inferior feminine beginners +into a trade or profession, those in possession would extend to them the +right hand of fellowship, as comrades, extra assistance as beginners, +and special courtesy as women. + +The contrary occurred. Women were barred out, discriminated against, +taken advantage of, as competitors; and as women they have had to meet +special danger and offence instead of special courtesy. An unforgettable +instance of this lies in the attitude of the medical colleges toward +women students. The men, strong enough, one would think, in numbers, +in knowledge, in established precedent, to be generous, opposed +the newcomers first with absolute refusal; then, when the patient, +persistent applicants did get inside, both students and teachers +met them not only with unkindness and unfairness, but with a weapon +ingeniously well chosen, and most discreditable--namely, obscenity. +Grave professors, in lecture and clinic, as well as grinning students, +used offensive language, and played offensive tricks, to drive the women +out--a most androcentric performance. + +Remember that the essential masculine attitude is one of opposition, +of combat; his desire is obtained by first overcoming a competitor; +and then see how this dominant masculinity stands out where it has no +possible use or benefit--in the field of education. All along the line, +man, long master of a subject sex, fought every step of woman toward +mental equality. Nevertheless, since modern man has become human enough +to be just, he has at last let her have a share in the advantages of +education; and she has proven her full power to appreciate and use these +advantages. + +Then to-day rises a new cry against "women in education." Here is Mr. +Barrett Wendell, of Harvard, solemnly claiming that teaching women +weakens the intellect of the teacher, and every now and then bursts out +a frantic sputter of alarm over the "feminization" of our schools. It is +true that the majority of teachers are now women. It is true that they +do have an influence on growing children. It would even seem to be true +that that is largely what women are for. + +But the male assumes his influence to be normal, human, and the female +influence as wholly a matter of sex; therefore, where women teach boys, +the boys become "effeminate"--a grievous fall. When men teach girls, do +the girls become -----? Here again we lack the analogue. Never has it +occurred to the androcentric mind to conceive of such a thing as being +too masculine. There is no such word! It is odd to notice that which +ever way the woman is placed, she is supposed to exert this degrading +influence; if the teacher, she effeminizes her pupils; if the pupil, she +effeminizes her teachers. + +Now let us shake ourselves free, if only for a moment, from the +androcentric habit of mind. + +As a matter of sex, the female is the more important. Her share of the +processes which sex distinction serves is by far the greater. To +be feminine--if one were nothing else, is a far more extensive and +dignified office than to be masculine--and nothing else. + +But as a matter of humanity the male of our species is at present far +ahead of the female. By this superior humanness, his knowledge, his +skill, his experience, his organization and specialization, he makes and +manages the world. All this is human, not male. All this is as open +to the woman as the man by nature, but has been denied her during our +androcentric culture. + +But even if, in a purely human process, such as education, she does +bring her special feminine characteristics to bear, what are they, and +what are the results? + +We can see the masculine influence everywhere still dominant and +superior. There is the first spur, Desire, the base of the reward +system, the incentive of self-interest, the attitude which says, "Why +should I make an effort unless it will give me pleasure?" with its +concomitant laziness, unwillingness to work without payment. There is +the second spur, Combat, the competitive system, which sets one against +another, and finds pleasure not in learning, not exercising the mind, +but in getting ahead of one's fellows. Under these two wholly masculine +influences we have made the educational process a joy to the few who +successfully attain, and a weary effort, with failure and +contumely attached, to all the others. This may be a good method +in sex-competition, but is wholly out of place and mischievous in +education. Its prevalence shows the injurious masculization of this +noble social process. + +What might we look for in a distinctly feminine influence? What are +these much-dreaded feminine characteristics? + +The maternal ones, of course. The sex instincts of the male are of a +preliminary nature, leading merely to the union preceding parenthood. +The sex instincts of the female cover a far larger field, spending +themselves most fully in the lasting love, the ceaseless service, the +ingenuity and courage of efficient motherhood. To feminize education +would be to make it more motherly. The mother does not rear her children +by a system of prizes to be longed for and pursued; nor does she set +them to compete with one another, giving to the conquering child what +he needs, and to the vanquished, blame and deprivation. That would be +"unfeminine." + +Motherhood does all it knows to give to each child what is most +needed, to teach all to their fullest capacity, to affectionately and +efficiently develop the whole of them. + +But this is not what is meant by those who fear so much the influence +of women. Accustomed to a wholly male standard of living, to masculine +ideals, virtues, methods and conditions, they say--and say with some +justice--that feminine methods and ideals would be destructive to +what they call "manliness." For instance, education to-day is closely +interwoven with games and sports, all of an excessively masculine +nature. "The education of a boy is carried on largely on the +playground!" say the objectors to women teachers. Women cannot join them +there; therefore, they cannot educate them. + +What games are these in which women cannot join? There are forms of +fighting, of course, violent and fierce, modern modifications of the +instinct of sex-combat. It is quite true that women are not adapted, +or inclined, to baseball or football or any violent game. They are +perfectly competent to take part in all normal athletic development, the +human range of agility and skill is open to them, as everyone knows who +has been to the circus; but they are not built for physical combat; nor +do they find ceaseless pleasure in throwing, hitting or kicking things. + +But is it true that these strenuous games have the educational value +attributed to them? It seems like blasphemy to question it. The whole +range of male teachers, male pupils, male critics and spectators, are +loud in their admiration for the "manliness" developed by the craft, +courage, co-ordinative power and general "sportsmanship" developed by +the game of football, for instance; that a few young men are killed and +many maimed, is nothing in comparison to these advantages. + +Let us review the threefold distinction on which this whole study rests, +between masculine, feminine and human. Grant that woman, being feminine, +cannot emulate man in being masculine--and does not want to. Grant that +the masculine qualities have their use and value, as well as feminine +ones. There still remain the human qualities shared by both, owned by +neither, most important of all. Education is a human process, and +should develop human qualities--not sex qualities. Surely our boys are +sufficiently masculine, without needing a special education to make them +more so. + +The error lies here. A strictly masculine world, proud of its own sex +and despising the other, seeing nothing in the world but sex, either +male or female, has "viewed with alarm" the steady and rapid growth of +humanness. Here, for instance, is a boy visibly tending to be an +artist, a musician, a scientific discoverer. Here is another boy not +particularly clever in any line, nor ambitious for any special work, +though he means in a general way to "succeed"; he is, however, a big, +husky fellow, a good fighter, mischievous as a monkey, and strong in the +virtues covered by the word "sportsmanship." This boy we call "a fine +manly fellow." + +We are quite right. He is. He is distinctly and excessively male, at +the expense of his humanness. He may make a more prepotent sire than +the other, though even that is not certain; he may, and probably will, +appeal more strongly to the excessively feminine girl, who has even less +humanness than he; but he is not therefore a better citizen. + +The advance of civilization calls for human qualities, in both men and +women. Our educational system is thwarted and hindered, not as Prof. +Wendell and his life would have us believe, by "feminization," but by an +overweening masculization. + +Their position is a simple one. "We are men. Men are human beings. Women +are only women. This is a man's world. To get on in it you must do it +man-fashion--i.e., fight, and overcome the others. Being civilized, in +part, we must arrange a sort of 'civilized warfare,' and learn to play +the game, the old crude, fierce male game of combat, and we must educate +our boys thereto." No wonder education was denied to women. No wonder +their influence is dreaded by an ultra-masculine culture. + +It will change the system in time. It will gradually establish an equal +place in life for the feminine characteristics, so long belittled and +derided, and give pre-eminent dignity to the human power. + +Physical culture, for both boys and girls, will be part of such a +modified system. All things that both can do together will be accepted +as human; but what either boys or girls have to retire apart to practice +will be frankly called masculine and feminine, and not encouraged in +children. + +The most important qualities are the human ones, and will be so named +and honored. Courage is a human quality, not a sex-quality. What is +commonly called courage in male animals is mere belligerence, the +fighting instinct. To meet an adversary of his own sort is a universal +masculine trait; two father cats may fight fiercely each other, but both +will run from a dog as quickly as a mother cat. She has courage enough, +however, in defence of her kittens. + +What this world most needs to-day in both men and women, is the power +to recognize our public conditions; to see the relative importance of +measures; to learn the processes of constructive citizenship. We need an +education which shall give its facts in the order of their importance; +morals and manners based on these facts; and train our personal powers +with careful selection, so that each may best serve the community. + +At present, in the larger processes of extra-scholastic education, the +advantage is still with the boy. From infancy we make the gross mistake +of accentuating sex in our children, by dress and all its limitations, +by special teaching of what is "ladylike" and "manly." The boy is +allowed a freedom of experience far beyond the girl. He learns more +of his town and city, more of machinery, more of life, passing on from +father to son the truths as well as traditions of sex superiority. + +All this is changing before our eyes, with the advancing humanness +of women. Not yet, however, has their advance affected, to any large +extent, the base of all education; the experience of a child's first +years. Here is where the limitations of women have checked race progress +most thoroughly. Here hereditary influence was constantly offset by the +advance of the male. Social selection did develop higher types of men, +though sex-selection reversed still insisted on primitive types of +women. But the educative influence of these primitive women, acting most +exclusively on the most susceptible years of life, has been a serious +deterrent to race progress. + +Here is the dominant male, largely humanized, yet still measuring +life from male standards. He sees women only as a sex. (Note here the +criticism of Europeans on American women. "Your women are so sexless!" +they say, meaning merely that our women have human qualities as well +as feminine.) And children he considers as part and parcel of the same +domain, both inferior classes, "women and children." + +I recall in Rimmer's beautiful red chalk studies, certain profiles of +man, woman and child, and careful explanation that the proportion of the +woman's face and head were far more akin to the child than to the +man. What Mr. Rimmer should have shown, and could have, by profuse +illustration, was that the faces of boy and girl differ but slightly, +and the faces of old men and women differ as little, sometimes not at +all; while the face of the woman approximates the human more closely +than that of the man; while the child, representing race more than +sex, is naturally more akin to her than to him. The male reserves more +primitive qualities, the hairiness, the more pugnacious jaw; the female +is nearer to the higher human types. + +An ultra-male selection has chosen women for their femininity first, and +next for qualities of submissiveness and patient service bred by long +ages of servility. + +This servile womanhood, or the idler and more excessively feminine type, +has never appreciated the real power and place of the mother, and has +never been able to grasp or to carry out any worthy system of education +for little children. Any experienced teacher, man or woman, will own how +rare it is to find a mother capable of a dispassionate appreciation of +educative values. Books in infant education and child culture generally +are read by teachers more than mothers, so our public libraries prove. +The mother-instinct, quite suitable and sufficient in animals, is by +no means equal to the requirements of civilized life. Animal motherhood +furnishes a fresh wave of devotion for each new birth; primitive human +motherhood extends that passionate tenderness over the growing family +for a longer period; but neither can carry education beyond its +rudiments. + +So accustomed are we to our world-old method of entrusting the first +years of the child to the action of untaught, unbridled mother-instinct, +that suggestions as to a better education for babies are received with +the frank derision of massed ignorance. + +That powerful and brilliant writer, Mrs. Josephine Daskam Bacon, among +others has lent her able pen to ridicule and obstruct the gradual +awakening of human intelligence in mothers, the recognition that babies +are no exception to the rest of us in being better off for competent +care and service. It seems delightfully absurd to these reactionaries +that ages of human progress should be of any benefit to babies, save, +indeed, as their more human fathers, specialized and organized, are able +to provide them with better homes and a better world to grow up in. The +idea that mothers, more human, should specialize and organize as well, +and extend to their babies these supreme advantages, is made a laughing +stock. + +It is easy and profitable to laugh with the majority; but in the +judgment of history, those who do so, hold unenviable positions. The +time is coming when the human mother will recognize the educative +possibilities of early childhood, learn that the ability to rightly +teach little children is rare and precious, and be proud and glad to +avail themselves of it. + +We shall then see a development of the most valuable human qualities +in our children's minds such as would now seem wildly Utopian. We shall +learn from wide and long experience to anticipate and provide for the +steps of the unfolding mind, and train it, through carefully prearranged +experiences, to a power of judgment, of self-control, of social +perception, now utterly unthought of. + +Such an education would begin at birth; yes, far before it, in the +standards of a conscious human motherhood. It would require a quite +different status of wifehood, womanhood, girlhood. It would be wholly +impossible if we were never to outgrow our androcentric culture. + + + + +IX. "SOCIETY" AND "FASHION" + + +Among our many naive misbeliefs is the current fallacy that "society" is +made by women; and that women are responsible for that peculiar social +manifestation called "fashion." + +Men and women alike accept this notion; the serious essayist and +philosopher, as well as the novelist and paragrapher, reflect it in +their pages. The force of inertia acts in the domain of psychics as +well as physics; any idea pushed into the popular mind with considerable +force will keep on going until some opposing force--or the slow +resistance of friction--stops it at last. + +"Society" consists mostly of women. Women carry on most of its +processes, therefore women are its makers and masters, they are +responsible for it, that is the general belief. + +We might as well hold women responsible for harems--or prisoners for +jails. To be helplessly confined to a given place or condition does not +prove that one has chosen it; much less made it. + +No; in an androcentric culture "society," like every other social +relation, is dominated by the male and arranged for his convenience. +There are, of course, modifications due to the presence of the other +sex; where there are more women than men there are inevitable results +of their influence; but the character and conditions of the whole +performance are dictated by men. + +Social intercourse is the prime condition of human life. To meet, to +mingle, to know one another, to exchange, not only definite ideas, +facts, and feelings, but to experience that vague general stimulus +and enlarged power that comes of contact--all this is essential to our +happiness as well as to our progress. + +This grand desideratum has always been monopolized by men as far as +possible. What intercourse was allowed to women has been rigidly hemmed +its by man-made conventions. Women accept these conventions, repeat +them, enforce them upon their daughters; but they originate with men. + +The feet of the little Chinese girl are bound by her mother and her +nurse--but it is not for woman's pleasure that this crippling torture +was invented. The Oriental veil is worn by women, but it is not for any +need of theirs that veils were decreed them. + +When we look at society in its earlier form we find that the public +house has always been with us. It is as old almost as the private house; +the need for association is as human as the need for privacy. But the +public house was--and is--for men only. The woman was kept as far as +possible at home. Her female nature was supposed to delimit her life +satisfactorily, and her human stature was completely ignored. + +Under the pressure of that human nature she has always rebelled at the +social restrictions which surrounded her; and from the women of older +lands gathered at the well, or in the market place, to our own women +on the church steps or in the sewing circle, they have ceaselessly +struggled for the social intercourse which was as much a law of their +being as of man's. + +When we come to the modern special field that we call "society," we +find it to consist of a carefully arranged set of processes and places +wherein women may meet one another and meet men. These vary, of course, +with race, country, class, and period; from the clean licence of our +western customs to the strict chaperonage of older lands; but free as it +is in America, even here there are bounds. + +Men associate without any limit but that of inclination and financial +capacity. Even class distinction only works one way--the low-class man +may not mingle with high-class women; but the high-class man may--and +does--mingle with low-class women. It is his society--may not a man do +what he will with his own? + +Caste distinctions, as have been ably shown by Prof. Lester F. Ward, are +relics of race distinction; the subordinate caste was once a subordinate +race; and while mating, upward, was always forbidden to the subject +race; mating, downward, was always practiced by the master race. + +The elaborate shading of "the color line" in slavery days, from pure +black up through mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, quinteroon, griffada, +mustafee, mustee, and sang d'or--to white again; was not through white +mothers--but white fathers; never too exclusive in their tastes. Even in +slavery, the worst horrors were strictly androcentric. + +"Society" is strictly guarded--that is its women are. As always, the +main tabu is on the woman. Consider carefully the relation between +"society" and the growing girl. She must, of course, marry; and her +education, manners, character, must of course be pleasing to the +prospective wooer. That which is desirable in young girls means, +naturally, that which is desirable to men. Of all cultivated +accomplishments the first is "innocence." Beauty may or may not be +forthcoming; but "innocence" is "the chief charm of girlhood." + +Why? What good does it do _her?_ Her whole life's success is made to +depend on her marrying; her health and happiness depends on her marrying +the right man. The more "innocent" she is, the less she knows, the +easier it is for the wrong man to get her. + +As is so feelingly described in "The Sorrows of Amelia," in "The Ladies' +Literary Cabinet," a magazine taken by my grandmother; "The only foible +which the delicate Amelia possessed was an unsuspecting breast to lavish +esteem. Unversed in the secret villanies of a base degenerate world, she +ever imagined all mankind to be as spotless as herself. Alas for Amelia! +This fatal credulity was the source of all her misfortunes." It was. It +is yet. + +Just face the facts with new eyes--look at it as if you had never seen +"society" before; and observe the position of its "Queen." + +Here is Woman. Let us grant that Motherhood is her chief purpose. (As a +female it is. As a human being she has others!) Marriage is our way of +safeguarding motherhood; of ensuring "support" and "protection" to the +wife and children. + +"Society" is very largely used as a means to bring together young +people, to promote marriage. If "society" is made and governed by women +we should naturally look to see its restrictions and encouragements such +as would put a premium on successful maternity and protect women--and +their children--from the evils of ill-regulated fatherhood. + +Do we find this? By no means. + +"Society" allows the man all liberty--all privilege--all license. +There are certain offences which would exclude him; such as not paying +gambling debts, or being poor; but offences against womanhood--against +motherhood--do not exclude him. + +How about the reverse? + +If "society" is made by women, for women, surely a misstep by a +helplessly "innocent" girl, will not injure her standing! + +But it does. She is no longer "innocent." She knows now. She has lost +her market value and is thrown out of the shop. Why not? It is his +shop--not hers. What women may and may not be, what they must and must +not do, all is measured from the masculine standard. + +A really feminine "society" based on the needs and pleasures of women, +both as females and as human beings, would in the first place accord +them freedom and knowledge; the knowledge which is power. It would not +show us "the queen of the ballroom" in the position of a wall-flower +unless favored by masculine invitation; unable to eat unless he brings +her something; unable to cross the floor without his arm. Of all blind +stultified "royal sluggards" she is the archetype. No, a feminine +society would grant _at least_ equality to women in this, their +so-called special field. + +Its attitude toward men, however, would be rigidly critical. + +Fancy a real Mrs. Grundy (up to date it has been a Mr., his whiskers +hid in capstrings) saying, "No, no, young man. You won't do. You've been +drinking. The habit's growing on you. You'll make a bad husband." + +Or still more severely, "Out with you, sir! You've forfeited your right +to marry! Go into retirement for seven years, and when you come back +bring a doctor's certificate with you." + +That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it--for "Society" to say? It is +ridiculous, in a man's "society." + +The required dress and decoration of "society"; the everlasting eating +and drinking of "society," the preferred amusements of "society," the +absolute requirements and absolute exclusions of "society," are of men, +by men, for men,--to paraphrase a threadbare quotation. And then, upon +all that vast edifice of masculine influence, they turn upon women +as Adam did; and blame _them_ for severity with their fallen sisters! +"Women are so hard upon women!" + +They have to be. What man would "allow" his wife, his daughters, to +visit and associate with "the fallen"? His esteem would be forfeited, +they would lose their "social position," the girl's chance of marrying +would be gone. + +Men are not so stern. They may visit the unfortunate women, to bring +them help, sympathy, re-establishment--or for other reasons; and it +does not forfeit their social position. Why should it? They make the +regulation. + +Women are to-day, far more conspicuously than men, the exponents and +victims of that mysterious power we call "Fashion." As shown in mere +helpless imitation of one another's idea, customs, methods, there is +not much difference; in patient acquiescence with prescribed models of +architecture, furniture, literature, or anything else; there is not +much difference; but in personal decoration there is a most conspicuous +difference. Women do to-day submit to more grotesque ugliness and +absurdity than men; and there are plenty of good reasons for it. +Confining our brief study of fashion to fashion in dress, let us observe +why it is that women wear these fine clothes at all; and why they change +them as they do. + +First, and very clearly, the human female carries the weight of sex +decoration, solely because of her economic dependence on the male. She +alone in nature adds to the burdens of maternity, which she was meant +for, this unnatural burden of ornament, which she was not meant for. +Every other female in the world is sufficiently attractive to the male +without trimmings. He carries the trimmings, sparing no expense of +spreading antlers or trailing plumes; no monstrosity of crest and +wattles, to win her favor. + +She is only temporarily interested in him. The rest of the time she is +getting her own living, and caring for her own young. But our women get +their bread from their husbands, and every other social need. The woman +depends on the man for her position in life, as well as the necessities +of existence. For herself and for her children she must win and hold him +who is the source of all supplies. Therefore she is forced to add to +her own natural attractions this "dance of the seven veils," of the +seventeen gowns, of the seventy-seven hats of gay delirium. + +There are many who think in one syllable, who say, "women don't dress +to please men--they dress to please themselves--and to outshine other +women." To these I would suggest a visit to some summer shore resort +during the week and extending over Saturday night. The women have all +the week to please themselves and outshine one another; but their +array on Saturday seems to indicate the approach of some new force or +attraction. + +If all this does not satisfy I would then call their attention to the +well-known fact that the young damsel previous to marriage spends far +more time and ingenuity in decoration than she does afterward. This has +long been observed and deprecated by those who write Advice to Wives, on +the ground that this difference is displeasing to the husband--that +she loses her influence over him; which is true. But since his own +"society," knowing his weakness, has tied him to her by law; why should +she keep up what is after all an unnatural exertion? + +That excellent magazine "Good Housekeeping" has been running for some +months a rhymed and illustrated story of "Miss Melissa Clarissa McRae," +an extremely dainty and well-dressed stenographer, who captured and +married a fastidious young man, her employer, by the force of her +artificial attractions--and then lost his love after marriage by a +sudden unaccountable slovenliness--the same old story. + +If this in not enough, let me instance further the attitude toward +"Fashion" of that class of women who live most openly and directly upon +the favor of men. These know their business. To continually attract the +vagrant fancy of the male, nature's born "variant," they must not only +pile on artificial charms, but change them constantly. They do. From the +leaders of this profession comes a steady stream of changing fashions; +the more extreme and bizarre, the more successful--and because they are +successful they are imitated. + +If men did not like changes in fashion be assured these professional +men-pleasers would not change them, but since Nature's Variant tires +of any face in favor of a new one, the lady who would hold her sway and +cannot change her face (except in color) must needs change her hat and +gown. + +But the Arbiter, the Ruling Cause, he who not only by choice demands, +but as a business manufactures and supplies this amazing stream of +fashions; again like Adam blames the woman--for accepting what he both +demands and supplies. + +A further proof, if more were needed, is shown in this; that in exact +proportion as women grow independent, educated, wise and free, do they +become less submissive to men-made fashions. Was this improvement hailed +with sympathy and admiration--crowned with masculine favor? + +The attitude of men toward those women who have so far presumed to +"unsex themselves" is known to all. They like women to be foolish, +changeable, always newly attractive; and while women must "attract" for +a living--why they do, that's all. + +It is a pity. It is humiliating to any far-seeing woman to have to +recognize this glaring proof of the dependent, degraded position of her +sex; and it ought to be humiliating to men to see the results of their +mastery. These crazily decorated little creatures do not represent +womanhood. + +When the artist uses the woman as the type of every highest ideal; as +Justice, Liberty, Charity, Truth--he does not represent her trimmed. +In any part of the world where women are even in part economically +independent there we find less of the absurdities of fashion. Women who +work cannot be utterly absurd. + +But the idle woman, the Queen of Society, who must please men within +their prescribed bounds; and those of the half-world, who must please +them at any cost--these are the vehicles of fashion. + + + + +X. LAW AND GOVERNMENT. + + +It is easy to assume that men are naturally the lawmakers and +law-enforcers, under the plain historic fact that they have been such +since the beginning of the patriarchate. + +Back of law lies custom and tradition. Back of government lies the +correlative activity of any organized group. What group-insects +and group-animals evolve unconsciously and fulfill by their social +instincts, we evolve consciously and fulfill by arbitrary systems called +laws and governments. In this, as in all other fields of our action, we +must discriminate between the humanness of the function in process of +development, and the influence of the male or female upon it. Quite +apart from what they may like or dislike as sexes, from their differing +tastes and faculties, lies the much larger field of human progress, in +which they equally participate. + +On this plane the evolution of law and government proceeds somewhat as +follows:--The early woman-centered group organized on maternal lines +of common love and service. The early combinations of men were +first a grouped predacity--organized hunting; then a grouped +belligerency,--organized warfare. + +By special development some minds are able to perceive the need of +certain lines of conduct over others, and to make this clear to their +fellows; whereby, gradually, our higher social nature establishes rules +and precedents to which we personally agree to submit. The process of +social development is one of progressive co-ordination. + +From independent individual action for individual ends, up to +interdependent social action for social ends we slowly move; the "devil" +in the play being the old Ego, which has to be harmonized with the new +social spirit. This social process, like all others, having been +in masculine hands, we may find in it the same marks of one-sided +Specialization so visible in our previous studies. + +The coersive attitude is essentially male. In the ceaseless age-old +struggle of sex combat he developed the desire to overcome, which is +always stimulated by resistance; and in this later historic period of +his supremacy, he further developed the habit of dominance and mastery. +We may instance the contrast between the conduct of a man when "in love" +and while courting; in which period he falls into the natural position +of his sex towards the other--namely, that of a wooer; and his behavior +when, with marriage, they enter the, artificial relation of the master +male and servile female. His "instinct of dominance" does not assert +itself during the earlier period, which was a million times longer than +the latter; it only appears in the more modern and arbitrary relation. + +Among other animals monogamous union is not accompanied by any such +discordant and unnatural features. However recent as this habit is when +considered biologically, it is as old as civilization when we consider +it historically: quite old enough to be a serious force. Under its +pressure we see the legal systems and forms of government slowly +evolving, the general human growth always heavily perverted by the +special masculine influence. First we find the mere force of custom +governing us, the _mores_ of the ancient people. Then comes the gradual +appearance of authority, from the purely natural leadership of the best +hunter or fighter up through the unnatural mastery of the patriarch, +owning and governing his wives, children, slaves and cattle, and making +such rules and regulations as pleased him. + +Our laws as we support them now are slow, wasteful, cumbrous systems, +which require a special caste to interpret and another to enforce; +wherein the average citizen knows nothing of the law, and cares only +to evade it when he can, obey it when he must. In the household, that +stunted, crippled rudiment of the matriarchate, where alone we can find +what is left of the natural influence of woman, the laws and government, +so far as she is responsible for them, are fairly simple, and bear +visible relation to the common good, which relation is clearly and +persistently taught. + +In the larger household of city and state the educational part of the +law is grievously neglected. It makes no allowance for ignorance. If a +man breaks a law of which he never heard he is not excused therefore; +the penalty rolls on just the same. Fancy a mother making solemn rules +and regulations for her family, telling the children nothing about them, +and then punishing them when they disobeyed the unknown laws! + +The use of force is natural to the male; while as a human being he must +needs legislate somewhat in the interests of the community, as a male +being he sees no necessity for other enforcement than by penalty. To +violently oppose, to fight, to trample to the earth, to triumph in loud +bellowings of savage joy,--these are the primitive male instincts; +and the perfectly natural social instinct which leads to peaceful +persuasion, to education, to an easy harmony of action, are +contemptuously ranked as "feminine," or as "philanthropic,"--which is +almost as bad. "Men need stronger measures" they say proudly. Yes, but +four-fifths of the world are women and children! + +As a matter of fact the woman, the mother, is the first co-ordinator, +legislator, administrator and executive. From the guarding and guidance +of her cubs and kittens up to the longer, larger management of human +youth, she is the first to consider group interests and co-relate them. + +As a father the male grows to share in these original feminine +functions, and with us, fatherhood having become socialized while +motherhood has not, he does the best he can, alone, to do the world's +mother-work in his father way. + +In study of any long established human custom it is very difficult to +see it clearly and dispassionately. Our minds are heavily loaded with +precedent, with race-custom, with the iron weight called authority. +These heavy forces reach their most perfect expression in the absolutely +masculine field of warfare. The absolute authority; the brainless, +voiceless obedience; the relentless penalty. Here we have male coercion +at its height; law and government wholly arbitrary. The result is as +might be expected, a fine machine of destruction. But destruction is not +a human process--merely a male process of eliminating the unfit. + +The female process is to select the fit; her elimination is negative and +painless. + +Greater than either is the human process, to _develop fitness._ + +Men are at present far more human than women. Alone upon their +self-seized thrones they have carried as best they might the burdens of +the state; and the history of law and government shows them as changing +slowly but irresistably in the direction of social improvement. + +The ancient kings were the joyous apotheosis of masculinity. Power +and Pride were theirs; Limitless Display; Boundless Self-indulgence; +Irresistable Authority. Slaves and courtiers bowed before them, subjects +obeyed them, captive women filled their harems. But the day of the +masculine monarchy is passing, and the day of the human democracy is +coming in. In a Democracy Law and Government both change. Laws are no +longer imposed on the people by one above them, but are evolved from the +people themselves. How absurd that the people should not be educated +in the laws they make; that the trailing remnants of blind submission +should still becloud their minds and make them bow down patiently under +the absurd pressure of outgrown tradition! + +Democratic government is no longer an exercise of arbitrary authority +from one above, but is an organization for public service of the people +themselves--or will be when it is really attained. + +In this change government ceases to be compulsion, and becomes +agreement; law ceases to be authority and becomes co-ordination. When we +learn the rules of whist or chess we do not obey them because we fear to +be punished if we don't, but because we want to play the game. The rules +of human conduct are for our own happiness and service--any child can +see that. Every child will see it when laws are simplified, based on +sociology, and taught in schools. A child of ten should be considered +grossly uneducated who could not rewrite the main features of the laws +of his country, state, and city; and those laws should be so simple in +their principles that a child of ten could understand them. + +Teacher: "What is a tax?" + +Child: "A tax is the money we agree to pay to keep up our common +advantages." + +Teacher: "Why do we all pay taxes?" + +Child: "Because the country belongs to all of us, and we must all pay +our share to keep it up." + +Teacher: "In what proportion do we pay taxes?" + +Child: "In proportion to how much money we have." (_Sotto voce_: "Of +course!") + +Teacher: "What is it to evade taxes?" + +Child: "It is treason." (_Sotto voce_: "And a dirty mean trick.") + +In masculine administration of the laws we may follow the instinctive +love of battle down through the custom of "trial by combat"--only +recently outgrown, to our present method, where each contending party +hires a champion to represent him, and these fight it out in a wordy +war, with tricks and devices of complex ingenuity, enjoying this kind of +struggle as they enjoy all other kinds. + +It is the old masculine spirit of government as authority which is so +slow in adapting itself to the democratic idea of government as +service. That it should be a representative government they grasp, but +representative of what? of the common will, they say; the will of +the majority;--never thinking that it is the common good, the common +welfare, that government should represent. + +It is the inextricable masculinity in our idea of government which so +revolts at the idea of women as voters. "To govern:" that means to boss, +to control, to have authority; and that only, to most minds. They +cannot bear to think of the woman as having control over even their own +affairs; to control is masculine, they assume. Seeing only self-interest +as a natural impulse, and the ruling powers of the state as a sort of +umpire, an authority to preserve the rules of the game while men fight +it out forever; they see in a democracy merely a wider range of self +interest, and a wider, freer field to fight in. + +The law dictates the rules, the government enforces them, but the +main business of life, hitherto, has been esteemed as one long fierce +struggle; each man seeking for himself. To deliberately legislate for +the service of all the people, to use the government as the main engine +of that service, is a new process, wholly human, and difficult of +development under an androcentric culture. + +Furthermore they put forth those naively androcentric protests,--women +cannot fight, and in case their laws were resisted by men they could not +enforce them,--_therefore_ they should not vote! + +What they do not so plainly say, but very strongly think, is that women +should not share the loot which to their minds is so large a part of +politics. + +Here we may trace clearly the social heredity of male government. + +Fix clearly in your mind the first head-ship of man--the leader of the +pack as it were--the Chief Hunter. Then the second head-ship, the Chief +Fighter. Then the third head-ship, the Chief of the Family. Then the +long line of Chiefs and Captains, Warlords and Landlords, Rulers and +Kings. + +The Hunter hunted for prey, and got it. The Fighter enriched himself +with the spoils of the vanquished. The Patriarch lived on the labor of +women and slaves. All down the ages, from frank piracy and robbery to +the measured toll of tribute, ransom and indemnity, we see the same +natural instinct of the hunter and fighter. In his hands the government +is a thing to sap and wreck, to live on. It is his essential impulse to +want something very much; to struggle and fight for it; to take all he +can get. + +Set against this the giving love that comes with motherhood; the endless +service that comes of motherhood; the peaceful administration in the +interest of the family that comes of motherhood. We prate much of the +family as the unit of the state. If it is--why not run the state on that +basis? Government by women, so far as it is influenced by their sex, +would be influenced by motherhood; and that would mean care, nurture, +provision, education. We have to go far down the scale for any instance +of organized motherhood, but we do find it in the hymenoptera; in +the overflowing industry, prosperity, peace and loving service of the +ant-hill and bee-hive. These are the most highly socialized types of +life, next to ours, and they are feminine types. + +We as human beings have a far higher form of association, with further +issues than mere wealth and propagation of the species. In this human +process we should never forget that men are far more advanced than +women, at present. Because of their humanness has come all the noble +growth of civilization, in spite of their maleness. + +As human beings both male and female stand alike useful and honorable, +and should in our government be alike used and honored; but as creatures +of sex, the female is fitter than the male for administration of +constructive social interests. The change in governmental processes +which marks our times is a change in principle. Two great movements +convulse the world to-day, the woman's movement and the labor movement. +Each regards the other as of less moment than itself. Both are parts of +the same world-process. + +We are entering upon a period of social consciousness. Whereas so far +almost all of us have seen life only as individuals, and have regarded +the growing strength and riches of the social body as merely so much the +more to fatten on; now we are beginning to take an intelligent interest +in our social nature, to understand it a little, and to begin to feel +the vast increase of happiness and power that comes of real Human Life. + +In this change of systems a government which consisted only of +prohibition and commands; of tax collecting and making war; is rapidly +giving way to a system which intelligently manages our common interests, +which is a growing and improving method of universal service. Here the +socialist is perfectly right in his vision of the economic welfare to be +assured by the socialization of industry, though that is but part of +the new development; and the individualist who opposes socialism, crying +loudly for the advantage of "free competition" is but voicing the spirit +of the predacious male. + +So with the opposers to the suffrage of women. They represent, whether +men or women, the male viewpoint. They see the woman only as a female, +utterly absorbed in feminine functions, belittled and ignored as her +long tutelage has made her; and they see the man as he sees himself, the +sole master of human affairs for as long as we have historic record. + +This, fortunately, is not long. We can now see back of the period of +his supremacy, and are beginning to see beyond it. We are well under +way already in a higher stage of social development, conscious, +well-organized, wisely managed, in which the laws shall be simple +and founded on constructive principles instead of being a set of +ring-regulations within which people may fight as they will; and in +which the government shall be recognized in its full use; not only the +sternly dominant father, and the wisely servicable mother, but the real +union of all people to sanely and economically manage their affairs. + + + + +XI. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. + + +The human concept of Sin has had its uses no doubt; and our special +invention of a thing called Punishment has also served a purpose. + +Social evolution has worked in many ways wastefully, and with +unnecessary pain, but it compares very favorably with natural evolution. + +As we grow wiser; as our social consciousness develops, we are beginning +to improve on nature in more ways than one; a part of the same great +process, but of a more highly sublimated sort. + +Nature shows a world of varied and changing environment. Into this comes +Life--flushing and spreading in every direction. A pretty hard time Life +has of it. In the first place it is dog eat dog in every direction; the +joy of the hunter and the most unjoyous fear of the hunted. + +But quite outside of this essential danger, the environment waits, grim +and unappeasable, and continuously destroys the innocent myriads who +fail to meet the one requirement of life--Adaptation. So we must not be +too severe in self-condemnation when we see how foolish, cruel, crazily +wasteful, is our attitude toward crime and punishment. + +We become socially conscious largely through pain, and as we begin to +see how much of the pain is wholly of our own causing we are overcome +with shame. But the right way for society to face its past is the same +as for the individual; to see where it was wrong and stop it--but to +waste no time and no emotion over past misdeeds. + +What is our present state as to crime? It is pretty bad. Some say it is +worse than it used to be; others that it is better. At any rate it is +bad enough, and a disgrace to our civilization. We have murderers by +the thousand and thieves by the million, of all kinds and sizes; we have +what we tenderly call "immorality," from the "errors of youth" to the +sodden grossness of old age; married, single, and mixed. We have all the +old kinds of wickedness and a lot of new ones, until one marvels at the +purity and power of human nature, that it should carry so much disease +and still grow on to higher things. + +Also we have punishment still with us; private and public; applied like +a rabbit's foot, with as little regard to its efficacy. Does a child +offend? Punish it! Does a woman offend? Punish her! Does a man offend? +Punish him! Does a group offend? Punish them! + +"What for?" some one suddenly asks. + +"To make them stop doing it!" + +"But they have done it!" + +"To make them not do it again, then." + +"But they do do it again--and worse." + +"To prevent other people's doing it, then." + +"But it does not prevent them--the crime keeps on. What good is your +punishment?" + +What indeed! + +What is the application of punishment to crime? Its base, its +prehistoric base, is simple retaliation; and this is by no means wholly +male, let us freely admit. The instinct of resistance, of opposition, of +retaliation, lies deeper than life itself. Its underlying law is the law +of physics--action and reaction are equal. Life's expression of this +law is perfectly natural, but not always profitable. Hit your hand on a +stone wall, and the stone wall hits your hand. Very good; you learn that +stone walls are hard, and govern yourself accordingly. + +Conscious young humanity observed and philosophized, congratulating +itself on its discernment. "A man hits me--I hit the man a little +harder--then he won't do it again." Unfortunately he did do it again--a +little harder still. The effort to hit harder carried on the action and +reaction till society, hitting hardest of all, set up a system of legal +punishment, of unlimited severity. It imprisoned, it mutilated, it +tortured, it killed; it destroyed whole families, and razed contumelious +cities to the ground. + +Therefore all crime ceased, of course? No? But crime was mitigated, +surely! Perhaps. This we have proven at last; that crime does not +decrease in proportion to the severest punishment. Little by little we +have ceased to raze the cities, to wipe out the families, to cut off the +ears, to torture; and our imprisonment is changing from slow death and +insanity to a form of attempted improvement. + +But punishment as a principle remains in good standing, and is still the +main reliance where it does the most harm--in the rearing of children. +"Spare the rod and spoil the child" remains in belief, unmodified by the +millions of children spoiled by the unspared rod. + +The breeders of racehorses have learned better, but not the breeders of +children. Our trouble is simply the lack of intelligence. We face the +babyish error and the hideous crime in exactly the same attitude. + +"This person has done something offensive." + +Yes?--and one waits eagerly for the first question of the rational +mind--but does not hear it. One only hears "Punish him!" + +What is the first question of the rational mind? + +"Why?" + +Human beings are not first causes. They do not evolve conduct out of +nothing. The child does this, the man does that, _because_ of something; +because of many things. If we do not like the way people behave, and +wish them to behave better, we should, if we are rational beings, study +the conditions that produce the conduct. + +The connection between our archaic system of punishment and our +androcentric culture is two-fold. The impulse of resistance, while, as +we have seen, of the deepest natural origin, is expressed more strongly +in the male than in the female. The tendency to hit back and hit harder +has been fostered in him by sex-combat till it has become of great +intensity. The habit of authority too, as old as our history; and +the cumulative weight of all the religions and systems of law and +government, have furthermore built up and intensified the spirit of +retaliation and vengeance. + +They have even deified this concept, in ancient religions, crediting to +God the evil passions of men. As the small boy recited; "Vengeance. A +mean desire to get even with your enemies: 'Vengeance is mine saith the +Lord'--'I will repay.'" + +The Christian religion teaches better things; better than its expositors +and upholders have ever understood--much less practised. + +The teaching of "Love your enemies, do good unto them that hate you, and +serve them that despitefully use you and persecute you," has too +often resulted, when practised at all, in a sentimental negation; a +pathetically useless attitude of non-resistance. You might as well base +a religion on a feather pillow! + +The advice given was active; direct; concrete. "_Love!_" Love is not +non-resistance. "Do good!" Doing good is not non-resistance. "Serve!" +Service is not non-resistance. + +Again we have an overwhelming proof of the far-reaching effects of +our androcentric culture. Consider it once more. Here is one by nature +combative and desirous, and not by nature intended to monopolize the +management of his species. He assumes to be not only the leader, but the +whole thing--to be humanity itself, and to see in woman as Grant Allen +so clearly put it "Not only not the race; she is not even half the race, +but a subspecies, told off for purposes of reproduction merely." + +Under this monstrous assumption, his sex-attributes wholly identified +with his human attributes, and overshadowing them, he has imprinted on +every human institution the tastes and tendencies of the male. As a male +he fought, as a male human being he fought more, and deified fighting; +and in a culture based on desire and combat, loud with strident +self-expression, there could be but slow acceptance of the more human +methods urged by Christianity. "It is a religion for slaves and women!" +said the warrior of old. (Slaves and women were largely the same +thing.) "It is a religion for slaves and women" says the advocate of the +Superman. + +Well? Who did the work of all the ancient world? Who raised the food +and garnered it and cooked it and served it? Who built the houses, the +temples, the aqueducts, the city wall? Who made the furniture, the +tools, the weapons, the utensils, the ornaments--made them strong and +beautiful and useful? Who kept the human race going, somehow, in spite +of the constant hideous waste of war, and slowly built up the real +industrial civilization behind that gory show?--Why just the slaves and +the women. + +A religion which had attractions for the real human type is not +therefore to be utterly despised by the male. + +In modern history we may watch with increasing ease the slow, sure +progress of our growing humanness beneath the weakening shell of an +all-male dominance. And in this field of what begins in the nurse as +"discipline," and ends on the scaffold as "punishment," we can clearly +see that blessed change. + +What is the natural, the human attribute? What does this "Love," and +"Do good," and "Serve" mean? In the blundering old church, still +androcentric, there was a great to-do to carry out this doctrine, in +elaborate symbolism. A set of beggars and cripples, gathered for the +occasion, was exhibited, and kings and cardinals went solemnly through +the motions of serving them. As the English schoolboy phrased it, +"Thomas Becket washed the feet of leopards." + +Service and love and doing good must always remain side issues in a male +world. Service and love and doing good are the spirit of motherhood, and +the essence of human life. + +Human life is service, and is not combat. There you have the nature of +the change now upon us. + +What has the male mind made of Christianity? + +Desire--to save one's own soul. Combat--with the Devil. +Self-expression--the whole gorgeous outpouring of pageant and display, +from the jewels of the high priest's breastplate to the choir of +mutilated men to praise a male Deity no woman may so serve. + +What kind of mind can imagine a kind of god who would like a eunuch +better than a woman? + +For woman they made at last a place--the usual place--of renunciation, +sacrifice and service, the Sisters of Mercy and their kind; and in +that loving service the woman soul has been content, not yearning for +cardinal's cape or bishop's mitre. + +All this is changing--changing fast. Everywhere the churches are +broadening out into more service, and the service broadening out beyond +a little group of widows and fatherless, of sick and in prison, to +embrace its true field--all human life. In this new attitude, how shall +we face the problems of crime? + +Thus: "It is painfully apparent that a certain percentage of our people +do not function properly. They perform antisocial acts. Why? What is the +matter with them?" + +Then the heart and mind of society is applied to the question, and +certain results are soon reached; others slowly worked toward. + +First result. Some persons are so morally diseased that they must have +hospital treatment. The world's last prison will be simply a hospital +for moral incurables. They must by no means reproduce their kind,--that +can be attended to at once. Some are morally diseased, but may be cured, +and the best powers of society will be used to cure them. Some are only +morally diseased because of the conditions in which they are born and +reared, and here society can save millions at once. + +An intelligent society will no more neglect its children than an +intelligent mother will neglect her children; and will see as clearly +that ill-fed, ill-dressed, ill-taught and vilely associated little ones +must grow up gravely injured. + +As a matter of fact we make our crop of criminals, just as we make our +idiots, blind, crippled, and generally defective. Everyone is a baby +first, and a baby is not a criminal, unless we make it so. It never +would be,--in right conditions. Sometimes a pervert is born, as +sometimes a two-headed calf is born, but they are not common. + +The older, simpler forms of crime we may prevent with case and despatch, +but how of the new ones?--big, terrible, far-reaching, wide-spread +crimes, for which we have as yet no names; and before which our old +system of anti-personal punishment falls helpless? What of the crimes +of poisoning a community with bad food; of defiling the water; of +blackening the air; of stealing whole forests? What of the crimes of +working little children; of building and renting tenements that produce +crime and physical disease as well? What of the crime of living on the +wages of fallen women--of hiring men to ruin innocent young girls; of +holding them enslaved and selling them for profit? (These things are +only "misdemeanors" in a man-made world!) + +And what about a crime like this; to use the public press to lie to +the public for private ends? No name yet for this crime; much less a +penalty. + +And this: To bring worse than leprosy to an innocent clean wife who +loves and trusts you? + +Or this: To knowingly plant poison in an unborn child? + +No names, for these; no "penalties"; no conceivable penalty that could +touch them. + +The whole punishment system falls to the ground before the huge mass of +evil that confronts us. If we saw a procession of air ships flying +over a city and dropping bombs, should we rush madly off after each +one crying, "Catch him! Punish him!" or should we try to stop the +procession? + +The time is coming when the very word "crime" will be disused, except in +poems and orations; and "punishment," the word and deed, be obliterated. +We are beginning to learn a little of the nature of humanity its +goodness, its beauty, its lovingness; and to see that even its stupidity +is only due to our foolish old methods of education. + +It is not new power, new light, new hope that we need, but _to +understand what ails us._ + +We know enough now, we care enough now, we are strong enough now, to +make the whole world a thousand fold better in a generation; but we are +shackled, chained, blinded, by old false notions. The ideas of the past, +the sentiments of the past, the attitude and prejudices of the past, are +in our way; and among them none more universally mischievous than this +great body of ideas and sentiments, prejudices and habits, which make up +the offensive network of the androcentric culture. + + + + +XII. POLITICS AND WARFARE. + + +I go to my old dictionary, and find; "Politics, I. The science of +government; that part of ethics which has to do with the regulation and +government of a nation or state, the preservation of its safety, peace +and prosperity; the defence of its existence and rights against foreign +control or conquest; the augmentation of its strength and resources, and +the protection of its citizens in their rights; with the preservation +and improvement of their morals. 2. The management of political parties; +the advancement of candidates to office; in a bad sense, artful or +dishonest management to secure the success of political measures or +party schemes, political trickery." + +From present day experience we might add, 3. Politics, practical; The +art of organizing and handling men in large numbers, manipulating votes, +and, in especial, appropriating public wealth. + +We can easily see that the "science of government" may be divided into +"pure" and "applied" like other sciences, but that it is "a part of +ethics" will be news to many minds. + +Yet why not? Ethics is the science of conduct, and politics is merely +one field of conduct; a very common one. Its connection with Warfare in +this chapter is perfectly legitimate in view of the history of politics +on the one hand, and the imperative modern issues which are to-day +opposed to this established combination. + +There are many to-day who hold that politics need not be at all +connected with warfare, and others who hold that politics is warfare +from start to finish. + +In order to dissociate the two ideas completely let us give a paraphrase +of the above definition, applying it to domestic management;--that +part of ethics which has to do with the regulation and government of +a family; the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity; the +defense of its existence and rights against any strangers' interference +or control; the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the +protection of its members in their rights; with the preservation and +improvement of their morals. + +All this is simple enough, and in no way masculine; neither is it +feminine, save in this; that the tendency to care for, defend and manage +a group, is in its origin maternal. + +In every human sense, however, politics has left its maternal base far +in the background; and as a field of study and of action is as well +adapted to men as to women. There is no reason whatever why men should +not develop great ability in this department of ethics, and gradually +learn how to preserve the safety, peace and prosperity of their nation; +together with those other services as to resources, protection of +citizens, and improvement of morals. + +Men, as human beings, are capable of the noblest devotion and efficiency +in these matters, and have often shown them; but their devotion and +efficiency have been marred in this, as in so many other fields, by the +constant obtrusion of an ultra-masculine tendency. + +In warfare, _per se_, we find maleness in its absurdest extremes. Here +is to be studied the whole gamut of basic masculinity, from the initial +instinct of combat, through every form of glorious ostentation, with the +loudest possible accompaniment of noise. + +Primitive warfare had for its climax the possession of the primitive +prize, the female. Without dogmatising on so remote a period, it may +be suggested as a fair hypothesis that this was the very origin of our +organized raids. We certainly find war before there was property in +land, or any other property to tempt aggressors. Women, however, there +were always, and when a specially androcentric tribe had reduced its +supply of women by cruel treatment, or they were not born in sufficient +numbers, owing to hard conditions, men must needs go farther afield +after other women. Then, since the men of the other tribes naturally +objected to losing their main labor supply and comfort, there was war. + +Thus based on the sex impulse, it gave full range to the combative +instinct, and further to that thirst for vocal exultation so exquisitely +male. The proud bellowings of the conquering stag, as he trampled on his +prostrate rival, found higher expression in the "triumphs" of old days, +when the conquering warrior returned to his home, with victims chained +to his chariot wheels, and braying trumpets. + +When property became an appreciable factor in life, warfare took on a +new significance. What was at first mere destruction, in the effort to +defend or obtain some hunting ground or pasture; and, always, to secure +the female; now coalesced with the acquisitive instinct, and the long +black ages of predatory warfare closed in upon the world. + +Where the earliest form exterminated, the later enslaved, and took +tribute; and for century upon century the "gentleman adventurer," i.e., +the primitive male, greatly preferred to acquire wealth by the simple +old process of taking it, to any form of productive industry. + +We have been much misled as to warfare by our androcentric literature. +With a history which recorded nothing else; a literature which praised +and an art which exalted it; a religion which called its central power +"the God of Battles"--never the God of Workshops, mind you!--with +a whole complex social structure man-prejudiced from center to +circumference, and giving highest praise and honor to the Soldier; it is +still hard for its to see what warfare really is in human life. + +Someday we shall have new histories written, histories of world +progress, showing the slow uprising, the development, the interservice +of the nations; showing the faint beautiful dawn of the larger spirit of +world-consciousness, and all its benefitting growth. + +We shall see people softening, learning, rising; see life lengthen with +the possession of herds, and widen in rich prosperity with agriculture. +Then industry, blossoming, fruiting, spreading wide; art, giving +light and joy; the intellect developing with companionship and human +intercourse; the whole spreading tree of social progress, the trunk of +which is specialized industry, and the branches of which comprise every +least and greatest line of human activity and enjoyment. This growing +tree, springing up wherever conditions of peace and prosperity gave it a +chance, we shall see continually hewed down to the very root by war. + +To the later historian will appear throughout the ages, like some +Hideous Fate, some Curse, some predetermined check, to drag down all our +hope and joy and set life forever at its first steps over again, this +Red Plague of War. + +The instinct of combat, between males, worked advantageously so long +as it did not injure the female or the young. It is a perfectly natural +instinct, and therefore perfectly right, in its place; but its place +is in a pre-patriarchal era. So long as the animal mother was free and +competent to care for herself and her young; then it was an advantage to +have "the best man win;" that is the best stag or lion; and to have the +vanquished die, or live in sulky celibacy, was no disadvantage to any +one but himself. + +Humanity is on a stage above this plan. The best man in the social +structure is not always the huskiest. When a fresh horde of ultra-male +savages swarmed down upon a prosperous young civilization, killed off +the more civilized males and appropriated the more civilized females; +they did, no doubt, bring in a fresh physical impetus to the race; but +they destroyed the civilization. + +The reproduction of perfectly good savages is not the main business of +humanity. Its business is to grow, socially; to develop, to improve; and +warfare, at its best, retards human progress; at its worst, obliterates +it. + +Combat is not a social process at all; it is a physical process, a +subsidiary sex process, purely masculine, intended to improve the +species by the elimination of the unfit. Amusingly enough, or absurdly +enough; when applied to society, it eliminates the fit, and leaves the +unfit to perpetuate the race! + +We require, to do our organized fighting, a picked lot of vigorous young +males, the fittest we can find. The too old or too young; the sick, +crippled, defective; are all left behind, to marry and be fathers; while +the pick of the country, physically, is sent off to oppose the pick of +another country, and kill--kill--kill! + +Observe the result on the population! In the first place the balance is +broken--there are not enough men to go around, at home; many women are +left unmated. In primitive warfare, where women were promptly enslaved, +or, at the best, polygamously married, this did not greatly matter +to the population; but as civilization advances and monogamy obtains, +whatever eugenic benefits may once have sprung from warfare are +completely lost, and all its injuries remain. + +In what we innocently call "civilized warfare" (we might as well speak +of "civilized cannibalism!"), this steady elimination of the fit leaves +an everlowering standard of parentage at home. It makes a widening +margin of what we call "surplus women," meaning more than enough to +be monogamously married; and these women, not being economically +independent, drag steadily upon the remaining men, postponing marriage, +and increasing its burdens. + +The birth rate is lowered in quantity by the lack of husbands, and +lowered in quality both by the destruction of superior stock, and by +the wide dissemination of those diseases which invariably accompany the +wife-lessness of the segregated males who are told off to perform our +military functions. + +The external horrors and wastes of warfare we are all familiar with; +A. It arrests industry and all progress. B. It destroys the fruits of +industry and progress. C. It weakens, hurts and kills the combatants. D. +It lowers the standard of the non-combatants. Even the conquering nation +is heavily injured; the conquered sometimes exterminated, or at least +absorbed by the victor. + +This masculine selective process, when applied to nations, does not +produce the same result as when applied to single opposing animals. +When little Greece was overcome it did not prove that the victors were +superior, nor promote human interests in any way; it injured them. + +The "stern arbitrament of war" may prove which of two peoples is +the better fighter, but ft does not prove it therefor the fittest to +survive. + +Beyond all these more or less obvious evils, comes a further result, not +enough recognized; the psychic effects of military standard of thought +and feeling. + +Remember that an androcentric culture has always exempted its own +essential activities from the restraints of ethics,--"All's fair in +love and war!" Deceit, trickery, lying, every kind of skulking underhand +effort to get information; ceaseless endeavor to outwit and overcome +"the enemy"; besides as cruelty and destruction; are characteristic of +the military process; as well as the much praised virtues of courage, +endurance and loyalty, personal and public. + +Also classed as a virtue, and unquestionably such from the military +point of view, is that prime factor in making and keeping an army, +obedience. + +See how the effect of this artificial maintenance of early mental +attitudes acts on our later development. True human progress requires +elements quite other than these. If successful warfare made one nation +unquestioned master of the earth its social progress would not be +promoted by that event. The rude hordes of Genghis Khan swarmed +over Asia and into Europe, but remained rude hordes; conquest is not +civilization, nor any part of it. + +When the northern tribes-men overwhelmed the Roman culture they +paralysed progress for a thousand years or so; set back the clock +by that much. So long as all Europe was at war, so long the arts and +sciences sat still, or struggled in hid corners to keep their light +alive. + +When warfare itself ceases, the physical, social and psychic results do +not cease. Our whole culture is still hag-ridden by military ideals. + +Peace congresses have begun to meet, peace societies write and talk, but +the monuments to soldiers and sailors (naval sailors of course), still +go up, and the tin soldier remains a popular toy. We do not see boxes +of tin carpenters by any chance; tin farmers, weavers, shoemakers; we +do not write our "boys books" about the real benefactors and servers +of society; the adventurer and destroyer remains the idol of an +Androcentric Culture. + +In politics the military ideal, the military processes, are so +predominant as to almost monopolise "that part of ethics." The science +of government, the plain wholesome business of managing a community for +its own good; doing its work, advancing its prosperity, improving its +morals--this is frankly understood and accepted as A Fight from start +to finish. Marshall your forces and try to get in, this is the political +campaign. When you are in, fight to stay in, and to keep the other +fellow out. Fight for your own hand, like an animal; fight for +your master like any hired bravo; fight always for some desired +"victory"--and "to the victors belong the spoils." + +This is not by any means the true nature of politics. It is not even a +fair picture of politics to-day; in which man, the human being, is +doing noble work for humanity; but it is the effect of man, the male, on +politics. + +Life, to the "male mind" (we have heard enough of the "female mind" to +use the analogue!) _is_ a fight, and his ancient military institutions +and processes keep up the delusion. + +As a matter of fact life is growth. Growth comes naturally, by +multiplication of cells, and requires three factors to promote it; +nourishment, use, rest. Combat is a minor incident of life; belonging to +low levels, and not of a developing influence socially. + +The science of politics, in a civilized community, should have by this +time a fine accumulation of simplified knowledge for diffusion in +public schools; a store of practical experience in how to promote +social advancement most rapidly, a progressive economy and ease of +administration, a simplicity in theory and visible benefit in practice, +such as should make every child an eager and serviceable citizen. + +What do we find, here in America, in the field of "politics?" + +We find first a party system which is the technical arrangement to carry +on a fight. It is perfectly conceivable that a flourishing democratic +government be carried on _without any parties at all;_ public +functionaries being elected on their merits, and each proposed measure +judged on its merits; though this sounds impossible to the androcentric +mind. + +"There has never been a democracy without factions and parties!" is +protested. + +There has never been a democracy, so far--only an androcracy. + +A group composed of males alone, naturally divides, opposes, fights; +even a male church, under the most rigid rule, has its secret +undercurrents of antagonism. + +"It is the human heart!" is again protested. No, not essentially the +human heart, but the male heart. This is so well recognized by men in +general, that, to their minds, in this mingled field of politics and +warfare, women have no place. + +In "civilized warfare" they are, it is true, allowed to trail along and +practice their feminine function of nursing; but this is no part of war +proper, it is rather the beginning of the end of war. Some time it will +strike our "funny spot," these strenuous efforts to hurt and destroy, +and these accompanying efforts to heal and save. + +But in our politics there is not even provision for a nursing corps; +women are absolutely excluded. + +"They cannot play the game!" cries the practical politician. There +is loud talk of the defilement, the "dirty pool" and its resultant +darkening of fair reputations, the total unfitness of lovely woman to +take part in "the rough and tumble of politics." + +In other words men have made a human institution into an ultra-masculine +performance; and, quite rightly, feel that women could not take part +in politics _as men do._ That it is not necessary to fulfill this +human custom in so masculine a way does not occur to them. Few men +can overlook the limitations of their sex and see the truth; that this +business of taking care of our common affairs is not only equally open +to women and men, but that women are distinctly needed in it. + +Anyone will admit that a government wholly in the hands of women would +be helped by the assistance of men; that a gynaecocracy must, of its own +nature, be one sided. Yet it is hard to win reluctant admission of the +opposite fact; that an androcracy must of its own nature be one sided +also, and would be greatly improved by the participation of the other +sex. + +The inextricable confusion of politics and warfare is part of the +stumbling block in the minds of men. As they see it, a nation is +primarily a fighting organization; and its principal business is +offensive and defensive warfare; therefore the ultimatum with which they +oppose the demand for political equality--"women cannot fight, therefore +they cannot vote." + +Fighting, when all is said, is to them the real business of life; not to +be able to fight is to be quite out of the running; and ability to solve +our growing mass of public problems; questions of health, of education, +of morals, of economics; weighs naught against the ability to kill. + +This naive assumption of supreme value in a process never of the first +importance; and increasingly injurious as society progresses, would be +laughable if it were not for its evil effects. It acts and reacts upon +us to our hurt. Positively, we see the ill effects already touched on; +the evils not only of active war; but of the spirit and methods of war; +idealized, inculcated and practiced in other social processes. It +tends to make each man-managed nation an actual or potential fighting +organization, and to give us, instead of civilized peace, that "balance +of power" which is like the counted time in the prize ring--only a rest +between combats. + +It leaves the weaker nations to be "conquered" and "annexed" just as +they used to be; with tariffs instead of tribute. It forces upon +each the burden of armament; upon many the dreaded conscription; and +continually lowers the world's resources in money and in life. + +Similarly in politics, it adds to the legitimate expenses of governing +the illegitimate expenses of fighting; and must needs have a "spoils +system" by which to pay its mercenaries. + +In carrying out the public policies the wheels of state are continually +clogged by the "opposition;" always an opposition on one side or the +other; and this slow wiggling uneven progress, through shorn victories +and haggling concessions, is held to be the proper and only political +method. + +"Women do not understand politics," we are told; "Women do not care for +politics;" "Women are unfitted for politics." + +It is frankly inconceivable, from the androcentric view-point, that +nations can live in peace together, and be friendly and serviceable +as persons are. It is inconceivable also, that in the management of a +nation, honesty, efficiency, wisdom, experience and love could work out +good results without any element of combat. + +The "ultimate resort" is still to arms. "The will of the majority" is +only respected on account of the guns of the majority. We have but a +partial civilization, heavily modified to sex--the male sex. + + + + +WOMAN AND THE STATE + + + [A Discussion of Political Equality of Men and Women. To be + read in connection with chapter 12 of Our Androcentric + Culture.] + +Here are two vital factors in human life; one a prime essential to our +existence; the other a prime essential to our progress. + +Both of them we idealize in certain lines, and exploit in others. +Both of them are misinterpreted, balked of their full usefulness, and +humanity thus injured. + +The human race does not get the benefit of the full powers of women, nor +of the full powers of the state. + +In all civilized races to-day there is a wide and growing sense of +discontent among women; a criticism of their assigned limitations, and +a demand for larger freedom and opportunity. Under different conditions +the demand varies; it is here for higher education, there for justice +before the law; here for economic independence, and there for political +equality. + +This last is at present the most prominent Issue of "the woman question" +in England and America, as the activity of the "militant suffragists" +has forced it upon the attention of the world. + +Thoughtful people in general are now studying this point more seriously +than ever before, genuinely anxious to adopt the right side, and there +is an alarmed uprising of sincere objection to the political equality of +women. + +Wasting no time on ignorance, prejudice, or the resistance of special +interests, let us fairly face the honest opposition, and do it justice. + +The conservative position is this: + +"Men and women have different spheres in life. To men belong the creation +and management of the state, and the financial maintenance of the home +and family: + +"To women belong the physical burden of maternity, and the industrial +management of the home and family; these duties require all their time +and strength: + +"The prosperity of the state may be sufficiently conserved by men alone; +the prosperity of the family requires the personal presence and services +of the mother in the home: if women assume the cares of the state, the +home and family will suffer:" + +Some go even farther than this, and claim an essential limitation +in "the female mind" which prevents it from grasping large political +interests; holding, therefore, that if women took part in state affairs +it would be to the detriment of the community: + +Others advance a theory that "society," in the special sense, is the +true sphere of larger service for women, and that those of them not +exclusively confined to "home duties" may find full occupation in +"social duties," including the time honored fields of "religion" and +"charity": + +Others again place their main reliance on the statement that, as to the +suffrage, "women do not want it." + +Let us consider these points in inverse order, beginning with the last +one. + +We will admit that at present the majority of women are not consciously +desirous of any extension of their political rights and privileges, but +deny that this indifference is any evidence against the desirability of +such extension. + +It has long been accepted that the position of women is an index of +civilization. Progressive people are proud of the freedom and honor +given their women, and our nation honestly believes itself the leader +in this line. "American women are the freest in the world!" we say; and +boast of it. + +Since the agitation for women's rights began, many concessions have +been made to further improve their condition. Men, seeing the justice +of certain demands, have granted in many states such privileges as +admission to schools, colleges, universities, and special instruction +for professions; followed by admission to the bar, the pulpit, and the +practice of medicine. Married women, in many states, have now a right +to their own earnings; and in a few, mothers have an equal right in the +guardianship of their children. + +We are proud and glad that our women are free to go unveiled, to travel +alone, to choose their own husbands; we are proud and glad of every +extension of justice already granted by men to women. + +Now:--Have any of these concessions been granted because a majority of +women asked for them? Was it advanced in opposition to any of them that +"women did not want it?" Have as many women ever asked for these things +as are now asking for the ballot? If it was desirable to grant these +other rights and privileges without the demand of a majority, why is the +demand of a majority required before this one is granted? + +The child widows of India did not unitedly demand the abolition of the +"suttee." + +The tortured girl children of China did not rise in overwhelming +majority to demand free feet; yet surely no one would refuse to lift +these burdens because only a minority of progressive women insisted on +justice. + +It is a sociological impossibility that a majority of an unorganized +class should unite in concerted demand for a right, a duty, which they +have never known. + +The point to be decided is whether political equality is to the +advantage of women and of the state--not whether either, as a body, is +asking for it. + +Now for the "society" theory. There is a venerable fiction to the +effect that women make--and manage, "society." No careful student of +comparative history can hold this belief for a moment. Whatever the +conditions of the age or place; industrial, financial, religious, +political, educational; these conditions are in the hands of men; and +these conditions dictate the "society" of that age or place. + +"Society" in a constitutional monarchy is one thing; in a primitive +despotism another; among millionaires a third; but women do not make the +despotism, the monarchy, or the millions. They take social conditions +as provided by men, precisely as they take all other conditions at +their hands. They do not even modify an existing society to their own +interests, being powerless to do so. The "double standard of morals," +ruling everywhere in "society," proves this; as does the comparative +helplessness of women to enjoy even social entertainments, without the +constant attendance and invitation of men. + +Even in its great function of exhibition leading to marriage, it is the +girls who are trained and exhibited, under closest surveillance; while +the men stroll in and out, to chose at will, under no surveillance +whatever. + +That women, otherwise powerful, may use "society" to further their ends, +is as true as that men do; and in England, where women, through their +titled and landed position, have always had more political power than +here, "society" is a very useful vehicle for the activities of both +sexes. + +But, in the main, the opportunities of "society" to women, are merely +opportunities to use their "feminine influence" in extra domestic +lines--a very questionable advantage to the home and family, to +motherhood, to women, or to the state. + +In religion women have always filled and more than filled the place +allowed them. Needless to say it was a low one. The power of the church, +its whole management and emoluments, were always in the hands of men, +save when the Lady Abbess held her partial sway; but the work of the +church has always been helped by women--the men have preached and the +women practised! + +Charity, as a vocation, is directly in line with the mother instinct, +and has always appealed to women. Since we have learned how injurious +to true social development this mistaken kindness is, it might almost be +classified as a morbid by-product of suppressed femininity! + +In passing we may note that charity as a virtue is ranked highest +among those nations and religions where women are held lowest. With the +Moslems it is a universal law--and in the Moslem Paradise there are no +women--save the Houries! + +The playground of a man-fenced "society"; the work-ground of a +man-taught church; and this "osmosis" of social nutrition, this leakage +and seepage of values which should circulate normally, called charity; +these are not a sufficient field for the activities of women. + +As for those limitations of the "feminine mind" which render her unfit +to consider the victuallage of a nation, or the justice of a tax on +sugar; it hardly seems as if the charge need be taken seriously. Yet +so able a woman as Mrs. Humphry Ward has recently advanced it in all +earnestness. + +In her view women are capable of handling municipal, but not state +affairs. Since even this was once denied them; and since, in England, +they have had municipal suffrage for some time; it would seem as if +their abilities grew with use, as most abilities do; which is in truth +the real answer. + +Most women spend their whole lives, and have spent their whole lives for +uncounted generations, in the persistent and exclusive contemplation of +their own family affairs. They are near-sighted, or near-minded, rather; +the trouble is not with the nature of their minds, but with the use of +them. + +If men as a class had been exclusively confined to the occupation of +house-service since history began, they would be similarly unlikely to +manifest an acute political intelligence. + +We may agree with Tennyson that "Woman is not undeveloped man, but +diverse;" that is _women_ are not undeveloped _men;_ but the feminine +half of humanity is undeveloped human. They have exercised their +feminine functions, but not their human-functions; at least not to their +full extent. + +Here appears a distinction which needs to be widely appreciated. + +We are not merely male and female--all animals are that--our chief +distinction is that of race, our humanness. + +Male characteristics we share with all males, bird and beast; female +characteristics we share with all females, similarly; but human +characteristics belong to _genus homo_ alone; and are possessed by both +sexes. A female horse is just as much a horse as a male of her species; +a female human being is just as human as the male of her species--or +ought to be! + +In the special functions and relations of sex there is no contest, no +possible rivalry or confusion; but in the general functions of humanity +there is great misunderstanding. + +Our trouble is that we have not recognized these human functions as +such; but supposed them to be exclusively masculine; and, acting under +that idea, strove to prevent women from an unnatural imitation of men. + +Hence this minor theory of the limitations of the "female mind." + +The mind is pre-eminently human. That degree of brain development which +distinguishes our species, is a human, not a sex characteristic. + +There may be, has been, and still is, a vast difference in our treatment +of the minds of the two sexes. We have given them a different education, +different exercises, different conditions in all ways. But all these +differences are external, and their effect disappears with them. + +The "female mind" has proven its identical capacity with the "male +mind," _in so far as it has been given identical conditions._ It will +take a long time, however, before conditions are so identical, for +successive generations, as to give the "female mind" a fair chance. + +In the meantime, considering its traditional, educational and +associative drawbacks, the "female mind" has made a remarkably good +showing. + +The field of politics is an unfortunate one in which to urge this +alleged limitation; because politics is one of the few fields in which +some women have been reared and exercised under equal conditions with +men. + +We have had queens as long as we have had kings, perhaps longer; and +history does not show the male mind, in kings, to have manifested a +numerically proportionate superiority over the female mind, in queens. +There have been more kings than queens, but have there been more good +and great ones, in proportion? + +Even one practical and efficient queen is proof enough that being a +woman does not preclude political capacity. Since England has had such +an able queen for so long, and that within Mrs. Humphry Ward's personal +memory, her position seems fatuous in the extreme. + +It has been advanced that great queens owed their power to the +association and advice of the noble and high-minded men who surrounded +them; and, further, that the poor showing made by many kings, was due to +the association and vice of the base and low-minded women who surrounded +them. + +This is a particularly pusillanimous claim in the first place; is not +provable in the second place; and, if it were true, opens up a very +pretty field of study in the third place. It would seem to prove, if it +proves anything, that men are not fit to be trusted with political +power on account of an alarming affinity for the worst of women; and, +conversely, that women, as commanding the assistance of the best of men, +are visibly the right rulers! Also it opens a pleasant sidelight on that +oft-recommended tool--"feminine influence." + +We now come to our opening objection; that society and state, home, and +family, are best served by the present division of interests: and its +corollary, that if women enlarge that field of interest it would reduce +their usefulness in their present sphere. + +The corollary is easily removed. We are now on the broad ground of +established facts; of history, recent, but still achieved. + +Women have had equal political rights with men in several places, for +considerable periods of time. In Wyoming, to come near home, they have +enjoyed this status for more than a generation. Neither here nor in any +other state or country where women vote, is there the faintest proof of +injury to the home or family relation. In Wyoming, indeed, divorce has +decreased, while gaining so fast in other places. + +Political knowledge, political interest, does not take up more time and +strength than any other form of mental activity; nor does it preclude a +keen efficiency in other lines; and as for the actual time required to +perform the average duties of citizenship--it is a contemptible bit of +trickery in argument, if not mere ignorance and confusion of idea, to +urge the occasional attendance on political meetings, or the annual or +bi-annual dropping of a ballot, as any interference with the management +of a house. + +It is proven, by years on years of established experience, that women +can enjoy full political equality and use their power, without in the +least ceasing to be contented and efficient wives and mothers, cooks and +housekeepers. + +What really horrifies the popular mind at the thought of women in +politics, is the picture of woman as a "practical politician;" giving +her time to it as a business, and making money by it, in questionable, +or unquestionable, ways; and, further, as a politician in office, as +sheriff, alderman, senator, judge. + +The popular mind becomes suffused with horror at the first idea, and +scarcely less so at the second. It pictures blushing girlhood on +the Bench; tender motherhood in the Senate; the housewife turned +"ward-heeler;" and becomes quite sick in contemplation of these +abominations. + +No educated mind, practical mind, no mind able and willing to use its +faculties, need be misled for a moment by these sophistries. + +There is absolutely no evidence that women as a class will rush into +"practical politics." Where they have voted longest they do not manifest +this dread result. Neither is there any proof that they will all desire +to hold office; or that any considerable portion of them will; or that, +if they did, they would get it. + +We seem unconsciously to assume that when women begin to vote, men will +stop; or that the women will outnumber the men; also that, outnumbering +them, they will be completely united in their vote; and, still further, +that so outnumbering and uniting, they will solidly vote for a ticket +composed wholly of women candidates. + +Does anyone seriously imagine this to be likely? + +This may be stated with assurance; if ever we do see a clever, +designing, flirtatious, man-twisting woman; or a pretty, charming, +irresistable young girl, elected to office--it will not be by the votes +of women! + +Where women are elected to office, by the votes of both men and women, +they are of suitable age and abilities, and do their work well. They +have already greatly improved some of the conditions of local politics, +and the legislation they advocate is of a beneficial character. + +What is the true relation of women to the state? + +It is precisely identical with that of men. Their forms of service may +vary, but their duty, their interest, their responsibility, is the same. + +Here are the people on earth, half of them women, all of them her +children. It is her earth as much as his; the people are their people, +the state their state; compounded of them all, in due relation. + +As the father and mother, together; shelter, guard, teach and provide +for their children in the home; so should all fathers and mothers, +together; shelter, guard, teach and provide for their common children, +the community. + +The state is no mystery; no taboo place of masculine secrecy; it is +simply us. + +Democracy is but a half-grown child as yet, one of twins? Its boy-half +is a struggling thing, with "the diseases of babyhood"; its girl-half +has hardly begun to take notice. + +As human creatures we have precisely the same duty and privilege, +interest, and power in the state; sharing its protection, its +advantages, and its services. As women we have a different relation. + +Here indeed we will admit, and glory in, our "diversity." The "eternal +womanly" is a far more useful thing in the state than the "eternal +manly." + +To be woman means to be mother. To be mother means to give love, +defense, nourishment, care, instruction. Too long, far too long has +motherhood neglected its real social duties, its duties to humanity at +large. Even in her position of retarded industrial development, as the +housekeeper and houseworker of the world, woman has a contribution of +special value to the state. + +As the loving mother, the patient teacher, the tender nurse, the wise +provider and care-taker, she can serve the state, and the state needs +her service. + + + + +XIII. INDUSTRY AND ECONOMICS. + + +The forest of Truth, on the subject of industry and economics, is +difficult to see on account of the trees. + +We have so many Facts on this subject; so many Opinions; so many +Traditions and Habits; and the pressure of Immediate Conclusions is so +intense upon us all; that it is not easy to form a clear space in one's +mind and consider the field fairly. + +Possibly the present treatment of the subject will appeal most to the +minds of those who know least about it; such as the Average Woman. +To her, Industry is a daylong and lifelong duty, as well as a natural +impulse; and economics means going without things. To such untrained +but also unprejudiced minds it should be easy to show the main facts on +these lines. + +Let us dispose of Economics first, as having a solemn scientific +appearance. + +Physical Economics treats of the internal affairs of the body; the whole +machinery and how it works; all organs, members, functions; each last +and littlest capillary and leucocyte, are parts of that "economy." + +Nature's "economy" is not in the least "economical." The waste of life, +the waste of material, the waste of time and effort, are prodigious, yet +she achieves her end as we see. + +Domestic Economics covers the whole care and government of the +household; the maintenance of peace, health, order, and morality; the +care and nourishment of children as far as done at home; the entire +management of the home, as well as the spending and saving of money; are +included in it. Saving is the least and poorest part of it; especially +as in mere abstinence from needed things; most especially when this +abstinence is mainly "Mother's." How best to spend; time, strength, +love, care, labor, knowledge, and money--this should be the main study +in Domestic Economics. + +Social, or, as they are used to call it, Political Economics, covers +a larger, but not essentially different field. A family consists of +people, and the Mother is their natural manager. Society consists of +people--_the same people_--only more of them. All the people, who are +members of Society, are also members of families--except some incubated +orphans maybe. Social Economics covers the whole care and management of +the people, the maintenance of peace and health and order and morality; +the care of children, as far as done out of the home; as well as the +spending and saving of the public money--all these are included in it. + +This great business of Social Economics is at present little understood +and most poorly managed, for this reason; we approach it from an +individual point of view; seeking not so much to do our share in the +common service, as to get our personal profit from the common wealth. +Where the whole family labors together to harvest fruit and store it for +the winter, we have legitimate Domestic Economics: but where one member +takes and hides a lot for himself, to the exclusion of the others, we +have no Domestic Economics at all--merely individual selfishness. + +In Social Economics we have a large, but simple problem. Here is the +earth, our farm. Here are the people, who own the earth. How can the +most advantage to the most people be obtained from the earth with the +least labor? That is the problem of Social Economics. + +Looking at the world as if you held it in your hands to study and +discuss, what do we find at present? + +We find people living too thickly for health and comfort in some places, +and too thinly for others; we find most people working too hard and too +long at honest labor; some people working with damaging intensity at +dishonest labor; and a few wretched paupers among the rich and poor, +degenerate idlers who do not work at all, the scum and the dregs of +Society. + +All this is bad economics. We do not get the comfort out of life we +easily could; and work far too hard for what we do get. Moreover, there +is no peace, no settled security. No man is sure of his living, no +matter how hard he works, a thousand things may occur to deprive him of +his job, or his income. In our time there is great excitement along this +line of study; and more than one proposition is advanced whereby we +may improve, most notably instanced in the world-covering advance of +Socialism. + +In our present study the principal fact to be exhibited is the influence +of a male culture upon Social Economics and Industry. + +Industry, as a department of Social Economics, is little understood. +Heretofore we have viewed this field from several wholly erroneous +positions. From the Hebrew (and wholly androcentric) religious teaching, +we have regarded labor as a curse. + +Nothing could be more absurdly false. Labor is not merely a means of +supporting human life--it _is_ human life. Imagine a race of beings +living without labor! They must be the rudest savages. + +Human work consists in specialized industry and the exchange of its +products; and without it is no civilization. As industry develops, +civilization develops; peace expands; wealth increases; science and art +help on the splendid total. Productive industry, and its concomitant of +distributive industry cover the major field of human life. + +If our industry was normal, what should we see? + +A world full of healthy, happy people; each busily engaged in what he +or she most enjoys doing. Normal Specialization, like all our +voluntary processes, is accompanied by keen pleasure; and any check or +interruption to it gives pain and injury. Whosoever works at what he +loves is well and happy. Whoso works at what he does not love is ill and +miserable. It is very bad economics to force unwilling industry. That is +the weakness of slave labor; and of wage labor also where there is not +full industrial education and freedom of choice. + +Under normal conditions we should see well developed, well trained +specialists happily engaged in the work they most enjoyed; for +reasonable hours (any work, or play either, becomes injurious if done +too long); and as a consequence the whole output of the world would be +vastly improved, not only in quantity but in quality. + +Plain are the melancholy facts of what we do see. Following that pitiful +conception of labor as a curse, comes the very old and androcentric +habit of despising it as belonging to women, and then to slaves. + +As a matter of fact industry is in its origin feminine; that is, +maternal. It is the overflowing fountain of mother-love and mother-power +which first prompts the human race to labor; and for long ages men +performed no productive industry at all; being merely hunters and +fighters. + +It is this lack of natural instinct for labor in the male of our +species, together with the ideas and opinions based on that lack, and +voiced by him in his many writings, religious and other, which have +given to the world its false estimate of this great function, human +work. That which is our very life, our greatest joy, our road to all +advancement, we have scorned and oppressed; so that "working people," +the "working classes," "having to work," etc., are to this day spoken of +with contempt. Perhaps drones speak so among themselves of the "working +bees!" + +Normally, widening out from the mother's careful and generous service +in the family, to careful, generous service in the world, we should find +labor freely given, with love and pride. + +Abnormally, crushed under the burden of androcentric scorn and +prejudice, we have labor grudgingly produced under pressure of +necessity; labor of slaves under fear of the whip, or of wage-slaves, +one step higher, under fear of want. Long ages wherein hunting and +fighting were the only manly occupations, have left their heavy impress. +The predacious instinct and the combative instinct weigh down and +disfigure our economic development. What Veblen calls "the instinct of +workmanship" grows on, slowly and irresistably; but the malign features +of our industrial life are distinctively androcentric: the desire to +get, of the hunter; interfering with the desire to give, of the mother; +the desire to overcome an antagonist--originally masculine, interfering +with the desire to serve and benefit--originally feminine. + +Let the reader keep in mind that as human beings, men are able to +over-live their masculine natures and do noble service to the world; +also that as human beings they are today far more highly developed than +women, and doing far more for the world. The point here brought out is +that as males their unchecked supremacy has resulted in the abnormal +predominance of masculine impulses in our human processes; and that this +predominance has been largely injurious. + +As it happens, the distinctly feminine or maternal impulses are far more +nearly in line with human progress than are those of the male; which +makes her exclusion from human functions the more mischievous. + +Our current teachings in the infant science of Political Economy are +naively masculine. They assume as unquestionable that "the economic man" +will never do anything unless he has to; will only do it to escape pain +or attain pleasure; and will, inevitably, take all he can get, and do +all he can to outwit, overcome, and if necessary destroy his antagonist. + +Always the antagonist; to the male mind an antagonist is essential to +progress, to all achievement. He has planted that root-thought in all +the human world; from that old hideous idea of Satan, "The Adversary," +down to the competitor in business, or the boy at the head of the class, +to be superseded by another. + +Therefore, even in science, "the struggle for existence" is the dominant +law--to the male mind, with the "survival of the fittest" and "the +elimination of the unfit." + +Therefore in industry and economics we find always and everywhere the +antagonist; the necessity for somebody or something to be overcome--else +why make an effort? If you have not the incentive of reward, or the +incentive of combat, why work? "Competition is the life of trade." + +Thus the Economic Man. + +But how about the Economic Woman? + +To the androcentric mind she does not exist. Women are females, and +that's all; their working abilities are limited to personal service. + +That it would be possible to develop industry to far greater heights, +and to find in social economics a simple and beneficial process for the +promotion of human life and prosperity, under any other impulse than +these two, Desire and Combat, is hard indeed to recognize--for the "male +mind." + +So absolutely interwoven are our existing concepts of maleness and +humanness, so sure are we that men are people and women only females, +that the claim of equal weight and dignity in human affairs of the +feminine instincts and methods is scouted as absurd. We find existing +industry almost wholly in male hands; find it done as men do it; assume +that that is the way it must be done. + +When women suggest that it could be done differently, their proposal is +waved aside--they are "only women"--their ideas are "womanish." + +Agreed. So are men "only men," their ideas are "mannish"; and of the two +the women are more vitally human than the men. + +The female is the race-type--the man the variant. + +The female, as a race-type, having the female processes besides; +best performs the race processes. The male, however, has with great +difficulty developed them, always heavily handicapped by his maleness; +being in origin essentially a creature of sex, and so dominated almost +exclusively by sex impulses. + +The human instinct of mutual service is checked by the masculine +instinct of combat; the human tendency to specialize in labor, to +rejoicingly pour force in lines of specialized expression, is checked +by the predacious instinct, which will exert itself for reward; and +disfigured by the masculine instinct of self-expression, which is an +entirely different thing from the great human outpouring of world force. + +Great men, the world's teachers and leaders, are great in humanness; +mere maleness does not make for greatness unless it be in warfare--a +disadvantageous glory! Great women also must be great in humanness; but +their female instincts are not so subversive of human progress as are +the instincts of the male. To be a teacher and leader, to love and +serve, to guard and guide and help, are well in line with motherhood. + +"Are they not also in line with fatherhood?" will be asked; and, "Are +not the father's paternal instincts masculine?" + +No, they are not; they differ in no way from the maternal, in so far as +they are beneficial. Parental functions of the higher sort, of the human +sort, are identical. The father can give his children many advantages +which the mother can not; but that is due to his superiority as a human +being. He possesses far more knowledge and power in the world, the human +world; he himself is more developed in human powers and processes; and +is therefore able to do much for his children which the mother can not; +but this is in no way due to his masculinity. It is in this development +of human powers in man, through fatherhood, that we may read the +explanation of our short period of androcentric culture. + +So thorough and complete a reversal of previous relation, such +continuance of what appears in every way an unnatural position, must +have had some justification in racial advantages, or it could not have +endured. This is its justification; the establishment of humanness in +the male; he being led into it, along natural lines, by the exercise of +previously existing desires. + +In a male culture the attracting forces must inevitably have been, we +have seen, Desire and Combat. These masculine forces, acting upon +human processes, while necessary to the uplifting of the man, have been +anything but uplifting to civilization. A sex which thinks, feels and +acts in terms of combat is difficult to harmonize in the smooth bonds +of human relationship; that they have succeeded so well is a beautiful +testimony to the superior power of race tendency over sex tendency. +Uniting and organizing, crudely and temporarily, for the common hunt; +and then, with progressive elaboration, for the common fight; they are +now using the same tactics--and the same desires, unfortunately--in +common work. + +Union, organization, complex interservice, are the essential processes +of a growing society; in them, in the ever-increasing discharge of power +along widening lines of action, is the joy and health of social life. +But so far men combine in order to better combat; the mutual service +held incidental to the common end of conquest and plunder. + +In spite of this the overmastering power of humanness is now developing +among modern men immense organizations of a wholly beneficial character, +with no purpose but mutual advantage. This is true human growth, and +as such will inevitably take the place of the sex-prejudiced earlier +processes. + +The human character of the Christian religion is now being more and more +insisted on; the practical love and service of each and all; in place +of the old insistence on Desire--for a Crown and Harp in Heaven, and +Combat--with that everlasting adversary. + +In economics this great change is rapidly going on before our eyes. It +is a change in idea, in basic concept, in our theory of what the whole +thing is about. We are beginning to see the world, not as "a fair field +and no favor"--not a place for one man to get ahead of others, for a +price; but as an establishment belonging to us, the proceeds of which +are to be applied, as a matter of course, to human advantage. + +In the old idea, the wholly masculine idea, based on the processes of +sex-combat, the advantage of the world lay in having "the best man win." +Some, in the first steps of enthusiasm for Eugenics, think so still; +imagining that the primal process of promoting evolution through the +paternity of the conquering male is the best process. + +To have one superior lion kill six or sixty inferior lions, and leave a +progeny of more superior lions behind him, is all right--for lions; the +superiority in fighting being all the superiority they need. + +But the man able to outwit his follows, to destroy them in physical, or +ruin in financial, combat, is not therefore a superior human creature. +Even physical superiority, as a fighter, does not prove the kind of +vigor best calculated to resist disease, or to adapt itself to changing +conditions. + +That our masculine culture in its effect on Economics and Industry is +injurious, is clearly shown by the whole open page of history. From the +simple beneficent activities of a matriarchal period we follow the same +lamentable steps; nation after nation. Women are enslaved and captives +are enslaved; a military despotism is developed; labor is despised +and discouraged. Then when the irresistible social forces do bring us +onward, in science, art, commerce, and all that we call civilization, +we find the same check acting always upon that progress; and the really +vital social processes of production and distribution heavily injured by +the financial combat and carnage which rages ever over and among them. + +The real development of the people, the forming of finer physiques, +finer minds, a higher level of efficiency, a broader range of enjoyment +and accomplishment--is hindered and not helped by this artificially +maintained "struggle for existence," this constant endeavor to eliminate +what, from a masculine standard, is "unfit." + +That we have progressed thus far, that we are now moving forward so +rapidly, is in spite of and not because of our androcentric culture. + + + + +XIV. A HUMAN WORLD. + + +In the change from the dominance of one sex to the equal power of two, +to what may we look forward? What effect upon civilization is to be +expected from the equality of womanhood in the human race? + +To put the most natural question first--what will men lose by it? Many +men are genuinely concerned about this; fearing some new position of +subservience and disrespect. Others laugh at the very idea of change +in their position, relying as always on the heavier fist. So long as +fighting was the determining process, the best fighter must needs win; +but in the rearrangement of processes which marks our age, superior +physical strength does not make the poorer wealthy, nor even the soldier +a general. + +The major processes of life to-day are quite within the powers of women; +women are fulfilling their new relations more and more successfully; +gathering new strength, new knowledge, new ideals. The change is upon +us; what will it do to men? + +No harm. + +As we are a monogamous race, there will be no such drastic and cruel +selection among competing males as would eliminate the vast majority as +unfit. Even though some be considered unfit for fatherhood, all human +life remains open to them. Perhaps the most important feature of this +change comes in right here; along this old line of sex-selection, +replacing that power in the right hands, and using it for the good of +the race. + +The woman, free at last, intelligent, recognizing her real place and +responsibility in life as a human being, will be not less, but more, +efficient as a mother. She will understand that, in the line of physical +evolution, motherhood is the highest process; and that her work, as +a contribution to an improved race, must always involve this great +function. She will see that right parentage is the purpose of the whole +scheme of sex-relationship, and act accordingly. + +In our time, his human faculties being sufficiently developed, civilized +man can look over and around his sex limitations, and begin to see what +are the true purposes and methods of human life. + +He is now beginning to learn that his own governing necessity of Desire +is not _the_ governing necessity of parentage, but only a contributory +tendency; and that, in the interests of better parentage, motherhood is +the dominant factor, and must be so considered. + +In slow reluctant admission of this fact, man heretofore has recognized +one class of women as mothers; and has granted them a varying amount of +consideration as such; but he has none the less insisted on maintaining +another class of women, forbidden motherhood, and merely subservient to +his desires; a barren, mischievous unnatural relation, wholly aside from +parental purposes, and absolutely injurious to society. This whole +field of morbid action will be eliminated from human life by the normal +development of women. + +It is not a question of interfering with or punishing men; still less +of interfering with or punishing women; but purely a matter of changed +education and opportunity for every child. + +Each and all shall be taught the real nature and purpose of motherhood; +the real nature and purpose of manhood; what each is for, and which is +the more important. A new sense of the power and pride of womanhood will +waken; a womanhood no longer sunk in helpless dependence upon men; no +longer limited to mere unpaid house-service; no longer blinded by the +false morality which subjects even motherhood to man's dominance; but +a womanhood which will recognize its pre-eminent responsibility to +the human race, and live up to it. Then, with all normal and right +competition among men for the favor of women, those best fitted +for fatherhood will be chosen. Those who are not chosen will live +single--perforce. + +Many, under the old mistaken notion of what used to be called the +"social necessity" of prostitution, will protest at the idea of its +extinction. + +"It is necessary to have it," they will say. + +"Necessary _to whom?_" + +Not to the women hideously sacrificed to it, surely. + +Not to society, honey-combed with diseases due to this cause. + +Not to the family, weakened and impoverished by it. + +To whom then? To the men who want it? + +But it is not good for them, it promotes all manner of disease, of vice, +of crime. It is absolutely and unquestionably a "social evil." + +An intelligent and powerful womanhood will put an end to this indulgence +of one sex at the expense of the other; and to the injury of both. + +In this inevitable change will lie what some men will consider a loss. +But only those of the present generation. For the sons of the women now +entering upon this new era of world life will be differently reared. +They will recognize the true relation of men to the primal process; and +be amazed that for so long the greater values have been lost sight of in +favor of the less. + +This one change will do more to promote the physical health and beauty +of the race; to improve the quality of children born, and the general +vigor and purity of social life, than any one measure which could be +proposed. It rests upon a recognition of motherhood as the real base +and cause of the family; and dismisses to the limbo of all outworn +superstition that false Hebraic and grossly androcentric doctrine that +the woman is to be subject to the man, and that he shall rule over her. +He has tried this arrangement long enough--to the grievous injury of the +world. A higher standard of happiness will result; equality and mutual +respect between parents; pure love, undefiled by self-interests on +either side; and a new respect for Childhood. + +With the Child, seen at last to be the governing purpose of this +relation, with all the best energies of men and women bent on raising +the standard of life for all children, we shall have a new status of +family life which will be clean and noble, and satisfying to all its +members. + +The change in all the varied lines of human work is beyond the powers +of any present day prophet to forecast with precision. A new grade of +womanhood we can clearly foresee; proud, strong, serene, independent; +great mothers of great women and great men. These will hold high +standards and draw men up to them; by no compulsion save nature's law of +attraction. A clean and healthful world, enjoying the taste of life +as it never has since racial babyhood, with homes of quiet and +content--this we can foresee. + +Art--in the extreme sense will perhaps always belong most to men. +It would seem as if that ceaseless urge to expression, was, at least +originally, most congenial to the male. But applied art, in every form, +and art used directly for transmission of ideas, such as literature, or +oratory, appeals to women as much, if not more, than to men. + +We can make no safe assumption as to what, if any, distinction there +will be in the free human work of men and women, until we have seen +generation after generation grow up under absolutely equal conditions. +In all our games and sports and minor social customs, such changes +will occur as must needs follow upon the rising dignity alloted to the +woman's temperament, the woman's point of view; not in the least denying +to men the fullest exercise of their special powers and preferences; but +classifying these newly, as not human--merely male. At present we +have pages or columns in our papers, marked as "The Woman's Page" "Of +Interest to Women," and similar delimiting titles. Similarly we might +have distinctly masculine matters so marked and specified; not assumed +as now to be of general human interest. + +The effect of the change upon Ethics and Religion is deep and wide. With +the entrance of women upon full human life, a new principle comes into +prominence; the principle of loving service. That this is the governing +principle of Christianity is believed by many; but an androcentric +interpretation has quite overlooked it; and made, as we have shown, the +essential dogma of their faith the desire of an eternal reward and the +combat with an eternal enemy. + +The feminine attitude in life is wholly different. As a female she has +merely to be herself and passively attract; neither to compete nor +to pursue; as a mother her whole process is one of growth; first the +development of the live child within her, and the wonderful nourishment +from her own body; and then all the later cultivation to make the child +grow; all the watching, teaching, guarding, feeding. In none of this is +there either desire, combat, or self-expression. The feminine attitude, +as expressed in religion, makes of it a patient practical fulfillment of +law; a process of large sure improvements; a limitless comforting love +and care. + +This full assurance of love and of power; this endless cheerful +service; the broad provision for all people; rather than the competitive +selection of a few "victors;" is the natural presentation of religious +truth from the woman's viewpoint. Her governing principle being growth +and not combat; her main tendency being to give and not to get; she more +easily and naturally lives and teaches these religious principles. It is +for this reason that the broader gentler teaching of the Unitarian and +Universalist sects have appealed so especially to women, and that so +many women preach in their churches. + +This principle of growth, as applied and used in general human life will +work to far other ends than those now so painfully visible. + +In education, for instance, with neither reward nor punishment as spur +or bait; with no competition to rouse effort and animosity, but rather +with the feeling of a gardener towards his plants; the teacher will +teach and the children learn, in mutual ease and happiness. The law +of passive attraction applies here, leading to such ingenuity in +presentation as shall arouse the child's interest; and, in the true +spirit of promoting growth, each child will have his best and fullest +training, without regard to who is "ahead" of him, or her, or who +"behind." + +We do not sadly measure the cabbage-stalk by the corn-stalk, and praise +the corn for getting ahead of the cabbage--nor incite the cabbage to +emulate the corn. We nourish both, to its best growth--and are the +richer. + +That every child on earth shall have right conditions to make the best +growth possible to it; that every citizen, from birth to death, shall +have a chance to learn all he or she can assimilate, to develop every +power that is in them--for the common good--this will be the aim of +education, under human management. + +In the world of "society" we may look for very radical changes. + +With all women full human beings, trained and useful in some form of +work; the class of busy idlers, who run about forever "entertaining" and +being "entertained" will disappear as utterly as will the prostitute. +No woman with real work to do could have the time for such petty +amusements; or enjoy them if she did have time. No woman with real +work to do, work she loved and was well fitted for, work honored and +well-paid, would take up the Unnatural Trade. Genuine relaxation and +recreation, all manner of healthful sports and pastimes, beloved of both +sexes to-day, will remain, of course; but the set structure of "social +functions"--so laughably misnamed--will disappear with the "society +women" who make it possible. Once active members of real Society; no +woman could go back to "society," any more than a roughrider could +return to a hobbyhorse. + +New development in dress, wise, comfortable, beautiful, may be +confidently expected, as woman becomes more human. No fully human +creature could hold up its head under the absurdities our women wear +to-day--and have worn for dreary centuries. + +So on through all the aspects of life we may look for changes, rapid and +far-reaching; but natural and all for good. The improvement is not due +to any inherent moral superiority of women; nor to any moral inferiority +of men; men at present, as more human, are ahead of women in all +distinctly human ways; yet their maleness, as we have shown repeatedly, +warps and disfigures their humanness. The woman, being by nature the +race-type; and her feminine functions being far more akin to human +functions than are those essential to the male; will bring into human +life a more normal influence. + +Under this more normal influence our present perversities of functions +will, of course, tend to disappear. The directly serviceable tendency +of women, as shown in every step of their public work, will have small +patience with hoary traditions of absurdity. We need but look at long +recorded facts to see what women do--or try to do, when they have +opportunity. Even in their crippled, smothered past, they have made +valiant efforts--not always wise--in charity and philanthropy. + +In our own time this is shown through all the length and breadth of our +country, by the Woman's Clubs. Little groups of women, drawing together +in human relation, at first, perhaps, with no better purpose than to +"improve their minds," have grown and spread; combined and federated; +and in their great reports, representing hundreds of thousands of +women--we find a splendid record of human work. They strive always to +improve something, to take care of something, to help and serve and +benefit. In "village improvement," in traveling libraries, in lecture +courses and exhibitions, in promoting good legislation; in many a line +of noble effort our Women's Clubs show what women want to do. + +Men do not have to do these things through their clubs, which are mainly +for pleasure; they can accomplish what they wish to through regular +channels. But the character and direction of the influence of women in +human affairs is conclusively established by the things they already do +and try to do. In those countries, and in our own states, where they are +already full citizens, the legislation introduced and promoted by +them is of the same beneficent character. The normal woman is a strong +creature, loving and serviceable. The kind of woman men are afraid to +entrust with political power, selfish, idle, over-sexed, or ignorant and +narrow-minded, is not normal, but is the creature of conditions men +have made. We need have no fear of her, for she will disappear with the +conditions which created her. + +In older days, without knowledge of the natural sciences, we accepted +life as static. If, being born in China, we grew up with foot-bound +women, we assumed that women were such, and must so remain. Born in +India, we accepted the child-wife, the pitiful child-widow, the ecstatic +_suttee_, as natural expressions of womanhood. In each age, each +country, we have assumed life to be necessarily what it was--a moveless +fact. + +All this is giving way fast in our new knowledge of the laws of life. +We find that Growth is the eternal law, and that even rocks are slowly +changing. Human life is seen to be as dynamic as any other form; and the +most certain thing about it is that it will change. In the light of this +knowledge we need no longer accept the load of what we call "sin;" +the grouped misery of poverty, disease and crime; the cumbrous, +inefficacious, wasteful processes of life today, as needful or +permanent. + +We have but to learn the _real_ elements in humanity; its true powers +and natural characteristics; to see wherein we are hampered by the wrong +ideas and inherited habits of earlier generations, and break loose from +them--then we can safely and swiftly introduce a far nobler grade of +living. + +Of all crippling hindrances in false ideas, we have none more +universally mischievous than this root error about men and women. Given +the old androcentric theory, and we have an androcentric culture--the +kind we so far know; this short stretch we call "history;" with its +proud and pitiful record. We have done wonders of upward growth--for +growth is the main law, and may not be wholly resisted. But we have +hindered, perverted, temporarily checked that growth, age after age; and +again and again has a given nation, far advanced and promising, sunk to +ruin, and left another to take up its task of social evolution; repeat +its errors--and its failure. + +One major cause of the decay of nations is "the social evil"--a thing +wholly due to the androcentric culture. Another steady endless check +is warfare--due to the same cause. Largest of all is poverty; that +spreading disease which grows with our social growth and shows most +horribly when and where we are most proud, keeping step, as it were, +with private wealth. This too, in large measure, is due to the false +ideas on industry and economics, based, like the others mentioned, on a +wholly masculine view of life. + +By changing our underlying theory in this matter we change all the +resultant assumptions; and it is this alteration in our basic theory of +life which is being urged. + +The scope and purpose of human life is entirely above and beyond the +field of sex relationship. Women are human beings, as much as men, by +nature; and as women, are even more sympathetic with human processes. To +develop human life in its true powers we need full equal citizenship for +women. + +The great woman's movement and labor movement of to-day are parts of the +same pressure, the same world-progress. An economic democracy must +rest on a free womanhood; and a free womanhood inevitably leads to an +economic democracy. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man +Made World, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE *** + +***** This file should be named 3015.txt or 3015.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/1/3015/ + +Produced by Christopher Hapka + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. +XII. POLITICS AND WARFARE. (with WOMAN AND THE STATE.) +XIII. INDUSTRY AND ECONOMICS. +XIV. A HUMAN WORLD. + + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE, or THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +I. + +AS TO HUMANNESS. + + +Let us begin, inoffensively, with sheep. The sheep is a beast with +which we are all familiar, being much used in religious imagery; the +common stock of painters; a staple article of diet; one of our main +sources of clothing; and an everyday symbol of bashfulness and +stupidity. + +In some grazing regions the sheep is an object of terror, destroying +grass, bush and forest by omnipresent nibbling; on the great plains, +sheep-keeping frequently results in insanity, owing to the loneliness of +the shepherd, and the monotonous appearance and behavior of the sheep. + +By the poet, young sheep are preferred, the lamb gambolling gaily; +unless it be in hymns, where "all we like sheep" are repeatedly +described, and much stress is laid upon the straying propensities of the +animal. + +To the scientific mind there is special interest in the sequacity of +sheep, their habit of following one another with automatic imitation. +This instinct, we are told, has been developed by ages of wild crowded +racing on narrow ledges, along precipices, chasms, around sudden spurs +and corners, only the leader seeing when, where and how to jump. If +those behind jumped exactly as he did, they lived. If they stopped to +exercise independent judgment, they were pushed off and perished; they +and their judgment with them. + +All these things, and many that are similar, occur to us when we think +of sheep. They are also ewes and rams. Yes, truly; but what of it? +All that has been said was said of sheep, _genus ovis,_ that bland +beast, compound of mutton, wool, and foolishness. so widely known. If +we think of the sheep-dog (and dog-ess), the shepherd (and +shepherd-ess), of the ferocious sheep-eating bird of New Zealand, the +Kea (and Kea-ess), all these herd, guard, or kill the sheep, both rams +and ewes alike. In regard to mutton, to wool, to general character, we +think only of their sheepishness, not at all of their ramishness or +eweishness. That which is ovine or bovine, canine, feline or equine, is +easily recognized as distinguishing that particular species of animal, +and has no relation whatever to the sex thereof. + +Returning to our muttons, let us consider the ram, and wherein his +character differs from the sheep. We find he has a more quarrelsome +disposition. He paws the earth and makes a noise. He has a tendency to +butt. So has a goat--Mr. Goat. So has Mr. Buffalo, and Mr. Moose, and +Mr. Antelope. This tendency to plunge head foremost at an +adversary--and to find any other gentleman an adversary on +sight--evidently does not pertain to sheep, to _genus ovis;_ but to any +male creature with horns. + +As "function comes before organ," we may even give a reminiscent glance +down the long path of evolution, and see how the mere act of +butting--passionately and perpetually repeated--born of the beliggerent +spirit of the male--produced horns! + +The ewe, on the other hand, exhibits love and care for her little ones, +gives them milk and tries to guard them. But so does a goat--Mrs. Goat. + So does Mrs. Buffalo and the rest. Evidently this mother instinct is +no peculiarity of _genus ovis,_ but of any female creature. + +Even the bird, though not a mammal, shows the same mother-love and +mother-care, while the father bird, though not a butter, fights with +beak and wing and spur. His competition is more effective through +display. The wish to please, the need to please, the overmastering +necessity upon him that he secure the favor of the female, has made the +male bird blossom like a butterfly. He blazes in gorgeous plumage, +rears haughty crests and combs, shows drooping wattles and dangling +blobs such as the turkey-cock affords; long splendid feathers for pure +ornament appear upon him; what in her is a mere tail-effect becomes in +him a mass of glittering drapery. + +Partridge-cock, farmyard-cock, peacock, from sparrow to ostrich, observe +his mien! To strut and languish; to exhibit every beauteous lure; to +sacrifice ease, comfort, speed, everything--to beauty--for her +sake--this is the nature of the he-bird of any species; the +characteristic, not of the turkey, but of the cock! With drumming of +loud wings, with crow and quack and bursts of glorious song, he woos his +mate; displays his splendors before her; fights fiercely with his +rivals. To butt--to strut--to make a noise--all for love's sake; these +acts are common to the male. + +We may now generalize and clearly state: That is masculine which belongs +to the male--to any or all males, irrespective of species. That is +feminine which belongs to the female, to any or all females, +irrespective of species. That is ovine, bovine, feline, canine, equine +or asinine which belongs to that species, irrespective of sex. + +In our own species all this is changed. We have been so taken up with +the phenomena of masculinity and femininity, that our common humanity +has largely escaped notice. We know we are human, naturally, and are +very proud of it; but we do not consider in what our humanness consists; +nor how men and women may fall short of it, or overstep its bounds, in +continual insistence upon their special differences. It is "manly" to +do this; it is "womanly" to do that; but what a human being should do +under the circumstances is not thought of. + +The only time when we do recognize what we call "common humanity" is in +extreme cases, matters of life and death; when either man or woman is +expected to behave as if they were also human creatures. Since the +range of feeling and action proper to humanity, as such, is far wider +than that proper to either sex, it seems at first somewhat remarkable +that we have given it so little recognition. + +A little classification will help us here. We have certain qualities in +common with inanimate matter, such as weight, opacity, resilience. It +is clear that these are not human. We have other qualities in common +with all forms of life; cellular construction, for instance, the +reproduction of cells and the need of nutrition. These again are not +human. We have others, many others, common to the higher mammals; which +are not exclusively ours--are not distinctively "human." What then are +true human characteristics? In what way is the human species +distinguished from all other species? + +Our human-ness is seen most clearly in three main lines: it is +mechanical, psychical and social. Our power to make and use things is +essentially human; we alone have extra-physical tools. We have added to +our teeth the knife, sword, scissors, mowing machine; to our claws the +spade, harrow, plough, drill, dredge. We are a protean creature, using +the larger brain power through a wide variety of changing weapons. This +is one of our main and vital distinctions. Ancient animal races are +traced and known by mere bones and shells, ancient human races by their +buildings, tools and utensils. + +That degree of development which gives us the human mind is a clear +distinction of race. The savage who can count a hundred is more human +than the savage who can count ten. + +More prominent than either of these is the social nature of humanity. +We are by no means the only group-animal; that ancient type of industry +the ant, and even the well-worn bee, are social creatures. But insects +of their kind are found living alone. Human beings never. Our +human-ness begins with some low form of social relation and increases as +that relation develops. + +Human life of any sort is dependent upon what Kropotkin calls "mutual +aid," and human progress keeps step absolutely with that interchange of +specialized services which makes society organic. The nomad, living on +cattle as ants live on theirs, is less human than the farmer, raising +food by intelligently applied labor; and the extension of trade and +commerce, from mere village market-places to the world-exchanges of +to-day, is extension of human-ness as well. + +Humanity, thus considered, is not a thing made at once and unchangeable, +but a stage of development; and is still, as Wells describes it, "in the +making." Our human-ness is seen to lie not so much in what we are +individually, as in our relations to one another; and even that +individuality is but the result of our relations to one another. It is +in what we do and how we do it, rather than in what we are. Some, +philosophically inclined, exalt "being" over "doing." To them this +question may be put: "Can you mention any form of life that merely 'is,' +without doing anything?" + +Taken separately and physically, we are animals, _genus homo_; taken +socially and psychically, we are, in varying degree, human; and our real +history lies in the development of this human-ness. + +Our historic period is not very long. Real written history only goes +back a few thousand years, beginning with the stone records of ancient +Egypt. During this period we have had almost universally what is here +called an Androcentric Culture. The history, such as it was, was made +and written by men. + +The mental, the mechanical, the social development, was almost wholly +theirs. We have, so far, lived and suffered and died in a man-made +world. So general, so unbroken, has been this condition, that to +mention it arouses no more remark than the statement of a natural law. +We have taken it for granted, since the dawn of civilization, that +"mankind" meant men-kind, and the world was theirs. + +Women we have sharply delimited. Women were a sex, "the sex," according +to chivalrous toasts; they were set apart for special services peculiar +to femininity. As one English scientist put it, in 1888, "Women are not +only not the race--they are not even half the race, but a subspecies +told off for reproduction only." + +This mental attitude toward women is even more clearly expressed by Mr. +H. B. Marriot-Watson in his article on "The American Woman" in the +"Nineteenth Century" for June, 1904, where he says: "Her constitutional +restlessness has caused her to abdicate those functions which alone +excuse or explain her existence." This is a peculiarly happy and +condensed expression of the relative position of women during our +androcentric culture. The man was accepted as the race type without one +dissentient voice; and the woman--a strange, diverse creature, quite +disharmonious in the accepted scheme of things--was excused and +explained only as a female. + +She has needed volumes of such excuse and explanation; also, apparently, +volumes of abuse and condemnation. In any library catalogue we may find +books upon books about women: physiological, sentimental, didactic, +religious--all manner of books about women, as such. Even to-day in the +works of Marholm--poor young Weininger, Moebius, and others, we find the +same perpetual discussion of women--as such. + +This is a book about men--as such. It differentiates between the human +nature and the sex nature. It will not go so far as to allege man's +masculine traits to be all that excuse, or explain his existence: but it +will point out what are masculine traits as distinct from human ones, +and what has been the effect on our human life of the unbridled +dominance of one sex. + +We can see at once, glaringly, what would have been the result of giving +all human affairs into female hands. Such an extraordinary and +deplorable situation would have "feminized" the world. We should have +all become "effeminate." + +See how in our use of language the case is clearly shown. The +adjectives and derivatives based on woman's distinctions are alien and +derogatory when applied to human affairs; "effeminate"--too female, +connotes contempt, but has no masculine analogue; whereas +"emasculate"--not enough male, is a term of reproach, and has no +feminine analogue. "Virile"--manly, we oppose to "puerile"--childish, +and the very word "virtue" is derived from "vir"--a man. + +Even in the naming of other animals we have taken the male as the race +type, and put on a special termination to indicate "his female," as in +lion, lioness; leopard, leopardess; while all our human scheme of things +rests on the same tacit assumption; man being held the human type; woman +a sort of accompaniment aud subordinate assistant, merely essential to +the making of people. + +She has held always the place of a preposition in relation to man. She +has been considered above him or below him, before him, behind him, +beside him, a wholly relative existence--"Sydney's sister," "Pembroke's +mother"--but never by any chance Sydney or Pembroke herself. + +Acting on this assumption, all human standards have been based on male +characteristics, and when we wish to praise the work of a woman, we say +she has "a masculine mind." + +It is no easy matter to deny or reverse a universal assumption. The +human mind has had a good many jolts since it began to think, but after +each upheaval it settles down as peacefully as the vine-growers on +Vesuvius, accepting the last lava crust as permanent ground. + +What we see immediately around us, what we are born into and grow up +with, be it mental furniture or physical, we assume to be the order of +nature. + +If a given idea has been held in the human mind for many generations, as +almost all our common ideas have, it takes sincere and continued effort +to remove it; and if it is one of the oldest we have in stock, one of +the big, common, unquestioned world ideas, vast is the labor of those +who seek to change it. + +Nevertheless, if the matter is one of importance, if the previous idea +was a palpable error, of large and evil effect, and if the new one is +true and widely important, the effort is worth making. + +The task here undertaken is of this sort. It seeks to show that what we +have all this time called "human nature" and deprecated, was in great +part only male nature, and good enough in its place; that what we have +called "masculine" and admired as such, was in large part human, and +should be applied to both sexes: that what we have called "feminine" and +condemned, was also largely human and applicable to both. Our +androcentric culture is so shown to have been, and still to be, a +masculine culture in excess, and therefore undesirable. + +In the preliminary work of approaching these facts it will be well to +explain how it can be that so wide and serious an error should have been +made by practically all men. The reason is simply that they were men. +They were males, avid saw women as females--and not otherwise. + +So absolute is this conviction that the man who reads will say, "Of +course! How else are we to look at women except as females? They are +females, aren't they?" Yes, they are, as men are males unquestionably; +but there is possible the frame of mind of the old marquise who was +asked by an English friend how she could bear to have the footman serve +her breakfast in bed--to have a man in her bed-chamber--and replied +sincerely, "Call you that thing there a man?" + +The world is full of men, but their principal occupation is human work +of some sort; and women see in them the human distinction +preponderantly. Occasionally some unhappy lady marries her +coachman--long contemplation of broad shoulders having an effect, +apparently; but in general women see the human creature most; the male +creature only when they love. + +To the man, the whole world was his world; his because he was male; and +the whole world of woman was the home; because she was female. She had +her prescribed sphere, strictly limited to her feminine occupations and +interests; he had all the rest of life; and not only so, but, having it, +insisted on calling it male. + +This accounts for the general attitude of men toward the now rapid +humanization of women. From her first faint struggles toward freedom +and justice, to her present valiant efforts toward full economic and +political equality, each step has been termed "unfeminine" and resented +as an intrusion upon man's place and power. Here shows the need of our +new classification, of the three distinct fields of life--masculine, +feminine and human. + +As a matter of fact, there is a "woman's sphere," sharply defined and +quite different from his; there is also a "man's sphere," as sharply +defined and even more limited; but there remains a common sphere--that +of humanity, which belongs to both alike. + +In the earlier part of what is known as "the woman's movement," it was +sharply opposed on the ground that women would become "unsexed." Let us +note in passing that they have become unsexed in one particular, most +glaringly so, and that no one has noticed or objected to it. + +As part of our androcentric culture we may point to the peculiar +reversal of sex characteristics which make the human female carry the +burden of ornament. She alone, of all human creatures, has adopted the +essentially masculine attribute of special sex-decoration; she does not +fight for her mate as yet, but she blooms forth as the peacock and bird +of paradise, in poignant reversal of nature's laws, even wearing +masculine feathers to further her feminine ends. + +Woman's natural work as a female is that of the mother; man's natural +work as a male is that of the father; their mutual relation to this end +being a source of joy and well-being when rightly held: but human work +covers all our life outside of these specialties. Every handicraft, +every profession, every science, every art, all normal amusements and +recreations, all government, education, religion; the whole living world +of human achievement: all this is human. + +That one sex should have monopolized all human activities, called them +"man's work," and managed them as such, is what is meant by the phrase +"Androcentric Culture." + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +II. + +THE MAN-MADE FAMILY. + + +The family is older than humanity, and therefore cannot be called a +human institution. A post office, now, is wholly human; no other +creature has a post office, but there are families in plenty among birds +and beasts; all kinds permanent and transient; monogamous, polygamous +and polyandrous. + +We are now to consider the growth of the family in humanity; what is its +rational development in humanness; in mechanical, mental and social +lines; in the extension of love and service; and the effect upon it of +this strange new arrangement--a masculine proprietor. + +Like all natural institutions the family has a purpose; and is to be +measured primarily as it serves that purpose; which is, the care and +nurture of the young. To protect the helpless little ones, to feed and +shelter them, to ensure them the benefits of an ever longer period of +immaturity, and so to improve the race--this is the original purpose of +the family. + +When a natural institution becomes human it enters the plane of +consciousness. We think about it; and, in our strange new power of +voluntary action do things to it. We have done strange things to the +family; or, more specifically, men have. + +Balsac, at his bitterest, observed, "Women's virtue is man's best +invention." Balsac was wrong. Virtue--the unswerving devotion to one +mate--is common among birds and some of the higher mammals. If Balsac +meant celibacy when he said virtue, why that is one of man's +inventions--though hardly his best. + +What man has done to the family, speaking broadly, is to change it from +an institution for the best service of the child to one modified to his +own service, the vehicle of his comfort, power and pride. + +Among the heavy millions of the stirred East, a child--necessarily a +male child--is desired for the credit and glory of the father, and his +fathers; in place of seeing that all a parent is for is the best service +of the child. Ancestor worship, that gross reversal of all natural law, +is of wholly androcentric origin. It is strongest among old patriarchal +races; lingers on in feudal Europe; is to be traced even in America +today in a few sporadic efforts to magnify the deeds of our ancestors. + +The best thing any of us can do for our ancestors is to be better than +they were; and we ought to give our minds to it. When we use our past +merely as a guide-book, and concentrate our noble emotions on the +present and future, we shall improve more rapidly. + +The peculiar changes brought about in family life by the predominance of +the male are easily traced. In these studies we must keep clearly in +mind the basic masculine characteristics: desire, combat, +self-expression--all legitimate and right in proper use; only +mischievous when excessive or out of place. Through them the male is +led to strenuous competition for the favor of the female; in the +overflowing ardours of song, as in nightingale and tomcat; in wasteful +splendor of personal decoration, from the pheasant's breast to an +embroidered waistcoat; and in direct struggle for the prize, from the +stag's locked horns to the clashing spears of the tournament. + +It is earnestly hoped that no reader will take offence at the +necessarily frequent, reference to these essential features of maleness. + In the many books about women it is, naturally, their femaleness that +has been studied and enlarged upon. And though women, after thousands +of years of such discussion, have become a little restive under the +constant use of the word female: men, as rational beings, should not +object to an analogous study--at least not for some time--a few +centuries or so. + +How, then, do we find these masculine tendencies, desire, combat and +self-expression, affect the home and family when given too much power? + +First comes the effect in the preliminary work of selection. One of the +most uplifting forces of nature is that of sex selection. The males, +numerous, varied, pouring a flood of energy into wide modifications, +compete for the female, and she selects the victor, this securing to the +race the new improvements. + +In forming the proprietary family there is no such competition, no such +selection. The man, by violence or by purchase, does the choosing--he +selects the kind of woman that pleases him. Nature did not intend him +to select; he is not good at it. Neither was the female intended to +compete--she is not good at it. + +If there is a race between males for a mate--the swiftest gets her +first; but if one male is chasing a number of females he gets the +slowest first. The one method improves our speed: the other does not. +If males struggle and fight with one another for a mate, the strongest +secures her; if the male struggles and fights with the female--(a +peculiar and unnatural horror, known only among human beings) he most +readily secures the weakest. The one method improves our strength--the +other does not. + +When women became the property of men; sold and bartered; "given away" +by their paternal owner to their marital owner; they lost this +prerogative of the female, this primal duty of selection. The males +were no longer improved by their natural competition for the female; and +the females were not improved; because the male did not select for +points of racial superiority, but for such qualities as pleased him. + +There is a locality in northern Africa, where young girls are +deliberately fed with a certain oily seed, to make them fat,--that they +may be the more readily married,--as the men like fat wives. Among +certain more savage African tribes the chief's wives are prepared for +him by being kept in small dark huts and fed on "mealies' and molasses; +precisely as a Strasbourg goose is fattened for the gourmand. Now +fatness is not a desirable race characteristic; it does not add to the +woman's happiness or efficiency; or to the child's; it is merely an +accessory pleasant to the master; his attitude being much as the amorous +monad ecstatically puts it, in Sill's quaint poem, "Five Lives," + + +"O the little female monad's lips! +O the little female monad's eyes! +O the little, little, female, female monad!" + + +This ultra littleness and ultra femaleness has been demanded and +produced by our Androcentric Culture. + +Following this, and part of it, comes the effect on motherhood. This +function was the original and legitimate base of family life; and its +ample sustaining power throughout the long early period of "the +mother-right;" or as we call it, the matriarchate; the father being her +assistant in the great work. The patriarchate, with its proprietary +family, changed this altogether; the woman, as the property of the man +was considered first and foremost as a means of pleasure to him; and +while she was still valued as a mother, it was in a tributary capacity. +Her children were now his; his property, as she was; the whole enginery +of the family was turned from its true use to this new one, hitherto +unknown, the service of the adult male. + +To this day we are living under the influence of the proprietary family. + The duty of the wife is held to involve man-service as well as +child-service, and indeed far more; as the duty of the wife to the +husband quite transcends the duty of the mother to the child. + +See for instance the English wife staying with her husband in India and +sending the children home to be brought up; because India is bad for +children. See our common law that the man decides the place of +residence; if the wife refuses to go with him to howsoever unfit a place +for her and for the little ones, such refusal on her part constitutes +"desertion" and is ground for divorce. + +See again the idea that the wife must remain with the husband though a +drunkard, or diseased; regardless of the sin against the child involved +in such a relation. Public feeling on these matters is indeed changing; +but as a whole the ideals of the man-made family still obtain. + +The effect of this on the woman has been inevitably to weaken and +overshadow her sense of the real purpose of the family; of the +relentless responsibilities of her duty as a mother. She is first +taught duty to her parents, with heavy religious sanction; and then duty +to her husband, similarly buttressed; but her duty to her children has +been left to instinct. She is not taught in girlhood as to her +preeminent power and duty as a mother; her young ideals are all of +devotion to the lover and husband: with only the vaguest sense of +results. + +The young girl is reared in what we call "innocence;" poetically +described as "bloom;" and this condition is held one of her chief +"charms." The requisite is wholly androcentric. This "innocence" does +not enable her to choose a husband wisely; she does not even know the +dangers that possibly confront her. We vaguely imagine that her father +or brother, who do know, will protect her. Unfortunately the father and +brother, under our current "double standard" of morality do not judge +the applicants as she would if she knew the nature of their offenses. + +Furthermore, if her heart is set on one of them, no amount of general +advice and opposition serves to prevent her marrying him. "I love him!" +she says, sublimely. "I do not care what he has done. I will forgive +him. I will save him!" + +This state of mind serves to forward the interests of the lover, but is +of no advantage to the children. We have magnified the duties of the +wife, and minified the duties of the mother; and this is inevitable in a +family relation every law and custom of which is arranged from the +masculine viewpoint. + +From this same viewpoint, equally essential to the proprietary family, +comes the requirement that the woman shall serve the man. Her service +is not that of the associate and equal, as when she joins him in his +business. It is not that of a beneficial combination, as when she +practices another business and they share the profits; it is not even +that of the specialist, as the service of a tailor or barber; it is +personal service--the work of a servant. + +In large generalization, the women of the world cook and wash, sweep and +dust, sew and mend, for the men. + +We are so accustomed to this relation; have held it for so long to be +the "natural" relation, that it is difficult indeed to show that it is +distinctly unnatural and injurious. The father expects to be served by +the daughter, a service quite different from what he expects of the son. + This shows at once that such service is no integral part of motherhood, +or even of marriage; but is supposed to be the proper industrial +position of women, as such. + +Why is this so? Why, on the face of it, given a daughter and a son, +should a form of service be expected of the one, which would be +considered ignominious by the other? + +The underlying reason is this. Industry, at its base, is a feminine +function. The surplus energy of the mother does not manifest itself in +noise, or combat, or display, but in productive industry. Because of +her mother-power she became the first inventor and laborer; being in +truth the mother of all industry as well as all people. + +Man's entrance upon industry is late and reluctant; as will be shown +later in treating his effect on economics. In this field of family +life, his effect was as follows: + +Establishing the proprietary family at an age when the industry was +primitive and domestic; and thereafter confining the woman solely to the +domestic area, he thereby confined her to primitive industry. The +domestic industries, in the hands of women, constitute a survival of our +remotest past. Such work was "woman's work" as was all the work then +known; such work is still considered woman's work because they have been +prevented from doing any other. + +The term "domestic industry" does not define a certain kind of labor, +but a certain grade of labor. Architecture was a domestic industry +once--when every savage mother set up her own tepee. To be confined to +domestic industry is no proper distinction of womanhood; it is an +historic distinction, an economic distinction, it sets a date and limit +to woman's industrial progress. + +In this respect the man-made family has resulted in arresting the +development of half the field. We have a world wherein men, +industrially, live in the twentieth century; and women, industrially, +live in the first--and back of it. + +To the same source we trace the social and educational limitations set +about women. The dominant male, holding his women as property, and +fiercely jealous of them, considering them always as _his,_ not +belonging to themselves, their children, or the world; has hedged them +in with restrictions of a thousand sorts; physical, as in the crippled +Chinese lady or the imprisoned odalisque; moral, as in the oppressive +doctrines of submission taught by all our androcentric religions; +mental, as in the enforced ignorance from which women are now so swiftly +emerging. + +This abnormal restriction of women has necessarily injured motherhood. +The man, free, growing in the world's growth, has mounted with the +centuries, filling an ever wider range of world activities. The woman, +bound, has not so grown; and the child is born to a progressive +fatherhood and a stationary motherhood. Thus the man-made family reacts +unfavorably upon the child. We rob our children of half their social +heredity by keeping the mother in an inferior position; however +legalized, hallowed, or ossified by time, the position of a domestic +servant is inferior. + +It is for this reason that child culture is at so low a level, and for +the most part utterly unknown. Today, when the forces of education are +steadily working nearer to the cradle, a new sense is wakening of the +importance of the period of infancy, and its wiser treatment; yet those +who know of such a movement are few, and of them some are content to +earn easy praise--and pay--by belittling right progress to gratify the +prejudices of the ignorant. + +The whole position is simple and clear; and easily traceable to its +root. Given a proprietary family, where the man holds the woman +primarily for his satisfaction and service--then necessarily he shuts +her up and keeps her for these purposes. Being so kept, she cannot +develop humanly, as he has, through social contact, social service, true +social life. (We may note in passing, her passionate fondness for the +child-game called "society" she has been allowed to entertain herself +withal; that poor simiacrum of real social life, in which people +decorate themselves and madly crowd together, chattering, for what is +called "entertainment.") Thus checked in social development, we have +but a low grade motherhood to offer our children; and the children, +reared in the primitive conditions thus artificially maintained, enter +life with a false perspective, not only toward men and women, but toward +life as a whole. + +The child should receive in the family, full preparation for his +relation to the world at large. His whole life must be spent in the +world, serving it well or ill; and youth is the time to learn how. But +the androcentric home cannot teach him. We live to-day in a +democracy-the man-made family is a despotism. It may be a weak one; the +despot may be dethroned and overmastered by his little harem of one; but +in that case she becomes the despot--that is all. The male is esteemed +"the head of the family;" it belongs to him; he maintains it; and the +rest of the world is a wide hunting ground and battlefield wherein he +competes with other males as of old. + +The girl-child, peering out, sees this forbidden field as belonging +wholly to men-kind; and her relation to it is to secure one for +herself--not only that she may love, but that she may live. He will +feed, clothe and adorn her--she will serve him; from the subjection of +the daughter to that of the wife she steps; from one home to the other, +and never enters the world at all--man's world. + +The boy, on the other hand, considers the home as a place of women, an +inferior place, and longs to grow up and leave it--for the real world. +He is quite right. The error is that this great social instinct, +calling for full social exercise, exchange, service, is considered +masculine, whereas it is human, and belongs to boy and girl alike. + +The child is affected first through the retarded development of his +mother, then through the arrested condition of home industry; and +further through the wrong ideals which have arisen from these +conditions. A normal home, where there was human equality between +mother and father, would have a better influence. + +We must not overlook the effect of the proprietary family on the +proprietor himself. He, too, has been held back somewhat by this +reactionary force. In the process of becoming human we must learn to +recognize justice, freedom, human rights; we must learn self-control and +to think of others; have minds that grow and broaden rationally; we must +learn the broad mutual interservice and unbounded joy of social +intercourse and service. The petty despot of the man-made home is +hindered in his humanness by too much manness. + +For each man to have one whole woman to cook for and wait upon him is a +poor education for democracy. The boy with a servile mother, the man +with a servile wife, cannot reach the sense of equal rights we need +to-day. Too constant consideration of the master's tastes makes the +master selfish; and the assault upon his heart direct, or through that +proverbial side-avenue, the stomach, which the dependent woman needs +must make when she wants anything, is bad for the man, as well as for +her. + +We are slowly forming a nobler type of family; the union of two, based +on love and recognized by law, maintained because of its happiness and +use. We are even now approaching a tenderness and permanence of love, +high pure enduring love; combined with the broad deep-rooted +friendliness and comradeship of equals; which promises us more happiness +in marriage than we have yet known. It will be good for all the parties +concerned--man, woman and child: and promote our general social progress +admirably. + +If it needs "a head" it will elect a chairman pro tem. Friendship does +not need "a head." Love does dot need "a head." Why should a family? + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +III. + +HEALTH AND BEAUTY. + + +NOTE--The word "Androcentric" we owe to Prof. Lester F. Ward. In his +book, "Pure Sociology," Chap. 14, he describes the Androcentric Theory +of life, hitherto universally accepted; and introduces his own +"Gyneacocentric Theory." All who are interested in the deeper +scientific aspects of this question are urged to read that chapter. +Prof. Ward's theory is to my mind the most important that has been +offered the world since the Theory of Evolution; and without exception +the most important that has ever been put forward concerning women. + + +Among the many paradoxes which we find in human life is our low average +standard of health and beauty, compared with our power and knowledge. +All creatures suffer from conflict with the elements; from enemies +without and within--the prowling devourers of the forest, and "the +terror that walketh in darkness" and attacks the body from inside, in +hidden millions. + +Among wild animals generally, there is a certain standard of excellence; +if you shoot a bear or a bird, it is a fair sample of the species; you +do not say, "O what an ugly one!" or "This must have been an invalid!" + +Where we have domesticated any animal, and interfered with its natural +habits, illness has followed; the dog is said to have the most diseases +second to man; the horse comes next; but the wild ones put us to shame +by their superior health and the beauty that belongs to right +development. + +In our long ages of blind infancy we assume that sickness was a +visitation frown the gods; some still believe this, holding it to be a +special prerogative of divinity to afflict us in this way. We speak of +"the ills that flesh is heir to" as if the inheritance was entailed and +inalienable. Only of late years, after much study and long struggle +with this old belief which made us submit to sickness as a blow from the +hand of God, we are beginning to learn something of the many causes of +our many diseases, and how to remove some of them. + +It is still true, however, that almost every one of us is to some degree +abnormal; the features asymmetrical, the vision defective, the digestion +unreliable, the nervous system erratic--we are but a job lot even in +what we call "good health"; and are subject to a burden of pain and +premature death that would make life hideous if it were not so +ridiculously unnecessary. + +As to beauty--we do not think of expecting it save in the rarely +exceptional case. Look at the faces--the figures--in any crowd you +meet; compare the average man or the average woman with the normal type +of human beauty as given us in picture and statue; and consider if there +is not some general cause for so general a condition of ugliness. + +Moreover, leaving our defective bodies concealed by garments; what are +those garments, as conducive to health and beauty? Is the practical +ugliness of our men's attire, and the impractical absurdity of our +women's, any contribution to human beauty? Look at our houses--are they +beautiful? Even the houses of the rich? + +We do not even know that we ought to live in a world of overflowing +loveliness; and that our contribution to it should be the loveliest of +all. We are so sodden in the dull ugliness of our interiors, so used to +calling a tame weary low-toned color scheme "good taste," that only +children dare frankly yearn for Beauty--and they are speedily educated +out of it. + +The reasons specially given for our low standards of health and beauty +are ignorance, poverty, and the evil effects of special trades. The Man +with the Hoe becomes brother to the ox because of over-much hoeing; the +housepainter is lead-poisoned because of his painting; books have been +written to show the injurious influence of nearly all our industries +upon workers. + +These causes are sound as far as they go; but do not cover the whole +ground. + +The farmer may be muscle-bound and stooping from his labor; but that +does not account for his dyspepsia or his rheumatism. + +Then we allege poverty as covering all. Poverty does cover a good deal. + But when we find even a half-fed savage better developed than a well +paid cashier; and a poor peasant woman a more vigorous mother than the +idle wife of a rich man, poverty is not enough. + +Then we say ignorance explains it. But there are most learned +professors who are ugly and asthmathic; there are even doctors who can +boast no beauty and but moderate health; there are some of the petted +children of the wealthy, upon whom every care is lavished from birth, +and who still are ill to look at and worse to marry. + +All these special causes are admitted, given their due share in lowering +our standards, but there is another far more universal in its +application and its effects. Let us look back on our little ancestors +the beasts, and see what keeps them so true to type. + +The type itself set by that balance of conditions and forces we call +"natural selection." As the environment changes they must be adapted to +it, if they cannot so adapt themselves they die. Those who live are, by +living, proven capable of maintaining themselves. Every creature which +has remained on earth, while so many less effective kinds died out, +remains as a conqueror. The speed of the deer--the constant use of +speed--is what keeps it alive and makes it healthy and beautiful. The +varied activities of the life of a leopard are what have developed the +sinuous gracile strength we so admire. It is what the creature does for +its living, its daily life-long exercise which makes it what it is. + +But there is another great natural force which works steadily to keep +all animals up to the race standard; that is sexual selection. +Throughout nature the male is the variant, as we have already noted. +His energy finds vent not only in that profuse output of decorative +appendages Ward defines as "masculine efflorescence" but in variations +not decorative, not useful or desirable at all. + +The female, on the other hand, varies much less, remaining nearer the +race type; and her function is to select among these varying males the +specimens most valuable to the race. In the intense masculine +competition the victor must necessarily be stronger than his fellows; he +is first proven equal to his environment by having lived to grow up, +then more than equal to his fellows by overcoming them. This higher +grade of selection also develops not only the characteristics necessary +to make a living; but secondary ones, often of a purely aesthetic +nature, which make much of what we call beauty. Between the two, all +who live must be up to a certain grade, and those who become parents +must be above it; a masterly arrangement surely! + +Here is where, during the period of our human history, we in our newborn +consciousness and imperfect knowledge, have grieviously interfered with +the laws of nature. The ancient proprietary family, treating the woman +as a slave, keeping her a prisoner and subject to the will of her +master, cut her off at once from the exercise of those activities which +alone develop and maintain the race type. + +Take the one simple quality of speed. We are a creature built for +speed, a free swift graceful animal; and among savages this is still +seen--the capacity for running, mile after mile, hour after hour. +Running is as natural a gait for _genus homo_ as for _genus cervus._ +Now suppose among deer, the doe was prohibited from running; the stag +continuing free on the mountain; the doe living in caves and pens, +unequal to any exercise. The effect on the species would be, +inevitably, to reduce its speed. + +In this way, by keeping women to one small range of duties, and in most +cases housebound, we have interfered with natural selection and its +resultant health and beauty. It can easily be seen what the effect on +the race would have been if all men had been veiled and swathed, hidden +in harems, kept to the tent or house, and confined to the activities of +a house-servant. Our stalwart laborers, our proud soldiers, our +athletes, would never have appeared under such circumstances. The +confinement to the house alone, cutting women off from sunshine and air, +is by itself an injury; and the range of occupation allowed them is not +such as to develop a high standard of either health or beauty. Thus we +have cut off half the race from the strengthening influence of natural +selection, and so lowered our race-standards in large degree. + +This alone, however, would not have hid such mischievous effects but for +our further blunder in completely reversing nature's order of sexual +selection. It is quite possible that even under confinement and +restriction women could have kept up the race level, passably, through +this great function of selection; but here is the great fundamental +error of the Androcentric Culture. Assuming to be the possessor of +women, their owner and master, able at will to give, buy and sell, or do +with as he pleases, man became the selector. + +It seems a simple change; and in those early days, wholly ignorant of +natural laws, there was no suspicion that any mischief would result. In +the light of modern knowledge, however, the case is clear. The woman +was deprived of the beneficent action of natural selection, and the man +was then, by his own act, freed from the stern but elevating effect of +sexual selection. Nothing was required of the woman by natural +selection save such capacity as should please her master; nothing was +required of the man by sexual selection save power to take by force, or +buy, a woman. + +It does not take a very high standard of feminine intelligence, +strength, skill, health, or beauty to be a houseservant, or even a +housekeeper; witness the average. + +It does not take a very high standard of masculine, intelligence, +strength, skill, health or beauty to maintain a woman in that +capacity--witness average. + +Here at the very root of our physiological process, at the beginning of +life, we have perverted the order of nature, and are suffering the +consequences. + +It has been held by some that man as the selector has developed beauty, +more beauty than we had before; and we point to the charms of our women +as compared with those of the squaw. The answer to this is that the +squaw belongs to a decadent race; that she too is subject to the man, +that the comparison to have weight should be made between our women and +the women of the matriarchate--an obvious impossibility. We have not on +earth women in a state of normal freedom and full development; but we +have enough difference in their placing to learn that human strength and +beauty grows with woman's freedom and activity. + +The second answer is that much of what man calls beauty in woman is not +human beauty at all, but gross overdevelopment of certain points which +appeal to him as a male. The excessive fatness, previously referred to, +is a case in point; that being considered beauty in a woman which is in +reality an element of weakness, inefficiency and ill-health. The +relatively small size of women, deliberately preferred, steadfastly +chosen, and so built into the race, is a blow at real human progress in +every particular. In our upward journey we should and do grow larger, +leaving far behind us our dwarfish progenitors. Yet the male, in his +unnatural position as selector, preferring for reasons both practical +and sentimental, to have "his woman" smaller than himself, has +deliberately striven to lower the standard of size in the race. We used +to read in the novels of the last generation, "He was a magnificent +specimen of manhood"--"Her golden head reached scarcely to his +shoulder"--"She was a fairy creature--the tiniest of her sex." Thus we +have mated, and yet expected that by some hocus pocus the boys would all +"take after their father," and the girls, their mother. In his efforts +to improve the breed of other animals, man has never tried to +deliberately cross the large and small and expect to keep up the +standard of size. + +As a male he is appealed to by the ultra-feminine, and has given small +thought to effects on the race. He was not designed to do the +selecting. Under his fostering care we have bred a race of women who +are physically weak enough to be handed about like invalids; or mentally +weak enough to pretend they are--and to like it. We have made women who +respond so perfectly to the force which made them, that they attach all +their idea of beauty to those characteristics which attract men; +sometimes humanly ugly without even knowing it. + +For instance, our long restriction to house-limits, the heavy +limitations of our clothing, and the heavier ones of traditional +decorum, have made women disproportionately short-legged. This is a +particularly undignified and injurious characteristic, bred in women and +inherited by men, most seen among those races which keep their women +most closely. Yet when one woman escapes the tendency and appears with +a normal length of femur and tibia, a normal height of hip and shoulder, +she is criticized and called awkward by her squatty sisters! + +The most convenient proof of the inferiority of women in human beauty is +shown by those composite statues prepared by Mr. Sargent for the World's +Fair of '93. These were made from gymnasium measurements of thousands +of young collegians of both sexes all over America. The statue of the +girl has a pretty face, small hands and feet, rather nice arms, though +weak; but the legs are too thick and short; the chest and shoulders +poor; and the trunk is quite pitiful in its weakness. The figure of the +man is much better proportioned. + +Thus the effect on human beauty of masculine selection. + +Beyond this positive deteriorative effect on women through man's +arbitrary choice comes the negative effect of woman's lack of choice. +Bought or stolen or given by her father, she was deprived of the +innately feminine right and duty of choosing. "Who giveth this woman?" +we still inquire in our archaic marriage service, and one man steps +forward and gives her to another man. + +Free, the female chose the victor, and the vanquished went unmated--and +without progeny. Dependent, having to be fed and cared for by some man, +the victors take their pick perhaps, but the vanquished take what is +left; and the poor women, "marrying for a home," take anything. As a +consequence the inferior male is as free to transmit his inferiority as +the superior to give better qualities, and does so--beyond computation. +In modern days, women are freer, in some countries freer than in others; +here in modern America freest of all; and the result is seen in our +improving standards of health and beauty. + +Still there remains the field of inter-masculine competition, does there +not? Do not the males still struggle together? Is not that as of old, +a source of race advantage? + +To some degree it is. When life was simple and our activities consisted +mainly in fighting and hard work; the male who could vanquish the others +was bigger and stronger. But inter-masculine competition ceases to be +of such advantage when we enter the field of social service. What is +required in organized society is the specialization of the individual, +the development of special talents, not always of immediate benefit to +the man himself, but of ultimate benefit to society. The best social +servant, progressive, meeting future needs, is almost always at a +disadvantage besides the well-established lower types. We need, for +social service, qualities quite different from the simple masculine +characteristics--desire, combat, self-expression. + +By keeping what we call "the outside world" so wholly male, we keep up +masculine standards at the expense of human ones. This may be broadly +seen in the slow and painful development of industry and science as +compared to the easy dominance of warfare throughout all history until +our own times. + +The effect of all this ultra masculine competition upon health and +beauty is but too plainly to be seen. Among men the male idea of what +is good looking is accentuated beyond reason. Read about any "hero" you +please; or study the products of the illustrator and note the broad +shoulders, the rugged features, the strong, square, determined jaw. +That jaw is in evidence if everything else fails. He may be cross-eyed, +wide-eared, thick-necked, bandy-legged--what you please; but he must +have a more or less prognathous jaw. + +Meanwhile any anthropologist will show you that the line of human +development is away from that feature of the bulldog and the alligator, +and toward the measured dignity of the Greek type. The possessor of +that kind of jaw may enable male to conquer male, but does not make him +of any more service to society; of any better health or higher beauty. + +Further, in the external decoration of our bodies, what is the influence +here of masculine dominance. + +We have before spoken of the peculiar position of our race in that the +woman is the only female creature who carries the burden of sex +ornament. This amazing reversal of the order of nature results at its +mildest in a perversion of the natural feminine instincts of love and +service, and an appearance of the masculine instincts of self-expression +and display. Alone among all female things do women decorate and preen +themselves and exhibit their borrowed plumage (literally!) to attract +the favor of the male. This ignominy is forced upon them by their +position of economic dependence; and their general helplessness. As all +broader life is made to depend, for them, on whom they marry, indeed as +even the necessities of life so often depend on their marrying someone, +they have been driven into this form of competition, so alien to the +true female attitude. + +The result is enough to make angels weep--and laugh. Perhaps no step in +the evolution of beauty went farther than our human power of making a +continuous fabric; soft and mobile, showing any color and texture +desired. The beauty of the human body is supreme, and when we add to it +the flow of color, the ripple of fluent motion, that comes of a soft, +light garment over free limbs--it is a new field of loveliness and +delight. Naturally this should have filled the whole world with a new +pleasure. Our garments, first under right natural selection developing +perfect use, under right sex selection developing beauty; and further, +as our human aesthetic sense progresses, showing a noble symbolism, +would have been an added strength and glory, a ceaseless joy. + +What is the case? + +Men, under a too strictly inter-masculine environment, have evolved the +mainly useful but beautiless costume common to-day; and women--? + +Women wear beautiful garments when they happen to be the fashion; and +ugly garments when they are the fashion, and show no signs of knowing +the difference. They show no added pride in the beautiful, no hint of +mortification in the hideous, and are not even sensitive under +criticism, or open to any persuasion or argument. Why should they be? + +Their condition, physical and mental, is largely abnormal, their whole +passionate absorption in dress and decoration is abnormal, and they have +never looked, from a frankly human standpoint, at their position and its +peculiarities, until the present age. + +In the effect of our wrong relation on the world's health, we have +spoken of the check to vigor and growth due to the housebound state of +women and their burdensome clothes. There follow other influences, +similar in origin, even more evil in result. To roughly and briefly +classify we may distinguish the diseases due to bad air, to bad food, +and that field of cruel mischief we are only now beginning to +discuss--the diseases directly due to the erroneous relation between men +and women. + +We are the only race where the female depends on the male for a +livelihood. We are the only race that practices prostitution. From the +first harmless-looking but abnormal general relation follows the well +recognized evil of the second, so long called "a social necessity," and +from it, in deadly sequence, comes the "wages of sin;" death not only of +the guilty, but of the innocent. It is no light part of our criticism +of the Androcentric Culture that a society based on masculine desires +alone, has willingly sacrificed such an army of women; and has repaid +the sacrifice by the heaviest punishments. + +That the unfortunate woman should sicken and die was held to be her just +punishment; that man too should bear part penalty was found unavoidable, +though much legislation and medical effort has been spent to shield him; +but to the further consequences society is but now waking up. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +IV. + +MEN AND ART. + + +Among the many counts in which women have been proven inferior to men in +human development is the oft-heard charge that there are no great women +artists. Where one or two are proudly exhibited in evidence, they are +either pooh-poohed as not very great, or held to be the trifling +exceptions which do but prove the rule. + +Defenders of women generally make the mistake of over-estimating their +performances, instead of accepting, and explaining, the visible facts. +What are the facts as to the relation of men and women to art? And +what, in especial, has been the effect upon art of a solely masculine +expression? + +When we look for the beginnings of art, we find ourselves in a period of +crude decoration of the person and of personal belongings. Tattooing, +for instance, is an early form of decorative art, still in practice +among certain classes, even in advanced people. Most boys, if they are +in contact with this early art, admire it, and wish to adorn themselves +therewith; some do so--to later mortification. Early personal +decoration consisted largely in direct mutilation of the body, and the +hanging upon it, or fastening to it, of decorative objects. This we see +among savages still, in its gross and primitive forms monopolized by +men, then shared by women, and, in our time, left almost wholly to them. + In personal decoration today, women are still near the savage. The +"artists" developed in this field of art are the tonsorial, the +sartorial, and all those specialized adorners of the body commonly known +as "beauty doctors." + +Here, as in other cases, the greatest artists are men. The greatest +milliners, the greatest dressmakers and tailors, the greatest +hairdressers, and the masters and designers in all our decorative +toilettes and accessories, are men. Women, in this as in so many other +lines, consume rather than produce. They carry the major part of +personal decoration today; but the decorator is the man. In the +decoration of objects, woman, as the originator of primitive industry, +originated also the primitive arts; and in the pottery, basketry, +leatherwork, needlework, weaving, with all beadwork, dyeing and +embroideries of ancient peoples we see the work of the woman decorator. +Much of this is strong and beautiful, but its time is long past. The +art which is part of industry, natural, simple, spontaneous, making +beauty in every object of use, adding pleasure to labor and to life, is +not Art with a large A, the Art which requires Artists, among whom are +so few women of note. + +Art as a profession, and the Artist as a professional, came later; and +by that time women had left the freedom and power of the matriarchate +and become slaves in varying degree. The women who were idle pets in +harems, or the women who worked hard as servants, were alike cut off +from the joy of making things. Where constructive work remained to +them, art remained, in its early decorative form. Men, in the +proprietary family, restricting the natural industry of women to +personal service, cut off their art with their industry, and by so much +impoverished the world. + +There is no more conspicuously pathetic proof of the aborted development +of women than this commonplace--their lack of a civilized art sense. +Not only in the childish and savage display upon their bodies, but in +the pitiful products they hang upon the walls of the home, is seen the +arrest in normal growth. + +After ages of culture, in which men have developed Architecture, +Sculpture, Painting, Music and the Drama, we find women in their +primitive environment making flowers of wax, and hair, and worsted; +doing mottoes of perforated cardboard, making crazy quilts and mats and +"tidies"--as if they lived in a long past age, or belonged to a lower +race. + +This, as part of the general injury to women dating from the beginning +of our androcentric culture, reacts heavily upon the world at large. +Men, specializing, giving their lives to the continuous pursuit of one +line of service, have lifted our standard in aesthetic culture, as they +have in other matters; but by refusing the same growth to women, they +have not only weakened and reduced the output, but ruined the market as +it were, hopelessly and permanently kept down the level of taste. + +Among the many sides of this great question, some so terrible, some so +pathetic, some so utterly absurd, this particular phase of life is +especially easy to study and understand, and has its own elements of +amusement. Men, holding women at the level of domestic service, going +on themselves to lonely heights of achievement, have found their efforts +hampered and their attainments rendered barren and unsatisfactory by the +amazing indifference of the world at large. As the world at large +consists half of women, and wholly of their children, it would seem +patent to the meanest understanding that the women must be allowed to +rise in order to lift the world. But such has not been the +method--heretofore. + +We have spoken so far in this chapter of the effect of men on art +through their interference with the art of women. There are other sides +to the question. Let us consider once more the essential +characteristics of maleness, and see how they have affected art, keeping +always in mind the triune distinction between masculine, feminine and +human. Perhaps we shall best see this difference by considering what +the development of art might have been on purely human terms. + +The human creature, as such, naturally delights in construction, and +adds decoration to construction as naturally. The cook, making little +regular patterns around the edge of the pie, does so from a purely human +instinct, the innate eye-pleasure in regularity, symmetry, repetition, +and alternation. Had this natural social instinct grown unchecked in +us, it would have manifested itself in a certain proportion of +specialists--artists of all sorts--and an accompanying development of +appreciation on the part of the rest of us. Such is the case in +primitive art; the maker of beauty is upheld and rewarded by a popular +appreciation of her work--or his. + +Had this condition remained, we should find a general level of artistic +expression and appreciation far higher than we see now. Take the one +field of textile art, for instance: that wide and fluent medium of +expression, the making of varied fabrics, the fashioning of garments and +the decoration of them--all this is human work and human pleasure. It +should have led us to a condition where every human being was a pleasure +to the eye, appropriately and beautifully clothed. + +Our real condition in this field is too patent to need emphasis; the +stiff, black ugliness of our men's attire; the irritating variegated +folly of our women's; the way in which we spoil the beauty and shame the +dignity of childhood by modes of dress. + +In normal human growth, our houses would be a pleasure to the eye; our +furniture and utensils, all our social products, would blossom into +beauty as naturally as they still do in those low stages of social +evolution where our major errors have not yet borne full fruit. + +Applied art in all its forms is a human function, common to every one to +some degree, either in production or appreciation, or both. "Pure art," +as an ideal, is also human; and the single-hearted devotion of the true +artist to this ideal is one of the highest forms of the social +sacrifice. Of all the thousand ways by which humanity is specialized +for inter-service, none is more exquisite than this; the evolution of +the social Eye, or Ear, or Voice, the development of those whose work is +wholly for others, and to whom the appreciation of others is as the +bread of life. This we should have in a properly developed community; +the pleasure of applied art in the making and using of everything we +have; and then the high joy of the Great Artist, and the noble work +thereof, spread far and wide. + +What do we find? + +Applied art at a very low level; small joy either for the maker or the +user. Pure art, a fine-spun specialty, a process carried on by an elect +few who openly despise the unappreciative many. Art has become an +occult profession requiring a long special education even to enjoy, and +evolving a jargon of criticism which becomes more esoteric yearly. + +Let us now see what part in this undesirable outcome is due to our +Androcentric Culture. + +As soon as the male of our species assumed the exclusive right to +perform all social functions, he necessarily brought to that performance +the advantages--and disadvantages--of maleness, of those dominant +characteristics, desire, combat, self-expression. + +Desire has overweighted art in many visible forms; it is prominent in +painting and music, almost monopolizes fiction, and has pitifully +degraded dancing. + +Combat is not so easily expressed in art, where even competition is on a +high plane; but the last element is the main evil, self-expression. +This impulse is inherently and ineradicably masculine. It rests on that +most basic of distinctions between the sexes, the centripetal and +centrifugal forces of the universe. In the very nature of the +sperm-cell and the germ-cell we find this difference: the one attracts, +gathers, draws in; the other repels, scatters, pushes out. That +projective impulse is seen in the male nature everywhere; the constant +urge toward expression, to all boasting and display. This spirit, like +all things masculine, is perfectly right and admirable in its place. + +It is the duty of the male, as a male, to vary; bursting forth in a +thousand changing modifications--the female, selecting, may so +incorporate beneficial changes in the race. It is his duty to thus +express himself--an essentially masculine duty; but masculinity is one +thing, and art is another. Neither the masculine nor the feminine has +any place in art--Art is Human. + +It is not in any faintest degree allied to the personal processes of +reproduction; but is a social process, a most distinctive social +process, quite above the plane of sex. The true artist transcends his +sex, or her sex. If this is not the case, the art suffers. + +Dancing is an early, and a beautiful art; direct expression of emotion +through the body; beginning in subhuman type, among male birds, as the +bower-bird of New Guinea, and the dancing crane, who swing and caper +before their mates. Among early peoples we find it a common form of +social expression in tribal dances of all sorts, religious, military, +and other. Later it becomes a more explicit form of celebration, as +among the Greeks; in whose exquisite personal culture dancing and music +held high place. + +But under the progressive effects of purely masculine dominance we find +the broader human elements of dancing left out, and the sex-element more +and more emphasized. As practiced by men alone dancing has become a +mere display of physical agility, a form of exhibition common to all +males. As practiced by men and women together we have our social +dances, so lacking in all the varied beauty of posture and expression, +so steadily becoming a pleasant form of dalliance. + +As practiced by women alone we have one of the clearest proofs of the +degrading effect of masculine dominance:--the dancing girl. In the +frank sensualism of the Orient, this personage is admired and enjoyed on +her merits. We, more sophisticated in this matter, joke shamefacedly +about "the bald-headed row," and occasionally burst forth in shrill +scandal over some dinner party where ladies clad in a veil and a +bracelet dance on the table. Nowhere else in the whole range of life on +earth, is this degradation found--the female capering and prancing +before the male. It is absolutely and essentially his function, not +hers. That we, as a race, present this pitiful spectacle, a natural art +wrested to unnatural ends, a noble art degraded to ignoble ends, has one +clear cause. + +Architecture, in its own nature, is least affected by that same cause. +The human needs secured by it, are so human, so unescapably human, that +we find less trace of excessive masculinity than in other arts. It +meets our social demands, it expresses in lasting form our social +feeling, up to the highest; and it has been injured not so much by an +excess of masculinity as by a lack of femininity. + +The most universal architectural expression is in the home; the home is +essentially a place for the woman and the child; yet the needs of woman +and child are not expressed in our domestic architecture. The home is +built on lines of ancient precedent, mainly as an industrial form; the +kitchen is its working centre rather than the nursery. + +Each man wishes his home to preserve and seclude his woman, his little +harem of one; and in it she is to labor for his comfort or to manifest +his ability to maintain her in idleness. The house is the physical +expression of the limitations of women; and as such it fills the world +with a small drab ugliness. A dwelling house is rarely a beautiful +object. In order to be such, it should truly express simple and natural +relations; or grow in larger beauty as our lives develop. + +The deadlock for architectural progress, the low level of our general +taste, the everlasting predominance of the commonplace in buildings, is +the natural result of the proprietary family and its expression in this +form. + +In sculpture we have a noble art forcing itself into some service +through many limitations. Its check, as far as it comes under this line +of study, has been indicated in our last chapter; the degradation of the +human body, the vicious standards of sex-consciousness enforced under +the name of modesty, the covered ugliness, which we do not recognize, +all this is a deadly injury to free high work in sculpture. + +With a nobly equal womanhood, stalwart and athletic; with the high +standards of beauty and of decorum which we can never have without free +womanhood; we should show a different product in this great art. + +An interesting note in passing is this: when we seek to express socially +our noblest, ideas, Truth; Justice; Liberty; we use the woman's body as +the highest human type. But in doing this, the artist, true to humanity +and not biassed by sex, gives us a strong, grand figure, beautiful +indeed, but never _decorated_. Fancy Liberty in ruffles and frills, +with rings in her ears--or nose. + +Music is injured by a one-sided handling, partly in the excess of the +one dominant masculine passion, partly by the general presence of +egoism; that tendency to self-expression instead of social expression, +which so disfigures our art; and this is true also of poetry. + +Miles and miles of poetry consist of the ceaseless outcry of the male +for the female, which is by no means so overwhelming as a feature of +human life as he imagines it; and other miles express his other +feelings, with that ingenuous lack of reticence which is at its base +essentially masculine. Having a pain, the poet must needs pour it +forth, that his woe be shared and sympathized with. + +As more and more women writers flock into the field there is room for +fine historic study of the difference in sex feeling, and the gradual +emergence of the human note. + +Literature, and in especial the art of fiction, is so large a field for +this study that it will have a chapter to itself; this one but touching +on these various forms; and indicating lines of observation. + +That best known form of art which to my mind needs no qualifying +description--painting--is also a wide field; and cannot be done full +justice to within these limits. The effect upon it of too much +masculinity is not so much in choice of subject as in method and spirit. + The artist sees beauty of form and color where the ordinary observer +does not; and paints the old and ugly with as much enthusiasm as the +young and beautiful--sometimes. If there is in some an over-emphasis of +feminine attractions it is counterbalanced in others by a far broader +line of work. + +But the main evils of a too masculine art lie in the emphasis laid on +self-expression. The artist, passionately conscious of how he feels, +strives to make other people aware of these sensations. This is now so +generally accepted by critics, so seriously advanced by painters, that +what is called "the art world" accepts it as established. + +If a man paints the sea, it is not to make you see and feel as a sight +of that same ocean would, but to make you see and feel how he, +personally, was affected by it; a matter surely of the narrowest +importance. The ultra-masculine artist, extremely sensitive, +necessarily, and full of the natural urge to expression of the sex, uses +the medium of art as ingenuously as the partridge-cock uses his wings in +drumming on the log; or the bull moose stamps and bellows; not narrowly +as a mate call, but as a form of expression of his personal sensations. + +The higher the artist the more human he is, the broader his vision, the +more he sees for humanity, and expresses for humanity, and the less +personal, the less ultra-masculine, is his expression. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +V. + +MASCULINE LITERATURE. + + +When we are offered a "woman's" paper, page, or column, we find it +filled with matter supposed to appeal to women as a sex or class; the +writer mainly dwelling upon the Kaiser's four K's--Kuchen, Kinder, +Kirche, Kleider. They iterate and reiterate endlessly the discussion of +cookery, old and new; of the care of children; of the overwhelming +subject of clothing; and of moral instruction. All this is recognized +as "feminine" literature, and it must have some appeal else the women +would not read it. What parallel have we in "masculine" literature? + +"None!" is the proud reply. "Men are people! Women, being 'the sex,' +have their limited feminine interests, their feminine point of view, +which must be provided for. Men, however, are not restricted--to them +belongs the world's literature!" + +Yes, it has belonged to them--ever since there was any. They have +written it and they have read it. It is only lately that women, +generally speaking, have been taught to read; still more lately that +they have been allowed to write. It is but a little while since Harriet +Martineau concealed her writing beneath her sewing when visitors came +in--writing was "masculine"--sewing "feminine." + +We have not, it Is true, confined men to a narrowly construed "masculine +sphere," and composed a special literature suited to it. Their effect +on literature has been far wider than that, monopolizing this form of +art with special favor. It was suited above all others to the dominant +impulse of self-expression; and being, as we have seen essentially and +continually "the sex;" they have impressed that sex upon this art +overwhelmingly; they have given the world a masculized literature. + +It is hard for us to realize this. We can readily see, that if women +had always written the books, no men either writing or reading them, +that would have surely "feminized" our literature; but we have not in +our minds the concept, much less the word, for an overmasculized +influence. + +Men having been accepted as humanity, women but a side-issue; (most +literally if we accept the Hebrew legend!), whatever men did or said was +human--and not to be criticized. In no department of life is it easier +to contravert this old belief; to show how the male sex as such differs +from the human type; and how this maleness has monopolized and +disfigured a great social function. + +Human life is a very large affair; and literature is its chief art. We +live, humanly, only through our power of communication. Speech gives us +this power laterally, as it were, in immediate personal contact. For +permanent use speech becomes oral tradition--a poor dependence. +Literature gives not only an infinite multiplication to the lateral +spread of communion but adds the vertical reach. Through it we know the +past, govern the present, and influence the future. In its servicable +common forms it is the indispensable daily servant of our lives; in its +nobler flights as a great art no means of human inter-change goes so +far. + +In these brief limits we can touch but lightly on some phases of so +great a subject; and will rest the case mainly on the effect of an +exclusively masculine handling of the two fields of history and fiction. + In poetry and the drama the same influence is easily traced, but in the +first two it is so baldly prominent as to defy objection. + +History is, or should be, the story of our racial life. What have men +made it? The story of warfare and conquest. Begin at the very +beginning with the carven stones of Egypt, the clay records of Chaldea, +what do we find of history? + +"I Pharaoh, King of Kings! Lord of Lords! (etc. etc.), "went down into +the miserable land of Kush, and slew of the inhabitants thereof an +hundred and forty and two thousands!" That, or something like it, is +the kind of record early history gives us. + +The story of Conquering Kings, who and how many they killed and +enslaved; the grovelling adulation of the abased; the unlimited +jubilation of the victor; from the primitive state of most ancient +kings, and the Roman triumphs where queens walked in chains, down to our +omni present soldier's monuments: the story of war and conquest--war and +conquest--over and over; with such boasting and triumph, such cock-crow +and flapping of wings as show most unmistakably the natural source. + +All this will strike the reader at first as biased and unfair. "That +was the way people lived in those days!" says the reader. + +No--it was not the way women lived. + +"O, women!" says the reader, "Of course not! Women are different." + +Yea, women are different; and _men are different!_ Both of them, as +sexes, differ from the human norm, which is social life and all social +development. Society was slowly growing in all those black blind years. + The arts, the sciences, the trades and crafts and professions, +religion, philosophy, government, law, commerce, agriculture--all the +human processes were going on as well as they were able, between wars. + +The male naturally fights, and naturally crows, triumphs over his rival +and takes the prize--therefore was he made male. Maleness means war. + +Not only so; but being male, he cares only for male interests. Men, +being the sole arbiters of what should be done and said and written, +have given us not only a social growth scarred and thwarted from the +beginning by continual destruction; but a history which is one unbroken +record of courage and red cruelty, of triumph and black shame. + +As to what went on that was of real consequence, the great slow steps of +the working world, the discoveries and inventions, the real progress of +humanity--that was not worth recording, from a masculine point of view. +Within this last century, "the woman's century," the century of the +great awakening, the rising demand for freedom, political, economic, and +domestic, we are beginning to write real history, human history, and not +merely masculine history. But that great branch of literature--Hebrew, +Greek, Roman, and all down later times, shows beyond all question, the +influence of our androcentric culture. + +Literature is the most powerful and necessary of the arts, and fiction +is its broadest form. If art "holds the mirror up to nature" this art's +mirror is the largest of all, the most used. Since our very life +depends on some communication; and our progress is in proportion to our +fullness and freedom of communication; since real communication requires +mutual understanding; so in the growth of the social consciousness, we +note from the beginning a passionate interest in other people's lives. + +The art which gives humanity consciousness is the most vital art. Our +greatest dramatists are lauded for their breadth of knowledge of "human +nature," their range of emotion and understanding; our greatest poets +are those who most deeply and widely experience and reveal the feelings +of the human heart; and the power of fiction is that it can reach and +express this great field of human life with no limits but those of the +author. + +When fiction began it was the legitimate child of oral tradition; a +product of natural brain activity; the legend constructed instead of +remembered. (This stage is with us yet as seen in the constant changes +in repetition of popular jokes and stories.) + +Fiction to-day has a much wider range; yet it is still restricted, +heavily and most mischievously restricted. + +What is the preferred subject matter of fiction? + +There are two main branches found everywhere, from the Romaunt of the +Rose to the Purplish Magazine;--the Story of Adventure, and the Love +Story. + +The Story-of-Adventure branch is not so thick as the other by any means, +but it is a sturdy bough for all that. Stevenson and Kipling have +proved its immense popularity, with the whole brood of detective stories +and the tales of successful rascality we call "picaresque" Our most +popular weekly shows the broad appeal of this class of fiction. + +All these tales of adventure, of struggle and difficulty; of hunting and +fishing and fighting; of robbing and murdering, catching and punishing, +are distinctly and essentially masculine. They do not touch on human +processes, social processes, but on the special field of predatory +excitement so long the sole province of men. + +It is to be noted here that even in the overwhelming rise of industrial +interests to-day, these, when used as the basis for a story, are forced +into line with one, or both, of these two main branches of +fiction;--conflict or love. Unless the story has one of these +"interests" in it, there is no story--so holds the editor; the dictum +being, put plainly, "life has no interests except conflict and love!" + +It is surely something more than a coincidence that these are the two +essential features of masculinity--Desire and Combat--Love and War. + +As a matter of fact the major interests of life are in line with its +major processes; and these--in our stage of human development--are more +varied than our fiction would have us believe. Half the world consists +of women, we should remember, who are types of human life as well as +men, and their major processes are not those of conflict and adventure, +their love means more than mating. Even on so poor a line of +distinction as the "woman's column" offers, if women are to be kept to +their four Ks, there should be a "men's column" also; and all the +"sporting news" and fish stories be put in that; they are not world +interests; they are male interests. + +Now for the main branch--the Love Story. Ninety per cent. of fiction is +In this line; this is preeminently the major interest of life--given in +fiction. What is the love-story, as rendered by this art? + +It is the story of the pre-marital struggle. It is the Adventures of +Him in Pursuit of Her--and it stops when he gets her! Story after +story, age after age, over and over and over, this ceaseless repetition +of the Preliminaries. + +Here is Human Life. In its large sense, its real sense, it is a matter +of inter-relation between individuals and groups, covering all emotions, +all processes, all experiences. Out of this vast field of human life +fiction arbitrarily selects one emotion, one process, one experience, as +its necessary base. + +"Ah! but we are persons most of all!" protests the reader. "This is +personal experience--it has the universal appeal!" + +Take human life personally then. Here is a Human Being, a life, +covering some seventy years; involving the changing growth of many +faculties; the ever new marvels of youth, the long working time of +middle life, the slow ripening of age. Here is the human soul, in the +human body, Living. Out of this field of personal life, with all of its +emotions, processes, and experiences, fiction arbitrarily selects one +emotion, one process, one experience, mainly of one sex. + +The "love" of our stories is man's love of woman. If any dare dispute +this, and say it treats equally of woman's love for man, I answer, "Then +why do the stories stop at marriage?" + +There is a current jest, revealing much, to this effect: + +The young wife complains that the husband does not wait upon and woo her +as he did before marriage; to which he replies, "Why should I run after +the street-car when I've caught it?" + +Woman's love for man, as currently treated in fiction is largely a +reflex; it is the way he wants her to feel, expects her to feel; not a +fair representation of how she does feel. If "love" is to be selected +as the most important thing in life to write about, then the mother's +love should be the principal subject: This is the main stream. This is +the general underlying, world-lifting force. The "life-force," now so +glibly chattered about, finds its fullest expression in motherhood; not +in the emotions of an assistant in the preliminary stages. + +What has literature, what has fiction, to offer concerning mother-love, +or even concerning father-love, as compared to this vast volume of +excitement about lover-love? Why is the search-light continually +focussed upon a two or three years space of life "mid the blank miles +round about?" Why indeed, except for the clear reason, that on a +starkly masculine basis this is his one period of overwhelming interest +and excitement. + +If the beehive produced literature, the bee's fiction would be rich and +broad; full of the complex tasks of comb-building and filling; the care +and feeding of the young, the guardian-service of the queen; and far +beyond that it would spread to the blue glory of the summer sky, the +fresh winds, the endless beauty and sweetness of a thousand thousand +flowers. It would treat of the vast fecundity of motherhood, the +educative and selective processes of the group-mothers; and the passion +of loyalty, of social service, which holds the hive together. + +But if the drones wrote fiction, it would have no subject matter save +the feasting of many; and the nuptial flight, of one. + +To the male, as such, this mating instinct is frankly the major interest +of life; even the belligerent instincts are second to it. To the +female, as such, it is for all its intensity, but a passing interest. +In nature's economy, his is but a temporary devotion, hers the slow +processes of life's fulfillment. + +In Humanity we have long since, not outgrown, but overgrown, this stage +of feeling. In Human Parentage even the mother's share begins to pale +beside that ever-growing Social love and care, which guards and guides +the children of to-day. + +The art of literature in this main form of fiction is far too great a +thing to be wholly governed by one dominant note. As life widened and +intensified, the artist, if great enough, has transcended sex; and in +the mightier works of the real masters, we find fiction treating of +life, life in general, in all its complex relationships, and refusing to +be held longer to the rigid canons of an androcentric past. + +This was the power of Balzac--he took in more than this one field. This +was the universal appeal of Dickens; he wrote of people, all kinds of +people, doing all kinds of things. As you recall with pleasure some +preferred novel of this general favorite, you find yourself looking +narrowly for the "love story" in it. It is there--for it is part of +life; but it does not dominate the whole scene--any more than it does in +life. + +The thought of the world is made and handed out to us in the main. The +makers of books are the makers of thoughts and feelings for people in +general. Fiction is the most popular form in which this world-food is +taken. If it were true, it would teach us life easily, swiftly, truly; +teach not by preaching but by truly re-presenting; and we should grow up +becoming acquainted with a far wider range of life in books than could +even be ours in person. Then meeting life in reality we should be +wise--and not be disappointed. + +As it is, our great sea of fiction is steeped and dyed and flavored all +one way. A young man faces life--the seventy year stretch, remember, +and is given book upon book wherein one set of feelings is continually +vocalized and overestimated. He reads forever of love, good love and +bad love, natural and unnatural, legitimate and illegitimate; with the +unavoidable inference that there is nothing else going on. + +If he is a healthy young man he breaks loose from the whole thing, +despises "love stories" and takes up life as he finds it. But what +impression he does receive from fiction is a false one, and he suffers +without knowing it from lack of the truer broader views of life it +failed to give him. + +A young woman faces life--the seventy year stretch remember; and is +given the same books--with restrictions. Remember the remark of +Rochefoucauld, "There are thirty good stories in the world and +twenty-nine cannot be told to women." There is a certain broad field of +literature so grossly androcentric that for very shame men have tried to +keep it to themselves. But in a milder form, the spades all named +teaspoons, or at the worst appearing as trowels--the young woman is +given the same fiction. Love and love and love--from "first sight" to +marriage. There it stops--just the fluttering ribbon of announcement, +"and lived happily ever after." + +Is that kind of fiction any sort of picture of a woman's life? Fiction, +under our androcentric culture, has not given any true picture of +woman's life, very little of human life, and a disproportioned section +of man's life. + +As we daily grow more human, both of us, this noble art is changing for +the better so fast that a short lifetime can mark the growth. New +fields are opening and new laborers are working in them. But it is no +swift and easy matter to disabuse the race mind from attitudes and +habits inculcated for a thousand years. What we have been fed upon so +long we are well used to, what we are used to we like, what we like we +think is good and proper. + +The widening demand for broader, truer fiction is disputed by the slow +racial mind: and opposed by the marketers of literature on grounds of +visible self-interest, as well as lethargic conservatism. + +It is difficult for men, heretofore the sole producers and consumers of +literature; and for women, new to the field, and following masculine +canons because all the canons were masculine; to stretch their minds to +a recognition of the change which is even now upon us. + +This one narrow field has been for so long overworked, our minds are so +filled with heroes and heroes continually repeating the one-act play, +that when a book like David Harum is offered the publisher refuses it +repeatedly, and finally insists on a "heart interest" being injected by +force. + +Did anyone read David Harum for that heart interest? Does anyone +remember that heart interest? Has humanity no interests but those of +the heart? + +Robert Ellesmere was a popular book--but not because of its heart +interest. + +Uncle Tom's Cabin appealed to the entire world, more widely than any +work of fiction that was ever written; but if anybody fell in love and +married in it they have been forgotten. There was plenty of love in +that book, love of family, love of friends, love of master for servant +and servant for master; love of mother for child; love of married people +for each other; love of humanity and love of God. + +It was extremely popular. Some say it was not literature. That opinion +will live, like the name of Empedocles. + +The art of fiction is being re-born in these days. Life is discovered +to be longer, wider, deeper, richer, than these monotonous players of +one June would have us believe. + +The humanizing of woman of itself opens five distinctly fresh fields of +fiction: First the position of the young woman who is called upon to +give up her "career"--her humanness--for marriage, and who objects to +it; second, the middle-aged woman who at last discovers that her +discontent is social starvation--that it is not more love that she +wants, but more business in life: Third the interrelation of women with +women--a thing we could never write about before because we never had it +before: except in harems and convents: Fourth the inter-action between +mothers and children; this not the eternal "mother and child," wherein +the child is always a baby, but the long drama of personal relationship; +the love and hope, the patience and power, the lasting joy and triumph, +the slow eating disappointment which must never be owned to a living +soul--here are grounds for novels that a million mothers and many +million children would eagerly read: Fifth the new attitude of the +full-grown woman who faces the demands of love with the high standards +of conscious motherhood. + +There are other fields, broad and brilliantly promising, but this +chapter is meant merely to show that our one-sided culture has, in this +art, most disproportionately overestimated the dominant instincts of the +male--Love and War--an offense against art and truth, and an injury to +life. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +VI. + +GAMES AND SPORTS + + +One of the sharpest distinctions both between the essential characters +and the artificial positions of men and women, is in the matter of games +and sports. By far the greater proportion of them are essentially +masculine, and as such alien to women; while from those which are +humanly interesting, women have been largely debarred by their arbitrary +restrictions. + +The play instinct is common to girls and boys alike; and endures in some +measure throughout life. As other young animals express their abounding +energies in capricious activities similar to those followed in the +business of living, so small children gambol, physically, like lambs and +kids; and as the young of higher kinds of animals imitate in their play +the more complex activities of their elders, so do children imitate +whatever activities they see about them. In this field of playing there +is no sex. + +Similarly in adult life healthy and happy persons, men and women, +naturally express surplus energy in various forms of sport. We have +here one of the most distinctively human manifestations. The great +accumulation of social energy, and the necessary limitations of one kind +of work, leave a human being tired of one form of action, yet still +uneasy for lack of full expression; and this social need has been met by +our great safety valve of games and sports. + +In a society of either sex, or in a society without sex, there would +still be both pleasure and use in games; they are vitally essential to +human life. In a society of two sexes, wherein one has dictated all the +terms of life, and the other has been confined to an extremely limited +fraction of human living, we may look to see this great field of +enjoyment as disproportionately divided. + +It is not only that we have reduced the play impulse in women by +restricting them to one set of occupations, and overtaxing their +energies with mother-work and housework combined; and not only that by +our androcentric conventions we further restrict their amusements; but +we begin in infancy, and forcibly differentiate their methods of play +long before any natural distinction would appear. + +Take that universal joy the doll, or puppet, as an instance. A small +imitation of a large known object carries delight to the heart of a +child of either sex. The worsted cat, the wooden horse, the little +wagon, the tin soldier, the wax doll, the toy village, the "Noah's Ark," +the omnipresent "Teddy Bear," any and every small model of a real thing +is a delight to the young human being. Of all things the puppet is the +most intimate, the little image of another human being to play with. +The fancy of the child, making endless combinations with these visible +types, plays as freely as a kitten in the leaves; or gravely carries out +some observed forms of life, as the kitten imitates its mother's +hunting. + +So far all is natural and human. + +Now see our attitude toward child's play--under a masculine culture. +Regarding women only as a sex, and that sex as manifest from infancy, we +make and buy for our little girls toys suitable to this view. Being +females--which means mothers, we must needs provide them with babies +before they cease to be babies themselves; and we expect their play to +consist in an imitation of maternal cares. The doll, the puppet, which +interests all children, we have rendered as an eternal baby; and we +foist them upon our girl children by ceaseless millions. + +The doll, as such, is dear to the little boy as well as the girl, but +not as a baby. He likes his jumping-jack, his worsted Sambo, often a +genuine rag-doll; but he is discouraged and ridiculed in this. We do +not expect the little boy to manifest a father's love and care for an +imitation child--but we do expect the little girl to show maternal +feelings for her imitation baby. It has not yet occurred to us that +this is monstrous. + +Little children should not be expected to show, in painful precocity, +feelings which ought never to be experienced till they come at the +proper age. Our kittens play at cat-sports, little Tom and Tabby +together; but little Tabby does not play she is a mother! + +Beyond the continuous dolls and their continuous dressing, we provide +for our little girls tea sets and kitchen sets, doll's houses, little +work-boxes--the imitation tools of their narrow trades. For the boy +there is a larger choice. We make for them not only the essentially +masculine toys of combat--all the enginery of mimic war; but also the +models of human things, like boats, railroads, wagons. For them, too, +are the comprehensive toys of the centuries, the kite, the top, the +ball. As the boy gets old enough to play the games that require skill, +he enters the world-lists, and the little sister, left inside, with her +everlasting dolls, learns that she is "only a girl," and "mustn't play +with boys--boys are so rough!" She has her doll and her tea set. She +"plays house." If very active she may jump rope, in solitary +enthusiasm, or in combination of from two to four. Her brother is +playing games. From this time on he plays the games of the world. The +"sporting page" should be called "the Man's Page" as that array of +recipes, fashions and cheap advice is called "the Woman's Page." + +One of the immediate educational advantages of the boy's position is +that he learns "team work." This is not a masculine characteristic, it +is a human one; a social power. Women are equally capable of it by +nature; but not by education. Tending one's imitation baby is not +team-work; nor is playing house. The little girl is kept forever within +the limitations of her mother's "sphere" of action; while the boy learns +life, and fancies that his new growth is due to his superior sex. + +Now there are certain essential distinctions in the sexes, which would +manifest themselves to some degree even in normally reared children; as +for instance the little male would be more given to fighting and +destroying; the little female more to caring for and constructing +things. + +"Boys are so destructive!" we say with modest pride--as if it was in +some way a credit to them. But early youth is not the time to display +sex distinction; and they should be discouraged rather than approved. + +The games of the world, now the games of men, easily fall into two broad +classes--games of skill and games of chance. + +The interest and pleasure in the latter is purely human, and as such is +shared by the two sexes even now. Women, in the innocent beginnings or +the vicious extremes of this line of amusement, make as wild gamblers as +men. At the races, at the roulette wheel, at the bridge table, this is +clearly seen. + +In games of skill we have a different showing. Most of these are +developed by and for men; but when they are allowed, women take part in +them with interest and success. In card games, in chess, checkers, and +the like, in croquet and tennis, they play, and play well if +well-trained. Where they fall short in so many games, and are so wholly +excluded in others, is not for lack of human capacity, but for lack of +masculinity. Most games are male. In their element of desire to win, +to get the prize, they are male; and in their universal attitude of +competition they are male, the basic spirit of desire and of combat +working out through subtle modern forms. + +There is something inherently masculine also in the universal dominance +of the projectile in their games. The ball is the one unescapable +instrument of sport. From the snapped marble of infancy to the flying +missile of the bat, this form endures. To send something forth with +violence; to throw it, bat it, kick it, shoot it; this impulse seems to +date back to one of the twin forces of the universe--the centrifugal and +centripetal energies between which swing the planets. + +The basic feminine impulse is to gather, to put together, to construct; +the basic masculine impulse to scatter, to disseminate, to destroy. It +seems to give pleasure to a man to bang something and drive it from him; +the harder he hits it and the farther it goes the better pleased he is. + +Games of this sort will never appeal to women. They are not wrong; not +necessarily evil in their place; our mistake is in considering them as +human, whereas they are only masculine. + +Play, in the childish sense is an expression of previous habit; and to +be studied in that light. Play in the educational sense should be +encouraged or discouraged to develop desired characteristics. This we +know, and practice; only we do it under androcentric canons; confining +the girl to the narrow range we consider proper for women, and assisting +the boy to cover life with the expression of masculinity, when we should +be helping both to a more human development. + +Our settled conviction that men are people--the people, and that +masculine qualities are the main desideratam in life, is what keeps up +this false estimate of the value of our present games. Advocates of +football, for instance, proudly claim that it fits a man for life. +Life--from the wholly male point of view--is a battle, with a prize. To +want something beyond measure, and to fight to get--that is the simple +proposition. This view of life finds its most naive expression in +predatory warfare; and still tends to make predatory warfare of the +later and more human processes of industry. Because they see life in +this way they imagine that skill and practice in the art of fighting, +especially in collective fighting, is so valuable in our modern life. +This is an archaism which would be laughable if it were not so dangerous +in its effects. + +The valuable processes to-day are those of invention, discovery, all +grades of industry, and, most especially needed, the capacity for honest +service and administration of our immense advantages. These are not +learned on the football field. This spirit of desire and combat may be +seen further in all parts of this great subject. It has developed into +a cult of sportsmanship; so universally accepted among men as of +superlative merit as to quite blind them to other standards of judgment. + +In the Cook-Peary controversy of 1909, this canon was made manifest. +Here, one man had spent a lifetime in trying to accomplish something; +and at the eleventh hour succeeded. Then, coming out in the rich +triumph long deferred, he finds another man, of character well known to +him, impudently and falsely claiming that he had done it first. Mr. +Peary expressed himself, quite restrainedly and correctly, in regard to +the effrontery and falsity of this claim--and all the country rose up +and denounced him as "unsportsmanlike!" + +Sport and the canons of sport are so dominant in the masculine mind that +what they considered a deviation from these standards was of far more +importance than the question of fact involved; to say nothing of the +moral obliquity of one lying to the whole world, for money; and that at +the cost of another's hard-won triumph. + +If women had condemned the conduct of one or the other as "not good +house-wifery," this would have been considered a most puerile comment. +But to be "unsportsmanlike" is the unpardonable sin. + +Owing to our warped standards we glaringly misjudge the attitude of the +two sexes in regard to their amusements. Of late years more women than +ever before have taken to playing cards; and some, unfortunately, play +for money. A steady stream of comment and blame follows upon this. The +amount of card playing among men--and the amount of money lost and won, +does not produce an equivalent comment. + +Quite aside from this one field of dissipation, look at the share of +life, of time, of strength, of money, given by men to their wide range +of recreation. The primitive satisfaction of hunting and fishing they +maintain at enormous expense. This is the indulgence of a most +rudimentary impulse; pre-social and largely pre-human, of no service +save as it affects bodily health, and of a most deterring influence on +real human development. Where hunting and fishing is of real human +service, done as a means of livelihood, it is looked down upon like any +other industry; it is no longer "sport." + +The human being kills to eat, or to sell and eat from the returns; he +kills for the creature's hide or tusks, for use of some sort; or to +protect his crops from vermin, his flocks from depredation; but the +sportsman kills for the gratification of a primeval instinct, and under +rules of an arbitrary cult. "Game" creatures are his prey; bird, beast +or fish that is hard to catch, that requires some skill to slay; that +will give him not mere meat and bones, but "the pleasure of the chase." + +The pleasure of the chase is a very real one. It is exemplified, in its +broad sense in children's play. The running and catching games, the +hiding and finding games, are always attractive to our infancy, as they +are to that of cubs and kittens. But the long continuance of this +indulgence among mature civilized beings is due to their masculinity. +That group of associated sex instincts, which in the woman prompts to +the patient service and fierce defence of the little child, in the man +has its deepest root in seeking, pursuing and catching. To hunt is more +than a means of obtaining food, in his long ancestry; it is to follow at +any cost, to seek through all difficulties, to struggle for and secure +the central prize of his being--a mate. + +His "protective instincts" are far later and more superficial. To +support and care for his wife, his children, is a recent habit, in plain +sight historically; but "the pleasure of the chase" is older than that. +We should remember that associate habits and impulses last for ages upon +ages in living forms; as in the tree climbing instincts of our earliest +years, of Simian origin; and the love of water, which dates back through +unmeasured time. Where for millions of years the strongest pleasure a +given organism is fitted for, is obtained by a certain group of +activities, those activities will continue to give pleasure long after +their earlier use is gone. + +This is why men enjoy "the ardor of pursuit" far more than women. It is +an essentially masculine ardor. To come easily by what he wants does +not satisfy him. He wants to want it. He wants to hunt it, seek it, +chase it, catch it. He wants it to be "game." He is by virtue of his +sex a sportsman. + +There is no reason why these special instincts should not be gratified +so long as it does no harm to the more important social processes; but +it is distinctly desirable that we should understand their nature. The +reason why we have the present overwhelming mass of "sporting events," +from the ball game to the prize fight, is because our civilization is so +overwhelmingly masculine. We shall criticize them more justly when we +see that all this mass of indulgence is in the first place a form of +sex-expression, and in the second place a survival of instincts older +than the oldest savagery. + +Besides our games and sports we have a large field of "amusements" also +worth examining. We not only enjoy doing things, but we enjoy seeing +them done by others. In these highly specialized days most of our +amusement consists in paying two dollars to sit three hours and see +other people do things. + +This in its largest sense is wholly human. We, as social creatures, can +enjoy a thousand forms of expression quite beyond the personal. The +birds must each sing his own song; the crickets chirp in millionfold +performance; but human being feels the deep thrill of joy in their +special singers, actors, dancers, as well as in their own personal +attempts. That we should find pleasure in watching one another is +humanly natural, but what it is we watch, the kind of pleasure and the +kind of performance, opens a wide field of choice. + +We know, for instance, something of the crude excesses of aboriginal +Australian dances; we know more of the gross license of old Rome; we +know the breadth of the jokes in medieval times, and the childish +brutality of the bull-ring and the cockpit. We know, in a word, that +amusements vary; that they form a ready gauge of character and culture; +that they have a strong educational influence for good or bad. What we +have not hitherto observed is the predominant masculine influence on our +amusements. If we recall once more the statement with regard to +entertaining anecdotes, "There are thirty good stories in the world, and +twenty-nine of them cannot be told to women," we get a glaring sidelight +on the masculine specialization in jokes. + +"Women have no sense of humor" has been frequently said, when "Women +have not a masculine sense of humor" would be truer. If women had +thirty "good stories" twenty-nine of which could not be told to men, it +is possible that men, if they heard some of the twenty-nine, would not +find them funny. The overweight of one sex has told in our amusements +as everywhere else. + +Because men are further developed in humanity than women are as yet, +they have built and organized great places of amusement; because they +carried into their humanity their unchecked masculinity, they have made +these amusements to correspond. Dramatic expression, is in its true +sense, not only a human distinction, but one of our noblest arts. It is +allied with the highest emotions; is religious, educational, patriotic, +covering the whole range of human feeling. Through it we should be able +continually to express, in audible, visible forms, alive and moving, +whatever phase of life we most enjoyed or wished to see. There was a +time when the drama led life; lifted, taught, inspired, enlightened. +Now its main function is to amuse. Under the demand for amusement, it +has cheapened and coarsened, and now the thousand vaudevilles and +picture shows give us the broken fragments of a degraded art of which +our one main demand is that it shall make us laugh. + +There are many causes at work here; and while this study seeks to show +in various fields one cause, it does not claim that cause is the only +one. Our economic conditions have enormous weight upon our amusements, +as on all other human phenomena; but even under economic pressure the +reactions of men and women are often dissimilar. Tired men and women +both need amusement, the relaxation and restful change of irresponsible +gayety. The great majority of women, who work longer hours than any +other class, need it desperately and never get it. Amusement, +entertainment, recreation, should be open to us all, enjoyed by all. +This is a human need, and not a distinction of either sex. Like most +human things it is not only largely monopolized by men, but masculized +throughout. Many forms of amusement are for men only; more for men +mostly; all are for men if they choose to go. + +The entrance of women upon the stage, and their increased attendance at +theatres has somewhat modified the nature of the performance; even the +"refined vaudeville" now begins to show the influence of women. It +would be no great advantage to have this department of human life +feminized; the improvement desired is to have it less masculized; to +reduce the excessive influence of one, and to bring out those broad +human interests and pleasures which men and women can equally +participate in and enjoy. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +VII. + +ETHICS AND RELIGION. + + +The laws of physics were at work before we were on earth, and continued +to work on us long before we had intelligence enough to perceive, much +less understand, them. Our proven knowledge of these processes +constitutes "the science of physics"; but the laws were there before the +science. + +Physics is the science of material relation, how things and natural +forces work with and on one another. Ethics is the science of social +relation, how persons and social forces work with and on one another. + +Ethics is to the human world what physics is to the material world; +ignorance of ethics leaves us in the same helpless position in regard to +one another that ignorance of physics left us in regard to earth, air, +fire and water. + +To be sure, people lived and died and gradually improved, while yet +ignorant of the physical sciences; they developed a rough "rule of +thumb" method, as animals do, and used great forces without +understanding them. But their lives were safer and their improvement +more rapid as they learned more, and began to make servants of the +forces which had been their masters. + +We have progressed, lamely enough, with terrible loss and suffering, +from stark savagery to our present degree of civilization; we shall go +on more safely and swiftly when we learn more of the science of ethics. + +Let us note first that while the underlying laws of ethics remain steady +and reliable, human notions of them have varied widely and still do so. +In different races, ages, classes, sexes, different views of ethics +obtain; the conduct of the people is modified by their views, and their +prosperity is modified by their conduct. + +Primitive man became very soon aware that conduct was of importance. As +consciousness increased, with the power to modify action from within, +instead of helplessly reacting to stimuli from without, there arose the +crude first codes of ethics, the "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not" of +the blundering savage. It was mostly "Thou shalt not." Inhibition, the +checking of an impulse proven disadvantageous, was an earlier and easier +form of action than the later human power to consciously decide on and +follow a course of action with no stimulus but one's own will. + +Primitive ethics consists mostly of Tabus--the things that are +forbidden; and all our dim notions of ethics to this day, as well as +most of our religions, deal mainly with forbidding. + +This is almost the whole of our nursery government, to an extent shown +by the well-worn tale of the child who said her name was "Mary." "Mary +what?" they asked her. And she answered, "Mary Don't." It is also the +main body of our legal systems--a complex mass of prohibitions and +preventions. And even in manners and conventions, the things one should +not do far outnumber the things one should. A general policy of +negation colors our conceptions of ethics and religion. + +When the positive side began to be developed, it was at first in purely +arbitrary and artificial form. The followers of a given religion were +required to go through certain motions, as prostrating themselves, +kneeling, and the like; they were required to bring tribute to the gods +and their priests, sacrifices, tithes, oblations; they were set little +special performances to go through at given times; the range of things +forbidden was broad; the range of things commanded was narrow. The +Christian religion, practically interpreted, requires a fuller "change +of heart" and change of life than any preceding it; which may account at +once for its wide appeal to enlightened peoples, and to its scarcity of +application. + +Again, in surveying the field, it is seen that as our grasp of ethical +values widened, as we called more and more acts and tendencies "right" +and "wrong," we have shown astonishing fluctuations and vagaries in our +judgment. Not only in our religions, which have necessarily upheld each +its own set of prescribed actions as most "right," and its own special +prohibitions as most "wrong"; but in our beliefs about ethics and our +real conduct, we have varied absurdly. + +Take, for instance, the ethical concept among "gentlemen" a century or +so since, which put the paying of one's gambling debts as a well-nigh +sacred duty, and the paying of a tradesman who had fed and clothed one +as a quite negligible matter. If the process of gambling was of social +service, and the furnishing of food and clothes was not, this might be +good ethics; but as the contrary is true, we have to account for this +peculiar view on other grounds. + +Again, where in Japan a girl, to maintain her parents, is justified in +leading a life of shame, we have a peculiar ethical standard difficult +for Western minds to appreciate. Yet in such an instance as is +described in "Auld Robin Gray," we see precisely the same code; the +girl, to benefit her parents, marries a rich old man she does not +love--which is to lead a life of shame. The ethical view which +justifies this, puts the benefit of parents above the benefit of +children, robs the daughter of happiness and motherhood, injures +posterity to assist ancestors. + +This is one of the products of that very early religion, ancestor +worship; and here we lay a finger on a distinctly masculine influence. + +We know little of ethical values during the matriarchate; whatever they +were, they must have depended for sanction on a cult of promiscuous but +efficient maternity. Our recorded history begins in the patriarchal +period, and it is its ethics alone which we know. + +The mother instinct, throughout nature, is one of unmixed devotion, of +love and service, care and defence, with no self-interest. The animal +father, in such cases as he is of service to the young, assists the +mother in her work in similar fashion. But the human father in the +family with the male head soon made that family an instrument of desire, +and combat, and self-expression, following the essentially masculine +impulses. The children were his, and if males, valuable to serve and +glorify him. In his dominance over servile women and helpless children, +free rein was given to the growth of pride and the exercise of +irresponsible tyranny. To these feelings, developed without check for +thousands of years, and to the mental habits resultant, it is easy to +trace much of the bias of our early ethical concepts. + +Perhaps it is worth while to repeat here that the effort of this book is +by no means to attribute a wholly evil influence to men, and a wholly +good one to women; it is not even claimed that a purely feminine culture +would have advanced the world more successfully. It does claim that the +influence of the two together is better than that of either one alone; +and in especial to point out what special kind of injury is due to the +exclusive influence of one sex heretofore. + +We have to-day reached a degree of human development where both men and +women are capable of seeing over and across the distinctions of sex, and +mutually working for the advancement of the world. Our progress is, +however, seriously impeded by what we may call the masculine tradition, +the unconscious dominance of a race habit based on this long +androcentric period; and it is well worth while, in the interests of +both sexes, to show the mischievous effects of the predominance of one. + +We have in our ethics not only a "double standard" in one special line, +but in nearly all. Man, as a sex, has quite naturally deified his own +qualities rather than those of his opposite. In his codes of manners, +of morals, of laws, in his early concepts of God, his ancient religions, +we see masculinity written large on every side. Confining women wholly +to their feminine functions, he has required of them only what he called +feminine virtues, and the one virtue he has demanded, to the complete +overshadowing of all others, is measured by wholly masculine +requirements. + +ln the interests of health and happiness, monogamous marriage proves its +superiority in our race as it has in others. It is essential to the +best growth of humanity that we practice the virtue of chastity; it is a +human virtue, not a feminine one. But in masculine hands this virtue +was enforced upon women under penalties of hideous cruelty, and quite +ignored by men. Masculine ethics, colored by masculine instincts, +always dominated by sex, has at once recognized the value of chastity in +the woman, which is right; punished its absence unfairly, which is +wrong; and then reversed the whole matter when applied to men, which is +ridiculous. + +Ethical laws are laws--not idle notions. Chastity is a virtue because +it promotes human welfare--not because men happen to prize it in women +and ignore it themselves. The underlying reason for the whole thing is +the benefit of the child; and to that end a pure and noble fatherhood is +requisite, as well as such a motherhood. Under the limitations of a too +masculine ethics, we have developed on this one line social conditions +which would be absurdly funny if they were not so horrible. + +Religion, be it noticed, does not bear out this attitude. The immense +human need of religion, the noble human character of the great religious +teachers, has always set its standards, when first established, ahead of +human conduct. + +Some there are, men of learning and authority, who hold that the +deadening immobility of our religions, their resistance to progress and +relentless preservation of primitive ideals, is due to the conservatism +of women. Men, they say, are progressive by nature; women are +conservative. Women are more religious than men, and so preserve old +religious forms unchanged after men have outgrown them. + +If we saw women in absolute freedom, with a separate religion devised by +women, practiced by women, and remaining unchanged through the +centuries; while men, on the other hand, bounded bravely forward, making +new ones as fast as they were needed, this belief might be maintained. +But what do we see? All the old religions made by men, and forced on +the women whether they liked it or not. Often women not even considered +as part of the scheme--denied souls--given a much lower place in the +system--going from the service of their father's gods to the service of +their husbands--having none of their own. We see religions which make +practically no place for women, as with the Moslem, as rigidly bigoted +and unchanging as any other. + +We see also this: that the wider and deeper the religion, the more +human, the more it calls for practical applications in Christianity--the +more it appeals to women. Further, in the diverging sects of the +Christian religion, we find that its progressiveness is to be measured, +not by the numbers of its women adherents, but by their relative +freedom. The women of America, who belong to a thousand sects, who +follow new ones with avidity, who even make them, and who also leave +them all as men do, are women, as well as those of Spain, who remain +contented Romanists, but in America the status of women is higher. + +The fact is this: a servile womanhood is in a state of arrested +development, and as such does form a ground for the retention of ancient +ideas. But this is due to the condition of servility, not to womanhood. + That women at present are the bulwark of the older forms of our +religions is due to the action of two classes of men: the men of the +world, who keep women in their restricted position, and the men of the +church, who take every advantage of the limitations of women. When we +have for the first time in history a really civilized womanhood, we can +then judge better of its effect on religion. + +Meanwhile, we can see quite clearly the effect of manhood. Keeping in +mind those basic masculine impulses--desire and combat--we see them +reflected from high heaven in their religious concepts. Reward! +Something to want tremendously and struggle to achieve! This is a +concept perfectly masculine and most imperfectly religious. A religion +is partly explanation--a theory of life; it is partly emotion--an +attitude of mind, it is partly action--a system of morals. Man's +special effect on this large field of human development is clear. He +pictured his early gods as like to himself, and they behaved in +accordance with his ideals. In the dimmest, oldest religions, nearest +the matriarchate, we find great goddesses--types of Motherhood, +Mother-love, Mother-care and Service. But under masculine dominance, +Isis and Ashteroth dwindle away to an alluring Aphrodite--not Womanhood +for the child and the World--but the incarnation of female +attractiveness for man. + +As the idea of heaven developed in the man's mind it became the Happy +Hunting Ground of the savage, the beery and gory Valhalla of the +Norseman, the voluptuous, many-houri-ed Paradise of the Mohammedan. +These are men's heavens all. Women have never been so fond of hunting, +beer or blood; and their houris would be of the other kind. It may be +said that the early Christian idea of heaven is by no means planned for +men. That is trite, and is perhaps the reason why it has never had so +compelling an attraction for them. + +Very early in his vague efforts towards religious expression, man voiced +his second strongest instinct--that of combat. His universe is always +dual, always a scene of combat. Born with that impulse, exercising it +continually, he naturally assumed it to be the major process in life. +It is not. Growth is the major process. Combat is a useful subsidiary +process, chiefly valuable for its initial use, to transmit the physical +superiority of the victor. Psychic and social advantages are not thus +secured or transmitted. + +In no one particular is the androcentric character of our common thought +more clearly shown than in the general deification of what are now +described as "conflict stimuli." That which is true of the male +creature as such is assumed to be true of life in general; quite +naturally, but by no means correctly. To this universal masculine error +we may trace in the field of religion and ethics the great devil theory, +which has for so long obscured our minds. A God without an Adversary +was inconceivable to the masculine mind. From this basic misconception +we find all our ideas of ethics distorted; that which should have been +treated as a group of truths to be learned and habits to be cultivated +was treated in terms of combat, and moral growth made an everlasting +battle. This combat theory we may follow later into our common notions +of discipline, government, law and punishment; here is it enough to see +its painful effects in this primary field of ethics and religion? + +The third essential male trait of self-expression we may follow from its +innocent natural form in strutting cock or stamping stag up to the +characteristics we label vanity and pride. The degradation of women in +forcing them to adopt masculine methods of personal decoration as a +means of livelihood, has carried with the concomitant of personal +vanity: but to this day and at their worst we do not find in women the +_naive_ exultant glow of pride which swells the bosom of the men who +march in procession with brass bands, in full regalia of any sort, so +that it be gorgeous, exhibiting their glories to all. + +It is this purely masculine spirit which has given to our early concepts +of Deity the unadmirable qualities of boundless pride and a thirst for +constant praise and prostrate admiration, characteristics certainly +unbefitting any noble idea of God. Desire, combat and self-expression +all have had their unavoidable influence on masculine religions. What +deified Maternity a purely feminine culture might have put forth we do +not know, having had none such. Women are generally credited with as +much moral sense as men, and as much religious instinct; but so far it +has had small power to modify our prevailing creeds. + +As a matter of fact, no special sex attributes should have any weight in +our ideas of right and wrong. Ethics and religion are distinctly human +concerns; they belong to us as social factors, not as physical ones. As +we learn to recognize our humanness, and to leave our sex +characteristics where they belong, we shall at last learn something +about ethics as a simple and practical science, and see that religions +grow as the mind grows to formulate them. + +If anyone seeks for a clear, simple, easily grasped proof of our ethics, +it is to be found in a popular proverb. Struggling upward from beast +and savage into humanness, man has seen, reverenced, and striven to +attain various human virtues. + +He was willing to check many primitive impulses, to change many +barbarous habits, to manifest newer, nobler powers. Much he would +concede to Humanness, but not his sex--that was beyond the range of +Ethics or Religion. By the state of what he calls "morals," and the +laws he makes to regulate them, by his attitude in courtship and in +marriage, and by the gross anomaly of militarism, in all its senseless +waste of life and wealth and joy, we may perceive this little masculine +exception: + +"All's fair in love and war." + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +VIII. + +EDUCATION. + + +The origin of education is maternal. The mother animal is seen to teach +her young what she knows of life, its gains and losses; and, whether +consciously done or not, this is education. In our human life, +education, even in its present state, is the most important process. +Without it we could not maintain ourselves, much less dominate and +improve conditions as we do; and when education is what it should be, +our power will increase far beyond present hopes. + +In lower animals, speaking generally, the powers of the race must be +lodged in each individual. No gain of personal experience is of avail +to the others. No advantages remain, save those physically transmitted. + The narrow limits of personal gain and personal inheritance rigidly hem +in sub-human progress. With us, what one learns may be taught to the +others. Our life is social, collective. Our gain is for all, and +profits us in proportion as we extend it to all. As the human soul +develops in us, we become able to grasp more fully our common needs and +advantages; and with this growth has come the extension of education to +the people as a whole. Social functions are developed under natural +laws, like physical ones, and may be studied similarly. + +In the evolution of this basic social function, what has been the effect +of wholly masculine influence? + +The original process, instruction of individual child by individual +mother, has been largely neglected in our man-made world. That was +considered as a subsidiary sex-function of the woman, and as such, left +to her "instinct." This is the main reason why we show such great +progress in education for older children, and especially for youths, and +so little comparatively in that given to little ones. + +We have had on the one side the natural current of maternal education, +with its first assistant, the nursemaid, and its second, the +"dame-school"; and on the other the influence of the dominant class, +organized in university, college, and public school, slowly filtering +downward. + +Educational forces are many. The child is born into certain conditions, +physical and psychic, and "educated" thereby. He grows up into social, +political and economic conditions, and is further modified by them. All +these conditions, so far, have been of androcentric character; but what +we call education as a special social process is what the child is +deliberately taught and subjected to; and it is here we may see the same +dominant influence so clearly. + +This conscious education was, for long, given to boys alone, the girls +being left to maternal influence, each to learn what her mother knew, +and no more. This very clear instance of the masculine theory is +glaring enough by itself to rest a case on. It shows how absolute was +the assumption that the world was composed of men, and men alone were to +be fitted for it. Women were no part of the world, and needed no +training for its uses. As females they were born and not made; as human +beings they were only servants, trained as such by their servant +mothers. + +This system of education we are outgrowing more swiftly with each year. +The growing humanness of women, and its recognition, is forcing an equal +education for boy and girl. When this demand was first made, by women +of unusual calibre, and by men sufficiently human to overlook +sex-prejudice, how was it met? What was the attitude of woman's +"natural protector" when she began to ask some share in human life? + +Under the universal assumption that men alone were humanity, that the +world was masculine and for men only, the efforts of the women were met +as a deliberate attempt to "unsex" themselves and become men. To be a +woman was to be ignorant, uneducated; to be wise, educated, was to be a +man. Women were not men, visibly; therefore they could not be educated, +and ought not to want to be. + +Under this androcentric prejudice, the equal extension of education to +women was opposed at every step, and is still opposed by many. Seeing +in women only sex, and not humanness, they would confine her exclusively +to feminine interests. This is the masculine view, _par excellence_. +In spite of it, the human development of women, which so splendidly +characterizes our age, has gone on; and now both woman's colleges and +those for both sexes offer "the higher education" to our girls, as well +as the lower grades in school and kindergarten. + +In the special professional training, the same opposition was +experienced, even more rancorous and cruel. One would think that on the +entrance of a few straggling and necessarily inferior feminine beginners +into a trade or profession, those in possession would extend to them the +right hand of fellowship, as comrades, extra assistance as beginners, +and special courtesy as women. + +The contrary occurred. Women were barred out, discriminated against, +taken advantage of, as competitors; and as women they have had to meet +special danger and offence instead of special courtesy. An +unforgettable instance of this lies in the attitude of the medical +colleges toward women students. The men, strong enough, one would +think, in numbers, in knowledge, in established precedent, to be +generous, opposed the newcomers first with absolute refusal; then, when +the patient, persistent applicants did get inside, both students and +teachers met them not only with unkindness and unfairness, but with a +weapon ingeniously well chosen, and most discreditable--namely, +obscenity. Grave professors, in lecture and clinic, as well as grinning +students, used offensive language, and played offensive tricks, to drive +the women out--a most androcentric performance. + +Remember that the essential masculine attitude is one of opposition, of +combat; his desire is obtained by first overcoming a competitor; and +then see how this dominant masculinity stands out where it has no +possible use or benefit--in the field of education. All along the line, +man, long master of a subject sex, fought every step of woman toward +mental equality. Nevertheless, since modern man has become human enough +to be just, he has at last let her have a share in the advantages of +education; and she has proven her full power to appreciate and use these +advantages. + +Then to-day rises a new cry against "women in education." Here is Mr. +Barrett Wendell, of Harvard, solemnly claiming that teaching women +weakens the intellect of the teacher, and every now and then bursts out +a frantic sputter of alarm over the "feminization" of our schools. It +is true that the majority of teachers are now women. It is true that +they do have an influence on growing children. It would even seem to be +true that that is largely what women are for. + +But the male assumes his influence to be normal, human, and the female +influence as wholly a matter of sex; therefore, where women teach boys, +the boys become "effeminate"--a grievous fall. When men teach girls, do +the girls become -----? Here again we lack the analogue. Never has it +occurred to the androcentric mind to conceive of such a thing as being +too masculine. There is no such word! It is odd to notice that which +ever way the woman is placed, she is supposed to exert this degrading +influence; if the teacher, she effeminizes her pupils; if the pupil, she +effeminizes her teachers. + +Now let us shake ourselves free, if only for a moment, from the +androcentric habit of mind. + +As a matter of sex, the female is the more important. Her share of the +processes which sex distinction serves is by far the greater. To be +feminine--if one were nothing else, is a far more extensive and +dignified office than to be masculine--and nothing else. + +But as a matter of humanity the male of our species is at present far +ahead of the female. By this superior humanness, his knowledge, his +skill, his experience, his organization and specialization, he makes and +manages the world. All this is human, not male. All this is as open to +the woman as the man by nature, but has been denied her during our +androcentric culture. + +But even if, in a purely human process, such as education, she does +bring her special feminine characteristics to bear, what are they, and +what are the results? + +We can see the masculine influence everywhere still dominant and +superior. There is the first spur, Desire, the base of the reward +system, the incentive of self-interest, the attitude which says, "Why +should I make an effort unless it will give me pleasure?" with its +concomitant laziness, unwillingness to work without payment. There is +the second spur, Combat, the competitive system, which sets one against +another, and finds pleasure not in learning, not exercising the mind, +but in getting ahead of one's fellows. Under these two wholly masculine +influences we have made the educational process a joy to the few who +successfully attain, and a weary effort, with failure and contumely +attached, to all the others. This may be a good method in +sex-competition, but is wholly out of place and mischievous in +education. Its prevalence shows the injurious masculization of this +noble social process. + +What might we look for in a distinctly feminine influence? What are +these much-dreaded feminine characteristics? + +The maternal ones, of course. The sex instincts of the male are of a +preliminary nature, leading merely to the union preceding parenthood. +The sex instincts of the female cover a far larger field, spending +themselves most fully in the lasting love, the ceaseless service, the +ingenuity and courage of efficient motherhood. To feminize education +would be to make it more motherly. The mother does not rear her +children by a system of prizes to be longed for and pursued; nor does +she set them to compete with one another, giving to the conquering child +what he needs, and to the vanquished, blame and deprivation. That would +be "unfeminine." + +Motherhood does all it knows to give to each child what is most needed, +to teach all to their fullest capacity, to affectionately and +efficiently develop the whole of them. + +But this is not what is meant by those who fear so much the influence of +women. Accustomed to a wholly male standard of living, to masculine +ideals, virtues, methods and conditions, they say--and say with some +justice--that feminine methods and ideals would be destructive to what +they call "manliness." For instance, education to-day is closely +interwoven with games and sports, all of an excessively masculine +nature. "The education of a boy is carried on largely on the +playground!" say the objectors to women teachers. Women cannot join +them there; therefore, they cannot educate them. + +What games are these in which women cannot join? There are forms of +fighting, of course, violent and fierce, modern modifications of the +instinct of sex-combat. It is quite true that women are not adapted, or +inclined, to baseball or football or any violent game. They are +perfectly competent to take part in all normal athletic development, the +human range of agility and skill is open to them, as everyone knows who +has been to the circus; but they are not built for physical combat; nor +do they find ceaseless pleasure in throwing, hitting or kicking things. + +But is it true that these strenuous games have the educational value +attributed to them? It seems like blasphemy to question it. The whole +range of male teachers, male pupils, male critics and spectators, are +loud in their admiration for the "manliness" developed by the craft, +courage, co-ordinative power and general "sportsmanship" developed by +the game of football, for instance; that a few young men are killed and +many maimed, is nothing in comparison to these advantages. + +Let us review the threefold distinction on which this whole study rests, +between masculine, feminine and human. Grant that woman, being +feminine, cannot emulate man in being masculine--and does not want to. +Grant that the masculine qualities have their use and value, as well as +feminine ones. There still remain the human qualities shared by both, +owned by neither, most important of all. Education is a human process, +and should develop human qualities--not sex qualities. Surely our boys +are sufficiently masculine, without needing a special education to make +them more so. + +The error lies here. A strictly masculine world, proud of its own sex +and despising the other, seeing nothing in the world but sex, either +male or female, has "viewed with alarm" the steady and rapid growth of +humanness. Here, for instance, is a boy visibly tending to be an +artist, a musician, a scientific discoverer. Here is another boy not +particularly clever in any line, nor ambitious for any special work, +though he means in a general way to "succeed"; he is, however, a big, +husky fellow, a good fighter, mischievous as a monkey, and strong in the +virtues covered by the word "sportsmanship." This boy we call "a fine +manly fellow." + +We are quite right. He is. He is distinctly and excessively male, at +the expense of his humanness. He may make a more prepotent sire than +the other, though even that is not certain; he may, and probably will, +appeal more strongly to the excessively feminine girl, who has even less +humanness than he; but he is not therefore a better citizen. + +The advance of civilization calls for human qualities, in both men and +women. Our educational system is thwarted and hindered, not as Prof. +Wendell and his life would have us believe, by "feminization," but by an +overweening masculization. + +Their position is a simple one. "We are men. Men are human beings. +Women are only women. This is a man's world. To get on in it you must +do it man-fashion--i.e., fight, and overcome the others. Being +civilized, in part, we must arrange a sort of "civilized warfare," and +learn to play the game, the old crude, fierce male game of combat, and +we must educate our boys thereto." No wonder education was denied to +women. No wonder their influence is dreaded by an ultra-masculine +culture. + +It will change the system in time. It will gradually establish an equal +place in life for the feminine characteristics, so long belittled and +derided, and give pre-eminent dignity to the human power. + +Physical culture, for both boys and girls, will be part of such a +modified system. All things that both can do together will be accepted +as human; but what either boys or girls have to retire apart to practice +will be frankly called masculine and feminine, and not encouraged in +children. + +The most important qualities are the human ones, and will be so named +and honored. Courage is a human quality, not a sex-quality. What is +commonly called courage in male animals is mere belligerence, the +fighting instinct. To meet an adversary of his own sort is a universal +masculine trait; two father cats may fight fiercely each other, but both +will run from a dog as quickly as a mother cat. She has courage enough, +however, in defence of her kittens. + +What this world most needs to-day in both men and women, is the power to +recognize our public conditions; to see the relative importance of +measures; to learn the processes of constructive citizenship. We need +an education which shall give its facts in the order of their +importance; morals and manners based on these facts; and train our +personal powers with careful selection, so that each may best serve the +community. + +At present, in the larger processes of extra-scholastic education, the +advantage is still with the boy. From infancy we make the gross mistake +of accentuating sex in our children, by dress and all its limitations, +by special teaching of what is "ladylike" and "manly." The boy is +allowed a freedom of experience far beyond the girl. He learns more of +his town and city, more of machinery, more of life, passing on from +father to son the truths as well as traditions of sex superiority. + +All this is changing before our eyes, with the advancing humanness of +women. Not yet, however, has their advance affected, to any large +extent, the base of all education; the experience of a child's first +years. Here is where the limitations of women have checked race +progress most thoroughly. Here hereditary influence was constantly +offset by the advance of the male. Social selection did develop higher +types of men, though sex-selection reversed still insisted on primitive +types of women. But the educative influence of these primitive women, +acting most exclusively on the most susceptible years of life, has been +a serious deterrent to race progress. + +Here is the dominant male, largely humanized, yet still measuring life +from male standards. He sees women only as a sex. (Note here the +criticism of Europeans on American women. "Your women are so sexless!" +they say, meaning merely that our women have human qualities as well as +feminine.) And children he considers as part and parcel of the same +domain, both inferior classes, "women and children." + +I recall in Rimmer's beautiful red chalk studies, certain profiles of +man, woman and child, and careful explanation that the proportion of the +woman's face and head were far more akin to the child than to the man. +What Mr. Rimmer should have shown, and could have, by profuse +illustration, was that the faces of boy and girl differ but slightly, +and the faces of old men and women differ as little, sometimes not at +all; while the face of the woman approximates the human more closely +than that of the man; while the child, representing race more than sex, +is naturally more akin to her than to him. The male reserves more +primitive qualities, the hairiness, the more pugnacious jaw; the female +is nearer to the higher human types. + +An ultra-male selection has chosen women for their femininity first, and +next for qualities of submissiveness and patient service bred by long +ages of servility. + +This servile womanhood, or the idler and more excessively feminine type, +has never appreciated the real power and place of the mother, and has +never been able to grasp or to carry out any worthy system of education +for little children. Any experienced teacher, man or woman, will own +how rare it is to find a mother capable of a dispassionate appreciation +of educative values. Books in infant education and child culture +generally are read by teachers more than mothers, so our public +libraries prove. The mother-instinct, quite suitable and sufficient in +animals, is by no means equal to the requirements of civilized life. +Animal motherhood furnishes a fresh wave of devotion for each new birth; +primitive human motherhood extends that passionate tenderness over the +growing family for a longer period; but neither can carry education +beyond its rudiments. + +So accustomed are we to our world-old method of entrusting the first +years of the child to the action of untaught, unbridled mother-instinct, +that suggestions as to a better education for babies are received with +the frank derision of massed ignorance. + +That powerful and brilliant writer, Mrs. Josephine Daskam Bacon, among +others has lent her able pen to ridicule and obstruct the gradual +awakening of human intelligence in mothers, the recognition that babies +are no exception to the rest of us in being better off for competent +care and service. It seems delightfully absurd to these reactionaries +that ages of human progress should be of any benefit to babies, save, +indeed, as their more human fathers, specialized and organized, are able +to provide them with better homes and a better world to grow up in. The +idea that mothers, more human, should specialize and organize as well, +and extend to their babies these supreme advantages, is made a laughing +stock. + +It is easy and profitable to laugh with the majority; but in the +judgment of history, those who do so, hold unenviable positions. The +time is coming when the human mother will recognize the educative +possibilities of early childhood, learn that the ability to rightly +teach little children is rare and precious, and be proud and glad to +avail themselves of it. + +We shall then see a development of the most valuable human qualities in +our children's minds such as would now seem wildly Utopian. We shall +learn from wide and long experience to anticipate and provide for the +steps of the unfolding mind, and train it, through carefully prearranged +experiences, to a power of judgment, of self-control, of social +perception, now utterly unthought of. + +Such an education would begin at birth; yes, far before it, in the +standards of a conscious human motherhood. It would require a quite +different status of wifehood, womanhood, girlhood. It would be wholly +impossible if we were never to outgrow our androcentric culture. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +IX. + +"SOCIETY" AND "FASHION" + + +Among our many naive misbeliefs is the current fallacy that "society" is +made by women; and that women are responsible for that peculiar social +manifestation called "fashion." + +Men and women alike accept this notion; the serious essayist and +philosopher, as well as the novelist and paragrapher, reflect it in +their pages. The force of inertia acts in the domain of psychics as +well as physics; any idea pushed into the popular mind with considerable +force will keep on going until some opposing force--or the slow +resistance of friction--stops it at last. + +"Society" consists mostly of women. Women carry on most of its +processes, therefore women are its makers and masters, they are +responsible for it, that is the general belief. + +We might as well hold women responsible for harems--or prisoners for +jails. To be helplessly confined to a given place or condition does not +prove that one has chosen it; much less made it. + +No; in an androcentric culture "society," like every other social +relation, is dominated by the male and arranged for his convenience. +There are, of course, modifications due to the presence of the other +sex; where there are more women than men there are inevitable results of +their influence; but the character and conditions of the whole +performance are dictated by men. + +Social intercourse is the prime condition of human life. To meet, to +mingle, to know one another, to exchange, not only definite ideas, +facts, and feelings, but to experience that vague general stimulus and +enlarged power that comes of contact--all this is essential to our +happiness as well as to our progress. + +This grand desideratum has always been monopolized by men as far as +possible. What intercourse was allowed to women has been rigidly hemmed +its by man-made conventions. Women accept these conventions, repeat +them, enforce them upon their daughters; but they originate with men. + +The feet of the little Chinese girl are bound by her mother and her +nurse--but it is not for woman's pleasure that this crippling torture +was invented. The Oriental veil is worn by women, but it is not for any +need of theirs that veils were decreed them. + +When we look at society in its earlier form we find that the public +house has always been with us. It is as old almost as the private +house; the need for association is as human as the need for privacy. +But the public house was--and is--for men only. The woman was kept as +far as possible at home. Her female nature was supposed to delimit her +life satisfactorily, and her human stature was completely ignored. + +Under the pressure of that human nature she has always rebelled at the +social restrictions which surrounded her; and from the women of older +lands gathered at the well, or in the market place, to our own women on +the church steps or in the sewing circle, they have ceaselessly +struggled for the social intercourse which was as much a law of their +being as of man's. + +When we come to the modern special field that we call "society," we find +it to consist of a carefully arranged set of processes and places +wherein women may meet one another and meet men. These vary, of course, +with race, country, class, and period; from the clean licence of our +western customs to the strict chaperonage of older lands; but free as it +is in America, even here there are bounds. + +Men associate without any limit but that of inclination and financial +capacity. Even class distinction only works one way--the low-class man +may not mingle with high-class women; but the high-class man may--and +does--mingle with low-class women. It is his society--may not a man do +what he will with his own? + +Caste distinctions, as have been ably shown by Prof. Lester F. Ward, are +relics of race distinction; the subordinate caste was once a subordinate +race; and while mating, upward, was always forbidden to the subject +race; mating, downward, was always practiced by the master race. + +The elaborate shading of "the color line" in slavery days, from pure +black up through mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, quinteroon, griffada, +mustafee, mustee, and sang d'or--to white again; was not through white +mothers--but white fathers; never too exclusive in their tastes. Even +in slavery, the worst horrors were strictly androcentric. + +"Society" is strictly guarded--that is its women are. As always, the +main tabu is on the woman. Consider carefully the relation between +"society" and the growing girl. She must, of course, marry; and her +education, manners, character, must of course be pleasing to the +prospective wooer. That which is desirable in young girls means, +naturally, that which is desirable to men. Of all cultivated +accomplishments the first is "innocence." Beauty may or may not be +forthcoming; but "innocence" is "the chief charm of girlhood." + +Why? What good does it do _her?_ Her whole life's success is made to +depend on her marrying; her health and happiness depends on her marrying +the right man. The more "innocent" she is, the less she knows, the +easier it is for the wrong man to get her. + +As is so feelingly described in "The Sorrows of Amelia," in "The Ladies' +Literary Cabinet," a magazine taken by my grandmother; "The only foible +which the delicate Amelia possessed was an unsuspecting breast to lavish +esteem. Unversed in the secret villanies of a base degenerate world, +she ever imagined all mankind to be as spotless as herself. Alas for +Amelia! This fatal credulity was the source of all her misfortunes." +It was. It is yet. + +Just face the facts with new eyes--look at it as if you had never seen +"society" before; and observe the position of its "Queen." + +Here is Woman. Let us grant that Motherhood is her chief purpose. (As +a female it is. As a human being she has others!) Marriage is our way +of safeguarding motherhood; of ensuring "support" and "protection" to +the wife and children. + +"Society" is very largely used as a means to bring together young +people, to promote marriage. If "society" is made and governed by women +we should naturally look to see its restrictions and encouragements such +as would put a premium on successful maternity and protect women--and +their children--from the evils of ill-regulated fatherhood. + +Do we find this? By no means. + +"Society" allows the man all liberty--all privilege--all license. There +are certain offences which would exclude him; such as not paying +gambling debts, or being poor; but offences against womanhood--against +motherhood--do not exclude him. + +How about the reverse? + +If "society" is made by women, for women, surely a misstep by a +helplessly "innocent" girl, will not injure her standing! + +But it does. She is no longer "innocent." She knows now. She has lost +her market value and is thrown out of the shop. Why not? It is his +shop--not hers. What women may and may not be, what they must and must +not do, all is measured from the masculine standard. + +A really feminine "society" based on the needs and pleasures of women, +both as females and as human beings, would in the first place accord +them freedom and knowledge; the knowledge which is power. It would not +show us "the queen of the ballroom" in the position of a wall-flower +unless favored by masculine invitation; unable to eat unless he brings +her something; unable to cross the floor without his arm. Of all blind +stultified "royal sluggards" she is the archetype. No, a feminine +society would grant _at least_ equality to women in this, their +so-called special field. + +Its attitude toward men, however, would be rigidly critical. + +Fancy a real Mrs. Grundy (up to date it has been a Mr., his whiskers hid +in capstrings) saying, "No, no, young man. You won't do. You've been +drinking. The habit's growing on you. You'll make a bad husband." + +Or still more severely, "Out with you, sir! You've forfeited your right +to marry! Go into retirement for seven years, and when you come back +bring a doctor's certificate with you." + +That sounds ridiculous, doesn't it--for "Society" to say? It is +ridiculous, in a man's "society." + +The required dress and decoration of "society"; the everlasting eating +and drinking of "society," the preferred amusements of "society," the +absolute requirements and absolute exclusions of "society," are of men, +by men, for men,--to paraphrase a threadbare quotation. And then, upon +all that vast edifice of masculine influence, they turn upon women as +Adam did; and blame _them_ for severity with their fallen sisters! +"Women are so hard upon women!" + +They have to be. What man would "allow" his wife, his daughters, to +visit and associate with "the fallen"? His esteem would be forfeited, +they would lose their "social position," the girl's chance of marrying +would be gone. + +Men are not so stern. They may visit the unfortunate women, to bring +them help, sympathy, re-establishment--or for other reasons; and it does +not forfeit their social position. Why should it? They make the +regulation. + +Women are to-day, far more conspicuously than men, the exponents and +victims of that mysterious power we call "Fashion." As shown in mere +helpless imitation of one another's idea, customs, methods, there is not +much difference; in patient acquiescence with prescribed models of +architecture, furniture, literature, or anything else; there is not much +difference; but in personal decoration there is a most conspicuous +difference. Women do to-day submit to more grotesque ugliness and +absurdity than men; and there are plenty of good reasons for it. +Confining our brief study of fashion to fashion in dress, let us observe +why it is that women wear these fine clothes at all; and why they change +them as they do. + +First, and very clearly, the human female carries the weight of sex +decoration, solely because of her economic dependence on the male. She +alone in nature adds to the burdens of maternity, which she was meant +for, this unnatural burden of ornament, which she was not meant for. +Every other female in the world is sufficiently attractive to the male +without trimmings. He carries the trimmings, sparing no expense of +spreading antlers or trailing plumes; no monstrosity of crest and +wattles, to win her favor. + +She is only temporarily interested in him. The rest of the time she is +getting her own living, and caring for her own young. But our women get +their bread from their husbands, and every other social need. The woman +depends on the man for her position in life, as well as the necessities +of existence. For herself and for her children she must win and hold +him who is the source of all supplies. Therefore she is forced to add +to her own natural attractions this "dance of the seven veils," of the +seventeen gowns, of the seventy-seven hats of gay delirium. + +There are many who think in one syllable, who say, "women don't dress to +please men--they dress to please themselves--and to outshine other +women." To these I would suggest a visit to some summer shore resort +during the week and extending over Saturday night. The women have all +the week to please themselves and outshine one another; but their array +on Saturday seems to indicate the approach of some new force or +attraction. + +If all this does not satisfy I would then call their attention to the +well-known fact that the young damsel previous to marriage spends far +more time and ingenuity in decoration than she does afterward. This has +long been observed and deprecated by those who write Advice to Wives, on +the ground that this difference is displeasing to the husband--that she +loses her influence over him; which is true. But since his own +"society," knowing his weakness, has tied him to her by law; why should +she keep up what is after all an unnatural exertion? + +That excellent magazine "Good Housekeeping" has been running for some +months a rhymed and illustrated story of "Miss Melissa Clarissa McRae," +an extremely dainty and well-dressed stenographer, who captured and +married a fastidious young man, her employer, by the force of her +artificial attractions--and then lost his love after marriage by a +sudden unaccountable slovenliness--the same old story. + +If this in not enough, let me instance further the attitude toward +"Fashion" of that class of women who live most openly and directly upon +the favor of men. These know their business. To continually attract +the vagrant fancy of the male, nature's born "variant," they must not +only pile on artificial charms, but change them constantly. They do. +From the leaders of this profession comes a steady stream of changing +fashions; the more extreme and bizarre, the more successful--and because +they are successful they are imitated. + +If men did not like changes in fashion be assured these professional +men-pleasers would not change them, but since Nature's Variant tires of +any face in favor of a new one, the lady who would hold her sway and +cannot change her face (except in color) must needs change her hat and +gown. + +But the Arbiter, the Ruling Cause, he who not only by choice demands, +but as a business manufactures and supplies this amazing stream of +fashions; again like Adam blames the woman--for accepting what he both +demands and supplies. + +A further proof, if more were needed, is shown in this; that in exact +proportion as women grow independent, educated, wise and free, do they +become less submissive to men-made fashions. Was this improvement +hailed with sympathy and admiration--crowned with masculine favor? + +The attitude of men toward those women who have so far presumed to +"unsex themselves" is known to all. They like women to be foolish, +changeable, always newly attractive; and while women must "attract" for +a living--why they do, that's all. + +It is a pity. It is humiliating to any far-seeing woman to have to +recognize this glaring proof of the dependent, degraded position of her +sex; and it ought to be humiliating to men to see the results of their +mastery. These crazily decorated little creatures do not represent +womanhood. + +When the artist uses the woman as the type of every highest ideal; as +Justice, Liberty, Charity, Truth--he does not represent her trimmed. In +any part of the world where women are even in part economically +independent there we find less of the absurdities of fashion. Women who +work cannot be utterly absurd. + +But the idle woman, the Queen of Society, who must please men within +their prescribed bounds; and those of the half-world, who must please +them at any cost--these are the vehicles of fashion. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN~MADE WORLD + + +X. + +LAW AND GOVERNMENT. + + +It is easy to assume that men are naturally the lawmakers and +law-enforcers, under the plain historic fact that they have been such +since the beginning of the patriarchate. + +Back of law lies custom and tradition. Back of government lies the +correlative activity of any organized group. What group-insects and +group-animals evolve unconsciously and fulfill by their social +instincts, we evolve consciously and fulfill by arbitrary systems called +laws and governments. In this, as in all other fields of our action, we +must discriminate between the humanness of the function in process of +development, and the influence of the male or female upon it. Quite +apart from what they may like or dislike as sexes, from their differing +tastes and faculties, lies the much larger field of human progress, in +which they equally participate. + +On this plane the evolution of law and government proceeds somewhat as +follows:--The early woman-centered group organized on maternal lines of +common love and service. The early combinations of men were first a +grouped predacity--organized hunting; then a grouped +belligerency,--organized warfare. + +By special development some minds are able to perceive the need of +certain lines of conduct over others, and to make this clear to their +fellows; whereby, gradually, our higher social nature establishes rules +and precedents to which we personally agree to submit. The process of +social development is one of progressive co-ordination. + +From independent individual action for individual ends, up to +interdependent social action for social ends we slowly move; the "devil" +in the play being the old Ego, which has to be harmonized with the new +social spirit. This social process, like all others, having been in +masculine hands, we may find in it the same marks of one-sided +Specialization so visible in our previous studies. + +The coersive attitude is essentially male. In the ceaseless age-old +struggle of sex combat he developed the desire to overcome, which is +always stimulated by resistance; and in this later historic period of +his supremacy, he further developed the habit of dominance and mastery. +We may instance the contrast between the conduct of a man when "in love" +and while courting; in which period he falls into the natural position +of his sex towards the other--namely, that of a wooer; and his behavior +when, with marriage, they enter the, artificial relation of the master +male and servile female. His "instinct of dominance" does not assert +itself during the earlier period, which was a million times longer than +the latter; it only appears in the more modern and arbitrary relation. + +Among other animals monogamous union is not accompanied by any such +discordant and unnatural features. However recent as this habit is when +considered biologically, it is as old as civilization when we consider +it historically: quite old enough to be a serious force. Under its +pressure we see the legal systems and forms of government slowly +evolving, the general human growth always heavily perverted by the +special masculine influence. First we find the mere force of custom +governing us, the _mores_ of the ancient people. Then comes the gradual +appearance of authority, from the purely natural leadership of the best +hunter or fighter up through the unnatural mastery of the patriarch, +owning and governing his wives, children, slaves and cattle, and making +such rules and regulations as pleased him. + +Our laws as we support them now are slow, wasteful, cumbrous systems, +which require a special caste to interpret and another to enforce; +wherein the average citizen knows nothing of the law, and cares only to +evade it when he can, obey it when he must. In the household, that +stunted, crippled rudiment of the matriarchate, where alone we can find +what is left of the natural influence of woman, the laws and government, +so far as she is responsible for them, are fairly simple, and bear +visible relation to the common good, which relation is clearly and +persistently taught. + +In the larger household of city and state the educational part of the +law is grievously neglected. It makes no allowance for ignorance. If a +man breaks a law of which he never heard he is not excused therefore; +the penalty rolls on just the same. Fancy a mother making solemn rules +and regulations for her family, telling the children nothing about them, +and then punishing them when they disobeyed the unknown laws! + +The use of force is natural to the male; while as a human being he must +needs legislate somewhat in the interests of the community, as a male +being he sees no necessity for other enforcement than by penalty. To +violently oppose, to fight, to trample to the earth, to triumph in loud +bellowings of savage joy,--these are the primitive male instincts; and +the perfectly natural social instinct which leads to peaceful +persuasion, to education, to an easy harmony of action, are +contemptuously ranked as "feminine," or as "philanthropic,"--which is +almost as bad. "Men need stronger measures" they say proudly. Yes, but +four-fifths of the world are women and children! + +As a matter of fact the woman, the mother, is the first co-ordinator, +legislator, administrator and executive. From the guarding and guidance +of her cubs and kittens up to the longer, larger management of human +youth, she is the first to consider group interests and co-relate them. + +As a father the male grows to share in these original feminine +functions, and with us, fatherhood having become socialized while +motherhood has not, he does the best he can, alone, to do the world's +mother-work in his father way. + +In study of any long established human custom it is very difficult to +see it clearly and dispassionately. Our minds are heavily loaded with +precedent, with race-custom, with the iron weight called authority. +These heavy forces reach their most perfect expression in the absolutely +masculine field of warfare. The absolute authority; the brainless, +voiceless obedience; the relentless penalty. Here we have male coercion +at its height; law and government wholly arbitrary. The result is as +might be expected, a fine machine of destruction. But destruction is +not a human process--merely a male process of eliminating the unfit. + +The female process is to select the fit; her elimination is negative and +painless. + +Greater than either is the human process, to _develop fitness._ + +Men are at present far more human than women. Alone upon their +self-seized thrones they have carried as best they might the burdens of +the state; and the history of law and government shows them as changing +slowly but irresistably in the direction of social improvement. + +The ancient kings were the joyous apotheosis of masculinity. Power and +Pride were theirs; Limitless Display; Boundless Self-indulgence; +Irresistable Authority. Slaves and courtiers bowed before them, +subjects obeyed them, captive women filled their harems. But the day of +the masculine monarchy is passing, and the day of the human democracy is +coming in. In a Democracy Law and Government both change. Laws are no +longer imposed on the people by one above them, but are evolved from the +people themselves. How absurd that the people should not be educated in +the laws they make; that the trailing remnants of blind submission +should still becloud their minds and make them bow down patiently under +the absurd pressure of outgrown tradition! + +Democratic government is no longer an exercise of arbitrary authority +from one above, but is an organization for public service of the people +themselves--or will be when it is really attained. + +In this change government ceases to be compulsion, and becomes +agreement; law ceases to be authority and becomes co-ordination. When +we learn the rules of whist or chess we do not obey them because we fear +to be punished if we don't, but because we want to play the game. The +rules of human conduct are for our own happiness and service--any child +can see that. Every child will see it when laws are simplified, based +on sociology, and taught in schools. A child of ten should be +considered grossly uneducated who could not rewrite the main features of +the laws of his country, state, and city; and those laws should be so +simple in their principles that a child of ten could understand them. + +Teacher: "What is a tax?" + +Child: "A tax is the money we agree to pay to keep up our common +advantages." + +Teacher: "Why do we all pay taxes?" + +Child: "Because the country belongs to all of us, and we must all pay +our share to keep it up." + +Teacher: "In what proportion do we pay taxes?" + +Child: "In proportion to how much money we have." (_Sotto voce_: "Of +course!") + +Teacher: "What is it to evade taxes?" + +Child: "It is treason." (_Sotto voce_: "And a dirty mean trick.") + +In masculine administration of the laws we may follow the instinctive +love of battle down through the custom of "trial by combat"--only +recently outgrown, to our present method, where each contending party +hires a champion to represent him, and these fight it out in a wordy +war, with tricks and devices of complex ingenuity, enjoying this kind of +struggle as they enjoy all other kinds. + +It is the old masculine spirit of government as authority which is so +slow in adapting itself to the democratic idea of government as service. + That it should be a representative government they grasp, but +representative of what? of the common will, they say; the will of the +majority;--never thinking that it is the common good, the common +welfare, that government should represent. + +It is the inextricable masculinity in our idea of government which so +revolts at the idea of women as voters. "To govern:" that means to +boss, to control, to have authority; and that only, to most minds. They +cannot bear to think of the woman as having control over even their own +affairs; to control is masculine, they assume. Seeing only +self-interest as a natural impulse, and the ruling powers of the state +as a sort of umpire, an authority to preserve the rules of the game +while men fight it out forever; they see in a democracy merely a wider +range of self interest, and a wider, freer field to fight in. + +The law dictates the rules, the government enforces them, but the main +business of life, hitherto, has been esteemed as one long fierce +struggle; each man seeking for himself. To deliberately legislate for +the service of all the people, to use the government as the main engine +of that service, is a new process, wholly human, and difficult of +development under an androcentric culture. + +Furthermore they put forth those naively androcentric protests,--women +cannot fight, and in case their laws were resisted by men they could not +enforce them,--_therefore_ they should not vote! + +What they do not so plainly say, but very strongly think, is that women +should not share the loot which to their minds is so large a part of +politics. + +Here we may trace clearly the social heredity of male government. + +Fix clearly in your mind the first head-ship of man--the leader of the +pack as it were--the Chief Hunter. Then the second head-ship, the Chief +Fighter. Then the third head-ship, the Chief of the Family. Then the +long line of Chiefs and Captains, Warlords and Landlords, Rulers and +Kings. + +The Hunter hunted for prey, and got it. The Fighter enriched himself +with the spoils of the vanquished. The Patriarch lived on the labor of +women and slaves. All down the ages, from frank piracy and robbery to +the measured toll of tribute, ransom and indemnity, we see the same +natural instinct of the hunter and fighter. In his hands the government +is a thing to sap and wreck, to live on. It is his essential impulse to +want something very much; to struggle and fight for it; to take all he +can get. + +Set against this the giving love that comes with motherhood; the endless +service that comes of motherhood; the peaceful administration in the +interest of the family that comes of motherhood. We prate much of the +family as the unit of the state. If it is--why not run the state on +that basis? Government by women, so far as it is influenced by their +sex, would be influenced by motherhood; and that would mean care, +nurture, provision, education. We have to go far down the scale for any +instance of organized motherhood, but we do find it in the hymenoptera; +in the overflowing industry, prosperity, peace and loving service of the +ant-hill and bee-hive. These are the most highly socialized types of +life, next to ours, and they are feminine types. + +We as human beings have a far higher form of association, with further +issues than mere wealth and propagation of the species. In this human +process we should never forget that men are far more advanced than +women, at present. Because of their humanness has come all the noble +growth of civilization, in spite of their maleness. + +As human beings both male and female stand alike useful and honorable, +and should in our government be alike used and honored; but as creatures +of sex, the female is fitter than the male for administration of +constructive social interests. The change in governmental processes +which marks our times is a change in principle. Two great movements +convulse the world to-day, the woman's movement and the labor movement. +Each regards the other as of less moment than itself. Both are parts of +the same world-process. + +We are entering upon a period of social consciousness. Whereas so far +almost all of us have seen life only as individuals, and have regarded +the growing strength and riches of the social body as merely so much the +more to fatten on; now we are beginning to take an intelligent interest +in our social nature, to understand it a little, and to begin to feel +the vast increase of happiness and power that comes of real Human Life. + +In this change of systems a government which consisted only of +prohibition and commands; of tax collecting and making war; is rapidly +giving way to a system which intelligently manages our common interests, +which is a growing and improving method of universal service. Here the +socialist is perfectly right in his vision of the economic welfare to be +assured by the socialization of industry, though that is but part of the +new development; and the individualist who opposes socialism, crying +loudly for the advantage of "free competition" is but voicing the spirit +of the predacious male. + +So with the opposers to the suffrage of women. They represent, whether +men or women, the male viewpoint. They see the woman only as a female, +utterly absorbed in feminine functions, belittled and ignored as her +long tutelage has made her; and they see the man as he sees himself, the +sole master of human affairs for as long as we have historic record. + +This, fortunately, is not long. We can now see back of the period of +his supremacy, and are beginning to see beyond it. We are well under +way already in a higher stage of social development, conscious, +well-organized, wisely managed, in which the laws shall be simple and +founded on constructive principles instead of being a set of +ring-regulations within which people may fight as they will; and in +which the government shall be recognized in its full use; not only the +sternly dominant father, and the wisely servicable mother, but the real +union of all people to sanely and economically manage their affairs. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +XI. + +CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. + + +The human concept of Sin has had its uses no doubt; and our special +invention of a thing called Punishment has also served a purpose. + +Social evolution has worked in many ways wastefully, and with +unnecessary pain, but it compares very favorably with natural evolution. + +As we grow wiser; as our social consciousness develops, we are beginning +to improve on nature in more ways than one; a part of the same great +process, but of a more highly sublimated sort. + +Nature shows a world of varied and changing environment. Into this +comes Life--flushing and spreading in every direction. A pretty hard +time Life has of it. In the first place it is dog eat dog in every +direction; the joy of the hunter and the most unjoyous fear of the +hunted. + +But quite outside of this essential danger, the environment waits, grim +and unappeasable, and continuously destroys the innocent myriads who +fail to meet the one requirement of life--Adaptation. So we must not be +too severe in self-condemnation when we see how foolish, cruel, crazily +wasteful, is our attitude toward crime and punishment. + +We become socially conscious largely through pain, and as we begin to +see how much of the pain is wholly of our own causing we are overcome +with shame. But the right way for society to face its past is the same +as for the individual; to see where it was wrong and stop it--but to +waste no time and no emotion over past misdeeds. + +What is our present state as to crime? It is pretty bad. Some say it +is worse than it used to be; others that it is better. At any rate it +is bad enough, and a disgrace to our civilization. We have murderers by +the thousand and thieves by the million, of all kinds and sizes; we have +what we tenderly call "immorality," from the "errors of youth" to the +sodden grossness of old age; married, single, and mixed. We have all +the old kinds of wickedness and a lot of new ones, until one marvels at +the purity and power of human nature, that it should carry so much +disease and still grow on to higher things. + +Also we have punishment still with us; private and public; applied like +a rabbit's foot, with as little regard to its efficacy. Does a child +offend? Punish it! Does a woman offend? Punish her! Does a man +offend? Punish him! Does a group offend? Punish them! + +"What for?" some one suddenly asks. + +"To make them stop doing it!" + +"But they have done it!" + +"To make them not do it again, then." + +"But they do do it again--and worse." + +"To prevent other people's doing it, then." + +"But it does not prevent them--the crime keeps on. What good is your +punishment?" + +What indeed! + +What is the application of punishment to crime? Its base, its +prehistoric base, is simple retaliation; and this is by no means wholly +male, let us freely admit. The instinct of resistance, of opposition, +of retaliation, lies deeper than life itself. Its underlying law is the +law of physics--action and reaction are equal. Life's expression of +this law is perfectly natural, but not always profitable. Hit your hand +on a stone wall, and the stone wall hits your hand. Very good; you +learn that stone walls are hard, and govern yourself accordingly. + +Conscious young humanity observed and philosophized, congratulating +itself on its discernment. "A man hits me--I hit the man a little +harder--then he won't do it again." Unfortunately he did do it again--a +little harder still. The effort to hit harder carried on the action and +reaction till society, hitting hardest of all, set up a system of legal +punishment, of unlimited severity. It imprisoned, it mutilated, it +tortured, it killed; it destroyed whole families, and razed contumelious +cities to the ground. + +Therefore all crime ceased, of course? No? But crime was mitigated, +surely! Perhaps. This we have proven at last; that crime does not +decrease in proportion to the severest punishment. Little by little we +have ceased to raze the cities, to wipe out the families, to cut off the +ears, to torture; and our imprisonment is changing from slow death and +insanity to a form of attempted improvement. + +But punishment as a principle remains in good standing, and is still the +main reliance where it does the most harm--in the rearing of children. +"Spare the rod and spoil the child" remains in belief, unmodified by the +millions of children spoiled by the unspared rod. + +The breeders of racehorses have learned better, but not the breeders of +children. Our trouble is simply the lack of intelligence. We face the +babyish error and the hideous crime in exactly the same attitude. + +"This person has done something offensive." + +Yes?--and one waits eagerly for the first question of the rational +mind--but does not hear it. One only hears "Punish him!" + +What is the first question of the rational mind? + +"Why?" + +Human beings are not first causes. They do not evolve conduct out of +nothing. The child does this, the man does that, _because_ of +something; because of many things. If we do not like the way people +behave, and wish them to behave better, we should, if we are rational +beings, study the conditions that produce the conduct. + +The connection between our archaic system of punishment and our +androcentric culture is two-fold. The impulse of resistance, while, as +we have seen, of the deepest natural origin, is expressed more strongly +in the male than in the female. The tendency to hit back and hit harder +has been fostered in him by sex-combat till it has become of great +intensity. The habit of authority too, as old as our history; and the +cumulative weight of all the religions and systems of law and +government, have furthermore built up and intensified the spirit of +retaliation and vengeance. + +They have even deified this concept, in ancient religions, crediting to +God the evil passions of men. As the small boy recited; "Vengeance. A +mean desire to get even with your enemies: 'Vengeance is mine saith the +Lord'--'I will repay.'" + +The Christian religion teaches better things; better than its expositors +and upholders have ever understood--much less practised. + +The teaching of "Love your enemies, do good unto them that hate you, and +serve them that despitefully use you and persecute you," has too often +resulted, when practised at all, in a sentimental negation; a +pathetically useless attitude of non-resistance. You might as well base +a religion on a feather pillow! + +The advice given was active; direct; concrete. "_Love!_" Love is not +non-resistance. "Do good!" Doing good is not non-resistance. "Serve!" + Service is not non-resistance. + +Again we have an overwhelming proof of the far-reaching effects of our +androcentric culture. Consider it once more. Here is one by nature +combative and desirous, and not by nature intended to monopolize the +management of his species. He assumes to be not only the leader, but +the whole thing--to be humanity itself, and to see in woman as Grant +Allen so clearly put it "Not only not the race; she is not even half the +race, but a subspecies, told off for purposes of reproduction merely." + +Under this monstrous assumption, his sex-attributes wholly identified +with his human attributes, and overshadowing them, he has imprinted on +every human institution the tastes and tendencies of the male. As a +male he fought, as a male human being he fought more, and deified +fighting; and in a culture based on desire and combat, loud with +strident self-expression, there could be but slow acceptance of the more +human methods urged by Christianity. "It is a religion for slaves and +women!" said the warrior of old. (Slaves and women were largely the +same thing.) "It is a religion for slaves and women" says the advocate +of the Superman. + +Well? Who did the work of all the ancient world? Who raised the food +and garnered it and cooked it and served it? Who built the houses, the +temples, the acqueducts, the city wall? Who made the furniture, the +tools, the weapons, the utensils, the ornaments--made them strong and +beautiful and useful? Who kept the human race going, somehow, in spite +of the constant hideous waste of war, and slowly built up the real +industrial civilization behind that gory show?--Why just the slaves and +the women. + +A religion which had attractions for the real human type is not +therefore to be utterly despised by the male. + +In modern history we may watch with increasing ease the slow, sure +progress of our growing humanness beneath the weakening shell of an +all-male dominance. And in this field of what begins in the nurse as +"discipline," and ends on the scaffold as "punishment," we can clearly +see that blessed change. + +What is the natural, the human attribute? What does this "Love," and +"Do good," and "Serve" mean? In the blundering old church, still +androcentric, there was a great to-do to carry out this doctrine, in +elaborate symbolism. A set of beggars and cripples, gathered for the +occasion, was exhibited, and kings and cardinals went solemnly through +the motions of serving them. As the English schoolboy phrased it, +"Thomas Becket washed the feet of leopards." + +Service and love and doing good must always remain side issues in a male +world. Service and love and doing good are the spirit of motherhood, +and the essense of human life. + +Human life is service, and is not combat. There you have the nature of +the change now upon us. + +What has the male mind made of Christianity? + +Desire--to save one's own soul. Combat--with the Devil. +Self-expression--the whole gorgeous outpouring of pageant and display, +from the jewels of the high priest's breastplate to the choir of +mutilated men to praise a male Deity no woman may so serve. + +What kind of mind can imagine a kind of god who would like a eunuch +better than a woman? + +For woman they made at last a place--the usual place--of renunciation, +sacrifice and service, the Sisters of Mercy and their kind; and in that +loving service the woman soul has been content, not yearning for +cardinal's cape or bishop's mitre. + +All this is changing--changing fast. Everywhere the churches are +broadening out into more service, and the service broadening out beyond +a little group of widows and fatherless, of sick and in prison, to +embrace its true field--all human life. In this new attitude, how shall +we face the problems of crime? + +Thus: "It is painfully apparent that a certain percentage of our people +do not function properly. They perform antisocial acts. Why? What is +the matter with them?" + +Then the heart and mind of society is applied to the question, and +certain results are soon reached; others slowly worked toward. + +First result. Some persons are so morally diseased that they must have +hospital treatment. The world's last prison will be simply a hospital +for moral incurables. They must by no means reproduce their kind,--that +can be attended to at once. Some are morally diseased, but may be +cured, and the best powers of society will be used to cure them. Some +are only morally diseased because of the conditions in which they are +born and reared, and here society can save millions at once. + +An intelligent society will no more neglect its children than an +intelligent mother will neglect her children; and will see as clearly +that ill-fed, ill-dressed, ill-taught and vilely associated little ones +must grow up gravely injured. + +As a matter of fact we make our crop of criminals, just as we make our +idiots, blind, crippled, and generally defective. Everyone is a baby +first, and a baby is not a criminal, unless we make it so. It never +would be,--in right conditions. Sometimes a pervert is born, as +sometimes a two-headed calf is born, but they are not common. + +The older, simpler forms of crime we may prevent with case and despatch, +but how of the new ones?--big, terrible, far-reaching, wide-spread +crimes, for which we have as yet no names; and before which our old +system of anti-personal punishment falls helpless? What of the crimes +of poisoning a community with bad food; of defiling the water; of +blackening the air; of stealing whole forests? What of the crimes of +working little children; of building and renting tenements that produce +crime and physical disease as well? What of the crime of living on the +wages of fallen women--of hiring men to ruin innocent young girls; of +holding them enslaved and selling them for profit? (These things are +only "misdemeanors" in a man-made world!) + +And what about a crime like this; to use the public press to lie to the +public for private ends? No name yet for this crime; much less a +penalty. + +And this: To bring worse than leprosy to an innocent clean wife who +loves and trusts you? + +Or this: To knowingly plant poison in an unborn child? + +No names, for these; no "penalties"; no conceivable penalty that could +touch them. + +The whole punishment system falls to the ground before the huge mass of +evil that confronts us. If we saw a procession of air ships flying over +a city and dropping bombs, should we rush madly off after each one +crying, "Catch him! Punish him!" or should we try to stop the +procession? + +The time is coming when the very word "crime" will be disused, except in +poems and orations; and "punishment," the word and deed, be obliterated. + We are beginning to learn a little of the nature of humanity its +goodness, its beauty, its lovingness; and to see that even its stupidity +is only due to our foolish old methods of education. + +It is not new power, new light, new hope that we need, but _to +understand what ails us._ + +We know enough now, we care enough now, we are strong enough now, to +make the whole world a thousand fold better in a generation; but we are +shackled, chained, blinded, by old false notions. The ideas of the +past, the sentiments of the past, the attitude and prejudices of the +past, are in our way; and among them none more universally mischievous +than this great body of ideas and sentiments, prejudices and habits, +which make up the offensive network of the androcentric culture. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; or, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +XII. + +POLITICS AND WARFARE. + + +I go to my old dictionary, and find; "Politics, I. The science of +government; that part of ethics which has to do with the regulation and +government of a nation or state, the preservation of its safety, peace +and prosperity; the defence of its existence and rights against foreign +control or conquest; the augmentation of its strength and resources, and +the protection of its citizens in their rights; with the preservation +and improvement of their morals. 2. The management of political +parties; the advancement of candidates to office; in a bad sense, artful +or dishonest management to secure the success of political measures or +party schemes, political trickery." + +From present day experience we might add, 3. Politics, practical; The +art of organizing and handling men in large numbers, manipulating votes, +and, in especial, appropriating public wealth. + +We can easily see that the "science of government" may be divided into +"pure" and "applied" like other sciences, but that it is "a part of +ethics" will be news to many minds. + +Yet why not? Ethics is the science of conduct, and politics is merely +one field of conduct; a very common one. Its connection with Warfare in +this chapter is perfectly legitimate in view of the history of politics +on the one hand, and the imperative modern issues which are to-day +opposed to this established combination. + +There are many to-day who hold that politics need not be at all +connected with warfare, and others who hold that politics is warfare +front start to finish. + +In order to dissociate the two ideas completely let us give a paraphrase +of the above definition, applying it to domestic management;--that part +of ethics which has to do with the regulation and government of a +family; the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity; the +defense of its existence and rights against any strangers' interference +or control; the augmentation of its strength and resources, and the +protection of its members in their rights; with the preservation and +improvement of their morals. + +All this is simple enough, and in no way masculine; neither is it +feminine, save in this; that the tendency to care for, defend and manage +a group, is in its origin maternal. + +In every human sense, however, politics has left its maternal base far +in the background; and as a field of study and of action is as well +adapted to men as to women. There is no reason whatever why men should +not develop great ability in this department of ethics, and gradually +learn how to preserve the safety, peace and prosperity of their nation; +together with those other services as to resources, protection of +citizens, and improvement of morals. + +Men, as human beings, are capable of the noblest devotion and efficiency +in these matters, and have often shown them; but their devotion and +efficiency have been marred in this, as in so many other fields, by the +constant obtrusion of an ultra-masculine tendency. + +In warfare, _per se_, we find maleness in its absurdest extremes. Here +is to be studied the whole gamut of basic masculinity, from the initial +instinct of combat, through every form of glorious ostentation, with the +loudest possible accompaniment of noise. + +Primitive warfare had for its climax the possession of the primitive +prize, the female. Without dogmatising on so remote a period, it may be +suggested as a fair hypothesis that this was the very origin of our +organized raids. We certainly find war before there was property in +land, or any other property to tempt aggressors. Women, however, there +were always, and when a specially androcentric tribe had reduced its +supply of women by cruel treatment, or they were not born in sufficient +numbers, owing to hard conditions, men must needs go farther afield +after other women. Then, since the men of the other tribes naturally +objected to losing their main labor supply and comfort, there was war. + +Thus based on the sex impulse, it gave full range to the combative +instinct, and further to that thirst for vocal exultation so exquisitely +male. The proud bellowings of the conquering stag, as he trampled on +his prostrate rival, found higher expression in the "triumphs" of old +days, when the conquering warrior returned to his home, with victims +chained to his chariot wheels, and braying trumpets. + +When property became an appreciable factor in life, warfare took on a +new significance. What was at first mere destruction, in the effort to +defend or obtain some hunting ground or pasture; and, always, to secure +the female; now coalesced with the acquisitive instinct, and the long +black ages of predatory warfare closed in upon the world. + +Where the earliest form exterminated, the later enslaved, and took +tribute; and for century upon century the "gentleman adventurer," i.e., +the primitive male, greatly preferred to acquire wealth by the simple +old process of taking it, to any form of productive industry. + +We have been much misled as to warfare by our androcentric literature. +With a history which recorded nothing else; a literature which praised +and an art which exalted it; a religion which called its central power +"the God of Battles"--never the God of Workshops, mind you!--with a +whole complex social structure man-prejudiced from center to +circumference, and giving highest praise and honor to the Soldier; it is +still hard for its to see what warfare really is in human life. + +Someday we shall have new histories written, histories of world +progress, showing the slow uprising, the development, the interservice +of the nations; showing the faint beautiful dawn of the larger spirit of +world-consciousness, and all its benefitting growth. + +We shall see people softening, learning, rising; see life lengthen with +the possession of herds, and widen in rich prosperity with agriculture. +Then industry, blossoming, fruiting, spreading wide; art, giving light +and joy; the intellect developing with companionship and human +intercourse; the whole spreading tree of social progress, the trunk of +which is specialized industry, and the branches of which comprise every +least and greatest line of human activity and enjoyment. This growing +tree, springing up wherever conditions of peace and prosperity gave it a +chance, we shall see continually hewed down to the very root by war. + +To the later historian will appear throughout the ages, like some +Hideous Fate, some Curse, some predetermined check, to drag down all our +hope and joy and set life forever at its first steps over again, this +Red Plague of War. + +The instinct of combat, between males, worked advantageously so long as +it did not injure the female or the young. It is a perfectly natural +instinct, and therefore perfectly right, in its place; but its place is +in a pre-patriarchal era. So long as the animal mother was free and +competent to care for herself and her young; then it was an advantage to +have "the best man win;" that is the best stag or lion; and to have the +vanquished die, or live in sulky celibacy, was no disadvantage to any +one but himself. + +Humanity is on a stage above this plan. The best man in the social +structure is not always the huskiest. When a fresh horde of ultra-male +savages swarmed down upon a prosperous young civilization, killed off +the more civilized males and appropriated the more civilized females; +they did, no doubt, bring in a fresh physical impetus to the race; but +they destroyed the civilization. + +The reproduction of perfectly good savages is not the main business of +humanity. Its business is to grow, socially; to develop, to improve; +and warfare, at its best, retards human progress; at its worst, +obliterates it. + +Combat is not a social process at all; it is a physical process, a +subsidiary sex process, purely masculine, intended to improve the +species by the elimination of the unfit. Amusingly enough, or absurdly +enough; when applied to society, it eliminates the fit, and leaves the +unfit to perpetuate the race! + +We require, to do our organized fighting, a picked lot of vigorous young +males, the fittest we can find. The too old or too young; the sick, +crippled, defective; are all left behind, to marry and be fathers; while +the pick of the country, physically, is sent off to oppose the pick of +another country, and kill--kill--kill! + +Observe the result on the population! In the first place the balance is +broken--there are not enough men to go around, at home; many women are +left unmated. In primitive warfare, where women were promptly enslaved, +or, at the best, polygamously married, this did not greatly matter to +the population; but as civilization advances and monogamy obtains, +whatever eugenic benefits may once have sprung from warfare are +completely lost, and all its injuries remain. + +In what we innocently call "civilized warfare" (we might as well speak +of "civilized cannibalism!"), this steady elimination of the fit leaves +an everlowering standard of parentage at home. It makes a widening +margin of what we call "surplus women," meaning more than enough to be +monogamously married; and these women, not being economically +independent, drag steadily upon the remaining men, postponing marriage, +and increasing its burdens. + +The birth rate is lowered in quantity by the lack of husbands, and +lowered in quality both by the destruction of superior stock, and by the +wide dissemination of those diseases which invariably accompany the +wife-lessness of the segregated males who are told off to perform our +military functions. + +The external horrors and wastes of warfare we are all familiar with; A. +It arrests industry and all progress. B. It destroys the fruits of +industry and progress. C. It weakens, hurts and kills the combatants. +D. It lowers the standard of the non-combatants. Even the conquering +nation is heavily injured; the conquered sometimes exterminated, or at +least absorbed by the victor. + +This masculine selective process, when applied to nations, does not +produce the same result as when applied to single opposing animals. +When little Greece was overcome it did not prove that the victors were +superior, nor promote human interests in any way; it injured them. + +The "stern arbitrament of war" may prove which of two peoples is the +better fighter, but ft does not prove it therefor the fittest to +survive. + +Beyond all these more or less obvious evils, comes a further result, not +enough recognized; the psychic effects of military standard of thought +and feeling. + +Remember that an androcentric culture has always exempted its own +essential activities from the restraints of ethics,--"All's fair in love +and war!" Deceit, trickery, lying, every kind of skulking underhand +effort to get information; ceaseless endeavor to outwit and overcome +"the enemy"; besides as cruelty and destruction; are characteristic of +the military process; as well as the much praised virtues of courage, +endurance and loyalty, personal and public. + +Also classed as a virtue, and unquestionably such from the military +point of view, is that prime factor in making and keeping an army, +obedience. + +See how the effect of this artificial maintenance of early mental +attitudes acts on our later development. True human progress requires +elements quite other than these. If successful warfare made one nation +unquestioned master of the earth its social progress would not be +promoted by that event. The rude hordes of Genghis Khan swarmed over +Asia and into Europe, but remained rude hordes; conquest is not +civilization, nor any part of it. + +When the northern tribes-men overwhelmed the Roman culture they +paralysed progress for a thousand years or so; set back the clock by +that much. So long as all Europe was at war, so long the arts and +sciences sat still, or struggled in hid corners to keep their light +alive. + +When warfare itself ceases, the physical, social and psychic results do +not cease. Our whole culture is still hag-ridden by military ideals. + +Peace congresses have begun to meet, peace societies write and talk, but +the monuments to soldiers and sailors (naval sailors of course), still +go up, and the tin soldier remains a popular toy. We do not see boxes +of tin carpenters by any chance; tin farmers, weavers, shoemakers; we do +not write our "boys books" about the real benefactors and servers of +society; the adventurer and destroyer remains the idol of an +Androcentric Culture. + +In politics the military ideal, the military processes, are so +predominant as to almost monopolise "that part of ethics." The science +of government, the plain wholesome business of managing a community for +its own good; doing its work, advancing its prosperity, improving its +morals--this is frankly understood and accepted as A Fight from start to +finish. Marshall your forces and try to get in, this is the political +campaign. When you are in, fight to stay in, and to keep the other +fellow out. Fight for your own hand, like an animal; fight for your +master like any hired bravo; fight always for some desired +"victory"--and "to the victors belong the spoils." + +This is not by any means the true nature of politics. It is not even a +fair picture of politics to-day; in which man, the human being, is doing +noble work for humanity; but it is the effect of man, the male, on +politics. + +Life, to the "male mind" (we have heard enough of the "female mind" to +use the analogue!) _is_ a fight, and his ancient military institutions +and processes keep up the delusion. + +As a matter of fact life is growth. Growth comes naturally, by +multiplication of cells, and requires three factors to promote it; +nourishment, use, rest. Combat is a minor incident of life; belonging +to low levels, and not of a developing influence socially. + +The science of politics, in a civilized community, should have by this +time a fine accumulation of simplified knowledge for diffusion in public +schools; a store of practical experience in how to promote social +advancement most rapidly, a progressive economy and ease of +administration, a simplicity in theory and visible benefit in practice, +such as should make every child an eager and serviceable citizen. + +What do we find, here in America, in the field of "politics?" + +We find first a party system which is the technical arrangement to carry +on a fight. It is perfectly conceivable that a flourishing democratic +government be carried on _without any parties at all;_ public +functionaries being elected on their merits, and each proposed measure +judged on its merits; though this sounds impossible to the androcentric +mind. + +"There has never been a democracy without factions and parties!" is +protested. + +There has never been a democracy, so far--only an androcracy. + +A group composed of males alone, naturally divides, opposes, fights; +even a male church, under the most rigid rule, has its secret +undercurrents of antagonism. + +"It is the human heart!" is again protested. No, not essentially the +human heart, but the male heart. This is so well recognized by men in +general, that, to their minds, in this mingled field of politics and +warfare, women have no place. + +In "civilized warfare" they are, it is true, allowed to trail along and +practice their feminine function of nursing; but this is no part of war +proper, it is rather the beginning of the end of war. Some time it will +strike our "funny spot," these strenuous efforts to hurt and destroy, +and these accompanying efforts to heal and save. + +But in our politics there is not even provision for a nursing corps; +women are absolutely excluded. + +"They cannot play the game!" cries the practical politician. There is +loud talk of the defilement, the "dirty pool" and its resultant +darkening of fair reputations, the total unfitness of lovely woman to +take part in "the rough and tumble of politics." + +In other words men have made a human institution into an ultra-masculine +performance; and, quite rightly, feel that women could not take part in +politics _as men do._ That it is not necessary to fulfill this human +custom in so masculine a way does not occur to them. Few men can +overlook the limitations of their sex and see the truth; that this +business of taking care of our common affairs is not only equally open +to women and men, but that women are distinctly needed in it. + +Anyone will admit that a government wholly in the hands of women would +be helped by the assistance of men; that a gynaecocracy must, of its own +nature, be one sided. Yet it is hard to win reluctant admission of the +opposite fact; that an androcracy must of its own nature be one sided +also, and would be greatly improved by the participation of the other +sex. + +The inextricable confusion of politics and warfare is part of the +stumbling block in the minds of men. As they see it, a nation is +primarily a fighting organization; and its principal business is +offensive and defensive warfare; therefore the ultimatum with which they +oppose the demand for political equality--"women cannot fight, therefore +they cannot vote." + +Fighting, when all is said, is to them the real business of life; not to +be able to fight is to be quite out of the running; and ability to solve +our growing mass of public problems; questions of health, of education, +of morals, of economics; weighs naught against the ability to kill. + +This naive assumption of supreme value in a process never of the first +importance; and increasingly injurious as society progresses, would be +laughable if it were not for its evil effects. It acts and reacts upon +us to our hurt. Positively, we see the ill effects already touched on; +the evils not only of active war; but of the spirit and methods of war; +idealized, inculcated and practiced in other social processes. It tends +to make each man-managed nation an actual or potential fighting +organization, and to give us, instead of civilized peace, that "balance +of power" which is like the counted time in the prize ring--only a rest +between combats. + +It leaves the weaker nations to be "conquered" and "annexed" just as +they used to be; with tariffs instead of tribute. It forces upon each +the burden of armament; upon many the dreaded conscription; and +continually lowers the world's resources in money and in life. + +Similarly in politics, it adds to the legitimate expenses of governing +the illegitimate expenses of fighting; and must needs have a "spoils +system" by which to pay its mercenaries. + +In carrying out the public policies the wheels of state are continually +clogged by the "opposition;" always an opposition on one side or the +other; and this slow wiggling uneven progress, through shorn victories +and haggling concessions, is held to be the proper and only political +method. + +"Women do not understand politics," we are told; "Women do not care for +politics;" "Women are unfitted for politics." + +It is frankly inconceivable, from the androcentric view-point, that +nations can live in peace together, and be friendly and serviceable as +persons are. It is inconceivable also, that in the management of a +nation, honesty, efficiency, wisdom, experience and love could work out +good results without any element of combat. + +The "ultimate resort" is still to arms. "The will of the majority" is +only respected on account of the guns o£ the majority. We have but a +partial civilization, heavily modified to sex--the male sex. + + + +WOMAN AND THE STATE + + +[A Discussion of Political Equality of Men and Women. To be read in +connection with chapter 12 of Our Androcentric Culture.] + +Here are two vital factors in human life; one a prime essential to our +existence; the other a prime essential to our progress. + +Both of them we idealize in certain lines, and exploit in others. Both +of them are misinterpreted, balked of their full usefulness, and +humanity thus injured. + +The human race does not get the benefit of the full powers of women, nor +of the full powers of the state. + +In all civilized races to-day there is a wide and growing sense of +discontent among women; a criticism of their assigned limitations, and a +demand for larger freedom and opportunity. Under different conditions +the demand varies; it is here for higher education, there for justice +before the law; here for economic independence, and there for political +equality. + +This last is at present the most prominent Issue of "the woman question" +in England and America, as the activity of the "militant suffragists" +has forced it upon the attention of the world. + +Thoughtful people in general are now studying this point more seriously +than ever before, genuinely anxious to adopt the right side, and there +is an alarmed uprising of sincere objection to the political equality of +women. + +Wasting no time on ignorance, prejudice, or the resistance of special +interests, let us fairly face the honest opposition, and do it justice. + +The conservative position is this: + +Men and women have different spheres in life. To men belong the +creation and management of the state, and the financial maintenance of +the home and family: + +"To women belong the physical burden of maternity, and the industrial +management of the home and family; these duties require all their time +and strength: + +"The prosperity of the state may be sufficiently conserved by men alone; +the prosperity of the family requires the personal presence and services +of the mother in the home: if women assume the cares of the state, the +home and family will suffer: + +Some go even farther than this, and claim an essential limitation in +"the female mind" which prevents it from grasping large political +interests; holding, therefore, that if women took part in state affairs +it would be to the detriment of the community: + +Others advance a theory that "society," in the special sense, is the +true sphere of larger service for women, and that those of them not +exclusively confined to "home duties" may find full occupation in +"social duties," including the time honored fields of "religion" and +"charity": + +Others again place their main reliance on the statement that, as to the +suffrage, "women do not want it." + +Let us consider these points in inverse order, beginning with the last +one. + +We will admit that at present the majority of women are not consciously +desirous of any extension of their political rights and privileges, but +deny that this indifference is any evidence against the desirability of +such extension. + +It has long been accepted that the position of women is an index of +civilization. Progressive people are proud of the freedom and honor +given their women, and our nation honestly believes itself the leader in +this line. "American women are the freest in the world!" we say; and +boast of it. + +Since the agitation for women's rights began, many concessions have been +made to further improve their condition. Men, seeing the justice of +certain demands, have granted in many states such privileges as +admission to schools, colleges, universities, and special instruction +for professions; followed by admission to the bar, the pulpit, and the +practice of medicine. Married women, in many states, have now a right +to their own earnings; and in a few, mothers have an equal right in the +guardianship of their children. + +We are proud and glad that our women are free to go unveiled, to travel +alone, to choose their own husbands; we are proud and glad of every +extension of justice already granted by men to women. + +Now:--Have any of these concessions been granted because a majority of +women asked for them? Was it advanced in opposition to any of them that +"women did not want it?" Have as many women ever asked for these things +as are now asking for the ballot? If it was desirable to grant these +other rights and privileges without the demand of a majority, why is the +demand of a majority required before this one is granted? + +The child widows of India did not unitedly demand the abolition of the +"suttee." + +The tortured girl children of China did not rise in overwhelming +majority to demand free feet; yet surely no one would refuse to lift +these burdens because only a minority of progressive women insisted on +justice. + +It is a sociological impossibility that a majority of an unorganized +class should unite in concerted demand for a right, a duty, which they +have never known. + +The point to be decided is whether political equality is to the +advantage of women and of the state--not whether either, as a body, is +asking for it. + +Now for the "society" theory. There is a venerable fiction to the +effect that women make--and manage, "society." No careful student of +comparative history can hold this belief for a moment. Whatever the +conditions of the age or place; industrial, financial, religious, +political, educational; these conditions are in the hands of men; and +these conditions dictate the "society" of that age or place. + +"Society" in a constitutional monarchy is one thing; in a primitive +despotism another; among millionaires a third; but women do not make the +despotism, the monarchy, or the millions. They take social conditions +as provided by men, precisely as they take all other conditions at their +hands. They do not even modify an existing society to their own +interests, being powerless to do so. The "double standard of morals," +ruling everywhere in "society," proves this; as does the comparative +helplessness of women to enjoy even social entertainments, without the +constant attendance and invitation of men. + +Even in its great function of exhibition leading to marriage, it is the +girls who are trained and exhibited, under closest surveillance; while +the men stroll in and out, to chose at will, under no surveillance +whatever. + +That women, otherwise powerful, may use "society" to further their ends, +is as true as that men do; and in England, where women, through their +titled and landed position, have always had more political power than +here, "society" is a very useful vehicle for the activities of both +sexes. + +But, in the main, the opportunities of "society" to women, are merely +opportunities to use their "feminine influence" in extra domestic +lines--a very questionable advantage to the home and family, to +motherhood, to women, or to the state. + +In religion women have always filled and more than filled the place +allowed them. Needless to say it was a low one. The power of the +church, its whole management and emoluments, were always in the hands of +men, save when the Lady Abbess held her partial sway; but the work of +the church has always been helped by women--the men have preached and +the women practised! + +Charity, as a vocation, is directly in line with the mother instinct, +and has always appealed to women. Since we have learned how injurious +to true social development this mistaken kindness is, it might almost be +classified as a morbid by-product of suppressed femininity! + +In passing we may note that charity as a virtue is ranked highest among +those nations and religions where women are held lowest. With the +Moslems it is a universal law--and in the Moslem Paradise there are no +women--save the Houries! + +The playground of a man-fenced "society"; the work-ground of a +man-taught church; and this "osmosis" of social nutrition, this leakage +and seepage of values which should circulate normally, called charity; +these are not a sufficient field for the activities of women. + +As for those limitations of the "feminine mind" which render her unfit +to consider the victuallage of a nation, or the justice of a tax on +sugar; it hardly seems as if the charge need be taken seriously. Yet so +able a woman as Mrs. Humphry Ward has recently advanced it in all +earnestness. + +In her view women are capable of handling municipal, but not state +affairs. Since even this was once denied them; and since, in England, +they have had municipal suffrage for some time; it would seem as if +their abilities grew with use, as most abilities do; which is in truth +the real answer. + +Most women spend their whole lives, and have spent their whole lives for +uncounted generations, in the persistent and exclusive contemplation of +their own family affairs. They are near-sighted, or near-minded, +rather; the trouble is not with the nature of their minds, but with the +use of them. + +If men as a class had been exclusively confined to the occupation of +house-service since history began, they would be similarly unlikely to +manifest an acute political intelligence. + +We may agree with Tennyson that "Woman is not undeveloped man, but +diverse;" that is _women_ are not undeveloped _men;_ but the feminine +half of humanity is undeveloped human. They have exercised their +feminine functions, but not their human-functions; at least not to their +full extent. + +Here appears a distinction which needs to be widely appreciated. + +We are not merely male and female--all animals are that--our chief +distinction is that of race, our humanness. + +Male characteristics we share with all males, bird and beast; female +characteristics we share with all females, similarly; but human +characteristics belong to _genus homo_ alone; and are possessed by both +sexes. A female horse is just as much a horse as a male of her species; +a female human being is just as human as the male of her species--or +ought to be! + +In the special functions and relations of sex there is no contest, no +possible rivalry or confusion; but in the general functions of humanity +there is great misunderstanding. + +Our trouble is that we have not recognized these human functions as +such; but supposed them to be exclusively masculine; and, acting under +that idea, strove to prevent women from an unnatural imitation of men. + +Hence this minor theory of the limitations of the "female mind." + +The mind is pre-eminently human. That degree of brain development which +distinguishes our species, is a human, not a sex characteristic. + +There may be, has been, and still is, a vast difference in our treatment +of the minds of the two sexes. We have given them a different +education, different exercises, different conditions in all ways. But +all these differences are external, and their effect disappears with +them. + +The "female mind" has proven its identical capacity with the "male +mind," _in so far as it has been given identical conditions._ It will +take a long time, however, before conditions are so identical, for +successive generations, as to give the "female mind" a fair chance. + +In the meantime, considering its traditional, educational and +associative drawbacks, the "female mind" has made a remarkably good +showing. + +The field of politics is an unfortunate one in which to urge this +alleged limitation; because politics is one of the few fields in which +some women have been reared and exercised under equal conditions with +men. + +We have had queens as long as we have had kings, perhaps longer; and +history does not show the male mind, in kings, to have manifested a +numerically proportionate superiority over the female mind, in queens. +There have been more kings than queens, but have there been more good +and great ones, in proportion? + +Even one practical and efficient queen is proof enough that being a +woman does not preclude political capacity. Since England has had such +an able queen for so long, and that within Mrs. Humphry Ward's personal +memory, her position seems fatuous in the extreme. + +It has been advanced that great queens owed their power to the +association and advice of the noble and high-minded men who surrounded +them; and, further, that the poor showing made by many kings, was due to +the association and vice of the base and low-minded women who surrounded +them. + +This is a particularly pusillanimous claim in the first place; is not +provable in the second place; and, if it were true, opens up a very +pretty field of study in the third place. It would seem to prove, if it +proves anything, that men are not fit to be trusted with political power +on account of an alarming affinity for the worst of women; and, +conversely, that women, as commanding the assistance of the best of men, +are visibly the right rulers! Also it opens a pleasant sidelight on +that oft-recommended tool--"feminine influence." + +We now come to our opening objection; that society and state, home, and +family, are best served by the present division of interests: and its +corollary, that if women enlarge that field of interest it would reduce +their usefulness in their present sphere. + +The corollary is easily removed. We are now on the broad ground of +established facts; of history, recent, but still achieved. + +Women have had equal political rights with men in several places, for +considerable periods of time. In Wyoming, to come near home, they have +enjoyed this status for more than a generation. Neither here nor in any +other state or country where women vote, is there the faintest proof of +injury to the home or family relation. In Wyoming, indeed, divorce has +decreased, while gaining so fast in other places. + +Political knowledge, political interest, does not take up more time and +strength than any other form of mental activity; nor does it preclude a +keen efficiency in other lines; and as for the actual time required to +perform the average duties of citizenship--it is a contemptible bit of +trickery in argument, if not mere ignorance and confusion of idea, to +urge the occasional attendance on political meetings, or the annual or +bi-annual dropping of a ballot, as any interference with the management +of a house. + +It is proven, by years on years of established experience, that women +can enjoy full political equality and use their power, without in the +least ceasing to be contented and efficient wives and mothers, cooks and +housekeepers. + +What really horrifies the popular mind at the thought of women in +politics, is the picture of woman as a "practical politician;" giving +her time to it as a business, and making money by it, in questionable, +or unquestionable, ways; and, further, as a politician in office, as +sheriff, alderman, senator, judge. + +The popular mind becomes suffused with horror at the first idea, and +scarcely less so at the second. It pictures blushing girlhood on the +Bench; tender motherhood in the Senate; the housewife turned +"ward-heeler;" and becomes quite sick in contemplation of these +abominations. + +No educated mind, practical mind, no mind able and willing to use its +faculties, need be misled for a moment by these sophistries. + +There is absolutely no evidence that women as a class will rush into +"practical politics." Where they have voted longest they do not +manifest this dread result. Neither is there any proof that they will +all desire to hold office; or that any considerable portion of them +will; or that, if they did, they would get it. + +We seem unconsciously to assume that when women begin to vote, men will +stop; or that the women will outnumber the men; also that, outnumbering +them, they will be completely united in their vote; and, still further, +that so outnumbering and uniting, they will solidly vote for a ticket +composed wholly of women candidates. + +Does anyone seriously imagine this to be likely? + +This may be stated with assurance; if ever we do see a clever, +designing, flirtatious, man-twisting woman; or a pretty, charming, +irresistable young girl, elected to office--it will not be by the votes +of women! + +Where women are elected to office, by the votes of both men and women, +they are of suitable age and abilities, and do their work well. They +have already greatly improved some of the conditions of local politics, +and the legislation they advocate is of a beneficial character. + +What is the true relation of women to the state? + +It is precisely identical with that of men. Their forms of service may +vary, but their duty, their interest, their responsibility, is the same. + +Here are the people on earth, half of them women, all of them her +children. It is her earth as much as his; the people are their people, +the state their state; compounded of them all, in due relation. + +As the father and mother, together; shelter, guard, teach and provide +for their children in the home; so should all fathers and mothers, +together; shelter, guard, teach and provide for their common children, +the community. + +The state is no mystery; no taboo place of masculine secrecy; it is +simply us. + +Democracy is but a half-grown child as yet, one of twins? Its boy-half +is a struggling thing, with "the diseases of babyhood"; its girl-half +has hardly begun to take notice. + +As human creatures we have precisely the same duty and privilege, +interest, and power in the state; sharing its protection, its +advantages, and its services. As women we have a different relation. + +Here indeed we will admit, and glory in, our "diversity." The "eternal +womanly" is a far more useful thing in the state than the "eternal +manly." + +To be woman means to be mother. To be mother means to give love, +defense, nourishment, care, instruction. Too long, far too long has +motherhood neglected its real social duties, its duties to humanity at +large. Even in her position of retarded industrial development, as the +housekeeper and houseworker of the world, woman has a contribution of +special value to the state. + +As the loving mother, the patient teacher, the tender nurse, the wise +provider and care-taker, she can serve the state, and the state needs +her service. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; OR, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +XIII. + +INDUSTRY AND ECONOMICS. + + +The forest of Truth, on the subject of industry and economics, is +difficult to see on account of the trees. + +We have so many Facts on this subject; so many Opinions; so many +Traditions and Habits; and the pressure of Immediate Conclusions is so +intense upon us all; that it is not easy to form a clear space in one's +mind and consider the field fairly. + +Possibly the present treatment of the subject will appeal most to the +minds of those who know least about it; such as the Average Woman. To +her, Industry is a daylong and lifelong duty, as well as a natural +impulse; and economics means going without things. To such untrained +but also unprejudiced minds it should be easy to show the main facts on +these lines. + +Let us dispose of Economics first, as having a solemn scientific +appearance. + +Physical Economics treats of the internal affairs of the body; the whole +machinery and how it works; all organs, members, functions; each last +and littlest capillary and leucocyte, are parts of that "economy." + +Nature's "economy" is not in the least "economical." The waste of life, +the waste of material, the waste of time and effort, are prodigious, yet +she achieves her end as we see. + +Domestic Economics covers the whole care and government of the +household; the maintenance of peace, health, order, and morality; the +care and nourishment of children as far as done at home; the entire +management of the home, as well as the spending and saving of money; are +included in it. Saving is the least and poorest part of it; especially +as in mere abstinence from needed things; most especially when this +abstinence is mainly "Mother's." How best to spend; time, strength, +love, care, labor, knowledge, and money--this should be the main study +in Domestic Economics. + +Social, or, as they are used to call it, Political Economics, covers a +larger, but not essentially different field. A family consists of +people, and the Mother is their natural manager. Society consists of +people--_the same people_--only more of them. All the people, who are +members of Society, are also members of families--except some incubated +orphans maybe. Social Economics covers the whole care and management of +the people, the maintenance of peace and health and order and morality; +the care of children, as far as done out of the home; as well as the +spending and saving of the public money--all these are included in it. + +This great business of Social Economics is at present little understood +and most poorly managed, for this reason; we approach it from an +individual point of view; seeking not so much to do our share in the +common service, as to get our personal profit from the common wealth. +Where the whole family labors together to harvest fruit and store it for +the winter, we have legitimate Domestic Economics: but where one member +takes and hides a lot for himself, to the exclusion of the others, we +have no Domestic Economics at all--merely individual selfishness. + +In Social Economics we have a large, but simple problem. Here is the +earth, our farm. Here are the people, who own the earth. How can the +most advantage to the most people be obtained from the earth with the +least labor? That is the problem of Social Economics. + +Looking at the world as if you held it in your hands to study and +discuss, what do we find at present? + +We find people living too thickly for health and comfort in some places, +and too thinly for others; we find most people working too hard and too +long at honest labor; some people working with damaging intensity at +dishonest labor; and a few wretched paupers among the rich and poor, +degenerate idlers who do not work at all, the scum and the dregs of +Society. + +All this is bad economics. We do not get the comfort out of life we +easily could; and work far too hard for what we do get. Moreover, there +is no peace, no settled security. No man is sure of his living, no +matter how hard he works, a thousand things may occur to deprive him of +his job, or his income. In our time there is great excitement along +this line of study; and more than one proposition is advanced whereby we +may improve, most notably instanced in the world-covering advance of +Socialism. + +In our present study the principal fact to be exhibited is the influence +of a male culture upon Social Economics and Industry. + +Industry, as a department of Social Economics, is little understood. +Heretofore we have viewed this field from several wholly erroneous +positions. From the Hebrew (and wholly androcentric) religious +teaching, we have regarded labor as a curse. + +Nothing could be more absurdly false. Labor is not merely a means of +supporting human life--it _is_ human life. Imagine a race of beings +living without labor! They must be the rudest savages. + +Human work consists in specialized industry and the exchange of its +products; and without it is no civilization. As industry develops, +civilization develops; peace expands; wealth increases; science and art +help on the splendid total. Productive industry, and its concomitant of +distributive industry cover the major field of human life. + +If our industry was normal, what should we see? + +A world full of healthy, happy people; each busily engaged in what he or +she most enjoys doing. Normal Specialization, like all our voluntary +processes, is accompanied by keen pleasure; and any check or +interruption to it gives pain and injury. Whosoever works at what he +loves is well and happy. Whoso works at what he does not love is ill +and miserable. It is very bad economics to force unwilling industry. +That is the weakness of slave labor; and of wage labor also where there +is not full industrial education and freedom of choice. + +Under normal conditions we should see well developed, well trained +specialists happily engaged in the work they most enjoyed; for +reasonable hours (any work, or play either, becomes injurious if done +too long); and as a consequence the whole output of the world would be +vastly improved, not only in quantity but in quality. + +Plain are the melancholy facts of what we do see. Following that +pitiful conception of labor as a curse, comes the very old and +androcentric habit of despising it as belonging to women, and then to +slaves. + +As a matter of fact industry is in its origin feminine; that is, +maternal. It is the overflowing fountain of mother-love and +mother-power which first prompts the human race to labor; and for long +ages men performed no productive industry at all; being merely hunters +and fighters. + +It is this lack of natural instinct for labor in the male of our +species, together with the ideas and opinions based on that lack, and +voiced by him in his many writings, religious and other, which have +given to the world its false estimate of this great function, human +work. That which is our very life, our greatest joy, our road to all +advancement, we have scorned and oppressed; so that "working people," +the "working classes," "having to work," etc., are to this day spoken of +with contempt. Perhaps drones speak so among themselves of the "working +bees!" + +Normally, widening out from the mother's careful and generous service in +the family, to careful, generous service in the world, we should find +labor freely given, with love and pride. + +Abnormally, crushed under the burden of androcentric scorn and +prejudice, we have labor grudgingly produced under pressure of +necessity; labor of slaves under fear of the whip, or of wage-slaves, +one step higher, under fear of want. Long ages wherein hunting and +fighting were the only manly occupations, have left their heavy impress. + The predacious instinct and the combative instinct weigh down and +disfigure our economic development. What Veblen calls "the instinct of +workmanship" grows on, slowly and irresistably; but the malign features +of our industrial life are distinctively androcentric: the desire to +get, of the hunter; interfering with the desire to give, of the mother; +the desire to overcome an antagonist--originally masculine, interfering +with the desire to serve and benefit--originally feminine. + +Let the reader keep in mind that as human beings, men are able to +over-live their masculine natures and do noble service to the world; +also that as human beings they are today far more highly developed than +women, and doing far more for the world. The point here brought out is +that as males their unchecked supremacy has resulted in the abnormal +predominance of masculine impulses in our human processes; and that this +predominance has been largely injurious. + +As it happens, the distinctly feminine or maternal impulses are far more +nearly in line with human progress than are those of the male; which +makes her exclusion from human functions the more mischievous. + +Our current teachings in the infant science of Political Economy are +naively masculine. They assume as unquestionable that "the economic +man" will never do anything unless he has to; will only do it to escape +pain or attain pleasure; and will, inevitably, take all he can get, and +do all he can to outwit, overcome, and if necessary destroy his +antagonist. + +Always the antagonist; to the male mind an antagonist is essential to +progress, to all achievement. He has planted that root-thought in all +the human world; from that old hideous idea of Satan, "The Adversary," +down to the competitor in business, or the boy at the head of the class, +to be superseded by another. + +Therefore, even in science, "the struggle for existence" is the dominant +law--to the male mind, with the "survival of the fittest" and "the +elimination of the unfit." + +Therefore in industry and economics we find always and everywhere the +antagonist; the necessity for somebody or something to be overcome--else +why make an effort? If you have not the incentive of reward, or the +incentive of combat, why work? "Competition is the life of trade." + +Thus the Economic Man. + +But how about the Economic Woman? + +To the androcentric mind she does not exist. Women are females, and +that's all; their working abilities are limited to personal service. + +That it would be possible to develop industry to far greater heights, +and to find in social economics a simple and beneficial process for the +promotion of human life and prosperity, under any other impulse than +these two, Desire and Combat, is hard indeed to recognize--for the "male +mind." + +So absolutely interwoven are our existing concepts of maleness and +humanness, so sure are we that men are people and women only females, +that the claim of equal weight and dignity in human affairs of the +feminine instincts and methods is scouted as absurd. We find existing +industry almost wholly in male hands; find it done as men do it; assume +that that is the way it must be done. + +When women suggest that it could be done differently, their proposal is +waved aside--they are "only women"--their ideas are "womanish." + +Agreed. So are men "only men," their ideas are "mannish"; and of the +two the women are more vitally human than the men. + +The female is the race-type--the man the variant. + +The female, as a race-type, having the female processes besides; best +performs the race processes. The male, however, has with great +difficulty developed them, always heavily handicapped by his maleness; +being in origin essentially a creature of sex, and so dominated almost +exclusively by sex impulses. + +The human instinct of mutual service is checked by the masculine +instinct of combat; the human tendency to specialize in labor, to +rejoicingly pour force in lines of specialized expression, is checked by +the predacious instinct, which will exert itself for reward; and +disfigured by the masculine instinct of self-expression, which is an +entirely different thing from the great human outpouring of world force. + +Great men, the world's teachers and leaders, are great in humanness; +mere maleness does not make for greatness unless it be in warfare--a +disadvantageous glory! Great women also must be great in humanness; but +their female instincts are not so subversive of human progress as are +the instincts of the male. To be a teacher and leader, to love and +serve, to guard and guide and help, are well in line with motherhood. + +"Are they not also in line with fatherhood?" will be asked; and, "Are +not the father's paternal instincts masculine?" + +No, they are not; they differ in no way from the maternal, in so far as +they are beneficial. Parental functions of the higher sort, of the +human sort, are identical. The father can give his children many +advantages which the mother can not; but that is due to his superiority +as a human being. He possesses far more knowledge and power in the +world, the human world; he himself is more developed in human powers and +processes; and is therefore able to do much for his children which the +mother can not; but this is in no way due to his masculinity. It is in +this development of human powers in man, through fatherhood, that we may +read the explanation of our short period of androcentric culture. + +So thorough and complete a reversal of previous relation, such +continuance of what appears in every way an unnatural position, must +have had some justification in racial advantages, or it could not have +endured. This is its justification; the establishment of humanness in +the male; he being led into it, along natural lines, by the exercise of +previously existing desires. + +In a male culture the attracting forces must inevitably have been, we +have seen, Desire and Combat. These masculine forces, acting upon human +processes, while necessary to the uplifting of the man, have been +anything but uplifting to civilization. A sex which thinks, feels and +acts in terms of combat is difficult to harmonize in the smooth bonds of +human relationship; that they have succeeded so well is a beautiful +testimony to the superior power of race tendency over sex tendency. +Uniting and organizing, crudely and temporarily, for the common hunt; +and then, with progressive elaboration, for the common fight; they are +now using the same tactics--and the same desires, unfortunately--in +common work. + +Union, organization, complex interservice, are the essential processes +of a growing society; in them, in the ever-increasing discharge of power +along widening lines of action, is the joy and health of social life. +But so far men combine in order to better combat; the mutual service +held incidental to the common end of conquest and plunder. + +In spite of this the overmastering power of humanness is now developing +among modern men immense organizations of a wholly beneficial character, +with no purpose but mutual advantage. This is true human growth, and as +such will inevitably take the place of the sex-prejudiced earlier +processes. + +The human character of the Christian religion is now being more and more +insisted on; the practical love and service of each and all; in place of +the old insistence on Desire--for a Crown and Harp in Heaven, and +Combat--with that everlasting adversary. + +In economics this great change is rapidly going on before our eyes. It +is a change in idea, in basic concept, in our theory of what the whole +thing is about. We are beginning to see the world, not as "a fair field +and no favor"--not a place for one man to get ahead of others, for a +price; but as an establishment belonging to us, the proceeds of which +are to be applied, as a matter of course, to human advantage. + +In the old idea, the wholly masculine idea, based on the processes of +sex-combat, the advantage of the world lay in having "the best man win." + Some, in the first steps of enthusiasm for Eugenics, think so still; +imagining that the primal process of promoting evolution through the +paternity of the conquering male is the best process. + +To have one superior lion kill six or sixty inferior lions, and leave a +progeny of more superior lions behind him, is all right--for lions; the +superiority in fighting being all the superiority they need. + +But the man able to outwit his follows, to destroy them in physical, or +ruin in financial, combat, is not therefore a superior human creature. +Even physical superiority, as a fighter, does not prove the kind of +vigor best calculated to resist disease, or to adapt itself to changing +conditions. + +That our masculine culture in its effect on Economics and Industry is +injurious, is clearly shown by the whole open page of history. From the +simple beneficent activities of a matriarchal period we follow the same +lamentable steps; nation after nation. Women are enslaved and captives +are enslaved; a military despotism is developed; labor is despised and +discouraged. Then when the irresistible social forces do bring us +onward, in science, art, commerce, and all that we call civilization, we +find the same check acting always upon that progress; and the really +vital social processes of production and distribution heavily injured by +the financial combat and carnage which rages ever over and among them. + +The real development of the people, the forming of finer physiques, +finer minds, a higher level of efficiency, a broader range of enjoyment +and accomplishment--is hindered and not helped by this artificially +maintained "struggle for existence," this constant endeavor to eliminate +what, from a masculine standard, is "unfit." + +That we have progressed thus far, that we are now moving forward so +rapidly, is in spite of and not because of our androcentric culture. + + + +OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE; OR, THE MAN-MADE WORLD + + +XIV. + +A HUMAN WORLD. + + +In the change from the dominance of one sex to the equal power of two, +to what may we look forward? What effect upon civilization is to be +expected from the equality of womanhood in the human race? + +To put the most natural question first--what will men lose by it? Many +men are genuinely concerned about this; fearing some new position of +subservience and disrespect. Others laugh at the very idea of change in +their position, relying as always on the heavier fist. So long as +fighting was the determining process, the best fighter must needs win; +but in the rearrangement of processes which marks our age, superior +physical strength does not make the poorer wealthy, nor even the soldier +a general. + +The major processes of life to-day are quite within the powers of women; +women are fulfilling their new relations more and more successfully; +gathering new strength, new knowledge, new ideals. The change is upon +us; what will it do to men? + +No harm. + +As we are a monogamous race, there will be no such drastic and cruel +selection among competing males as would eliminate the vast majority as +unfit. Even though some be considered unfit for fatherhood, all human +life remains open to them. Perhaps the most important feature of this +change comes in right here; along this old line of sex-selection, +replacing that power in the right hands, and using it for the good of +the race. + +The woman, free at last, intelligent, recognizing her real place and +responsibility in life as a human being, will be not less, but more, +efficient as a mother. She will understand that, in the line of +physical evolution, motherhood is the highest process; and that her +work, as a contribution to an improved race, must always involve this +great function. She will see that right parentage is the purpose of the +whole scheme of sex-relationship, and act accordingly. + +In our time, his human faculties being sufficiently developed, civilized +man can look over and around his sex limitations, and begin to see what +are the true purposes and methods of human life. + +He is now beginning to learn that his own governing necessity of Desire +is not _the_ governing necessity of parentage, but only a contributory +tendency; and that, in the interests of better parentage, motherhood is +the dominant factor, and must be so considered. + +In slow reluctant admission of this fact, man heretofore has recognized +one class of women as mothers; and has granted them a varying amount of +consideration as such; but he has none the less insisted on maintaining +another class of women, forbidden motherhood, and merely subservient to +his desires; a barren, mischievous unnatural relation, wholly aside from +parental purposes, and absolutely injurious to society. This whole +field of morbid action will be eliminated from human life by the normal +development of women. + +It is not a question of interfering with or punishing men; still less of +interfering with or punishing women; but purely a matter of changed +education and opportunity for every child. + +Each and all shall be taught the real nature and purpose of motherhood; +the real nature and purpose of manhood; what each is for, and which is +the more important. A new sense of the power and pride of womanhood +will waken; a womanhood no longer sunk in helpless dependence upon men; +no longer limited to mere unpaid house-service; no longer blinded by the +false morality which subjects even motherhood to man's dominance; but a +womanhood which will recognize its pre-eminent responsibility to the +human race, and live up to it. Then, with all normal and right +competition among men for the favor of women, those best fitted for +fatherhood will be chosen. Those who are not chosen will live +single--perforce. + +Many, under the old mistaken notion of what used to be called the +"social necessity" of prostitution, will protest at the idea of its +extinction. + +"It is necessary to have it," they will say. + +"Necessary _to whom?_" + +Not to the women hideously sacrificed to it, surely. + +Not to society, honey-combed with diseases due to this cause. + +Not to the family, weakened and impoverished by it. + +To whom then? To the men who want it? + +But it is not good for them, it promotes all manner of disease, of vice, +of crime. It is absolutely and unquestionably a "social evil." + +An intelligent and powerful womanhood will put an end to this indulgence +of one sex at the expense of the other; and to the injury of both. + +In this inevitable change will lie what some men will consider a loss. +But only those of the present generation. For the sons of the women now +entering upon this new era of world life will be differently reared. +They will recognize the true relation of men to the primal process; and +be amazed that for so long the greater values have been lost sight of in +favor of the less. + +This one change will do more to promote the physical health and beauty +of the race; to improve the quality of children born, and the general +vigor and purity of social life, than any one measure which could be +proposed. It rests upon a recognition of motherhood as the real base +and cause of the family; and dismisses to the limbo of all outworn +superstition that false Hebraic and grossly androcentric doctrine that +the woman is to be subject to the man, and that he shall rule over her. +He has tried this arrangement long enough--to the grievous injury of the +world. A higher standard of happiness will result; equality and mutual +respect between parents; pure love, undefiled by self-interests on +either side; and a new respect for Childhood. + +With the Child, seen at last to be the governing purpose of this +relation, with all the best energies of men and women bent on raising +the standard of life for all children, we shall have a new status of +family life which will be clean and noble, and satisfying to all its +members. + +The change in all the varied lines of human work is beyond the powers of +any present day prophet to forecast with precision. A new grade of +womanhood we can clearly foresee; proud, strong, serene, independent; +great mothers of great women and great men. These will hold high +standards and draw men up to them; by no compulsion save nature's law of +attraction. A clean and healthful world, enjoying the taste of life as +it never has since racial babyhood, with homes of quiet and +content--this we can foresee. + +Art--in the extreme sense will perhaps always belong most to men. It +would seem as if that ceaseless urge to expression, was, at least +originally, most congenial to the male. But applied art, in every form, +and art used directly for transmission of ideas, such as literature, or +oratory, appeals to women as much, if not more, than to men. + +We can make no safe assumption as to what, if any, distinction there +will be in the free human work of men and women, until we have seen +generation after generation grow up under absolutely equal conditions. +In all our games and sports and minor social customs, such changes will +occur as must needs follow upon the rising dignity alloted to the +woman's temperament, the woman's point of view; not in the least denying +to men the fullest exercise of their special powers and preferences; but +classifying these newly, as not human--merely male. At present we have +pages or columns in our papers, marked as "The Woman's Page" "Of +Interest to Women," and similar delimiting titles. Similarly we might +have distinctly masculine matters so marked and specified; not assumed +as now to be of general human interest. + +The effect of the change upon Ethics and Religion is deep and wide. +With the entrance of women upon full human life, a new principle comes +into prominence; the principle of loving service. That this is the +governing principle of Christianity is believed by many; but an +androcentric interpretation has quite overlooked it; and made, as we +have shown, the essential dogma of their faith the desire of an eternal +reward and the combat with an eternal enemy. + +The feminine attitude in life is wholly different. As a female she has +merely to be herself and passively attract; neither to compete nor to +pursue; as a mother her whole process is one of growth; first the +development of the live child within her, and the wonderful nourishment +from her own body; and then all the later cultivation to make the child +grow; all the watching, teaching, guarding, feeding. In none of this is +there either desire, combat, or self-expression. The feminine attitude, +as expressed in religion, makes of it a patient practical fulfillment of +law; a process of large sure improvements; a limitless comforting love +and care. + +This full assurance of love and of power; this endless cheerful service; +the broad provision for all people; rather than the competitive +selection of a few "victors;" is the natural presentation of religious +truth from the woman's viewpoint. Her governing principle being growth +and not combat; her main tendency being to give and not to get; she more +easily and naturally lives and teaches these religious principles. It +is for this reason that the broader gentler teaching of the Unitarian +and Universalist sects have appealed so especially to women, and that so +many women preach in their churches. + +This principle of growth, as applied and used in general human life will +work to far other ends than those now so painfully visible. + +In education, for instance, with neither reward nor punishment as spur +or bait; with no competition to rouse effort and animosity, but rather +with the feeling of a gardener towards his plants; the teacher will +teach and the children learn, in mutual ease and happiness. The law of +passive attraction applies here, leading to such ingenuity in +presentation as shall arouse the child's interest; and, in the true +spirit of promoting growth, each child will have his best and fullest +training, without regard to who is "ahead" of him, or her, or who +"behind." + +We do not sadly measure the cabbage-stalk by the corn-stalk, and praise +the corn for getting ahead of the cabbage--nor incite the cabbage to +emulate the corn. We nourish both, to its best growth--and are the +richer. + +That every child on earth shall have right conditions to make the best +growth possible to it; that every citizen, from birth to death, shall +have a chance to learn all he or she can assimilate, to develop every +power that is in them--for the common good--this will be the aim of +education, under human management. + +In the world of "society" we may look for very radical changes. + +With all women full human beings, trained and useful in some form of +work; the class of busy idlers, who run about forever "entertaining" and +being "entertained" will disappear as utterly as will the prostitute. +No woman with real work to do could have the time for such petty +amusements; or enjoy them if she did have time. No woman with real work +to do, work she loved and was well fitted for, work honored and +well-paid, would take up the Unnatural Trade. Genuine relaxation and +recreation, all manner of healthful sports and pastimes, beloved of both +sexes to-day, will remain, of course; but the set structure of "social +functions"--so laughably misnamed--will disappear with the "society +women" who make it possible. Once active members of real Society; no +woman could go back to "society," any more than a roughrider could +return to a hobbyhorse. + +New development in dress, wise, comfortable, beautiful, may be +confidently expected, as woman becomes more human. No fully human +creature could hold up its head under the absurdities our women wear +to-day--and have worn for dreary centuries. + +So on through all the aspects of life we may look for changes, rapid and +far-reaching; but natural and all for good. The improvement is not due +to any inherent moral superiority of women; nor to any moral inferiority +of men; men at present, as more human, are ahead of women in all +distinctly human ways; yet their maleness, as we have shown repeatedly, +warps and disfigures their humanness. The woman, being by nature the +race-type; and her feminine functions being far more akin to human +functions than are those essential to the male; will bring into human +life a more normal influence. + +Under this more normal influence our present perversities of functions +will, of course, tend to disappear. The directly serviceable tendency +of women, as shown in every step of their public work, will have small +patience with hoary traditions of absurdity. We need but look at long +recorded facts to see what women do--or try to do, when they have +opportunity. Even in their crippled, smothered past, they have made +valiant efforts--not always wise--in charity and philanthropy. + +In our own time this is shown through all the length and breadth of our +country, by the Woman's Clubs. Little groups of women, drawing together +in human relation, at first, perhaps, with no better purpose than to +"improve their minds," have grown and spread; combined and federated; +and in their great reports, representing hundreds of thousands of +women--we find a splendid record of human work. They strive always to +improve something, to take care of something, to help and serve and +benefit. In "village improvement," in traveling libraries, in lecture +courses and exhibitions, in promoting good legislation; in many a line +of noble effort our Women's Clubs show what women want to do. + +Men do not have to do these things through their clubs, which are mainly +for pleasure; they can accomplish what they wish to through regular +channels. But the character and direction of the influence of women in +human affairs is conclusively established by the things they already do +and try to do. In those countries, and in our own states, where they +are already full citizens, the legislation introduced and promoted by +them is of the same beneficent character. The normal woman is a strong +creature, loving and serviceable. The kind of woman men are afraid to +entrust with political power, selfish, idle, over-sexed, or ignorant and +narrow-minded, is not normal, but is the creature of conditions men have +made. We need have no fear of her, for she will disappear with the +conditions which created her. + +In older days, without knowledge of the natural sciences, we accepted +life as static. If, being born in China, we grew up with foot-bound +women, we assumed that women were such, and must so remain. Born in +India, we accepted the child-wife, the pitiful child-widow, the ecstatic +_suttee_, as natural expressions of womanhood. In each age, each +country, we have assumed life to be necessarily what it was--a moveless +fact. + +All this is giving way fast in our new knowledge of the laws of life. +We find that Growth is the eternal law, and that even rocks are slowly +changing. Human life is seen to be as dynamic as any other form; and +the most certain thing about it is that it will change. In the light of +this knowledge we need no longer accept the load of what we call "sin;" +the grouped misery of poverty, disease and crime; the cumbrous, +inefficatious, wasteful processes of life today, as needful or +permanent. + +We have but to learn the _real_ elements in humanity; its true powers +and natural characteristics; to see wherein we are hampered by the wrong +ideas and inherited habits of earlier generations, and break loose from +them--then we can safely and swiftly introduce a far nobler grade of +living. + +Of all crippling hindrances in false ideas, we have none more +universally mischievous than this root error about men and women. Given +the old androcentric theory, and we have an androcentric culture--the +kind we so far know; this short stretch we call "history;" with its +proud and pitiful record. We have done wonders of upward growth--for +growth is the main law, and may not be wholly resisted. But we have +hindered, perverted, temporarily checked that growth, age after age; and +again and again has a given nation, far advanced and promising, sunk to +ruin, and left another to take up its task of social evolution; repeat +its errors--and its failure. + +One major cause of the decay of nations is "the social evil"--a thing +wholly due to the androcentric culture. Another steady endless check is +warfare--due to the same cause. Largest of all is poverty; that +spreading disease which grows with our social growth and shows most +horribly when and where we are most proud, keeping step, as it were, +with private wealth. This too, in large measure, is due to the false +ideas on industry and economics, based, like the others mentioned, on a +wholly masculine view of life. + +By changing our underlying theory in this matter we change all the +resultant assumptions; and it is this alteration in our basic theory of +life which is being urged. + +The scope and purpose of human life is entirely above and beyond the +field of sex relationship. Women are human beings, as much as men, by +nature; and as women, are even more sympathetic with human processes. +To develop human life in its true powers we need full equal citizenship +for women. + +The great woman's movement and labor movement of to-day are parts of the +same pressure, the same world-progress. An economic democracy must rest +on a free womanhood; and a free womanhood inevitably leads to an +economic democracy. + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg etext of Our Androcentric Culture diff --git a/old/andro10.zip b/old/andro10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ab6b9d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/andro10.zip |