"THE JOYS OF BEING A WOMAN" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kirkland Winifred)

woman, the joy of conscious superiority. That it is
the most profound joy known to human nature will be
readily attested by any man who has felt his own sense
of superiority shaking in its shoes as he has viewed
the recent much-advertised achievements of women. How
could any man help envying a woman a self-approval so
absolute that it can afford to let man seem superior at
her expense?<6>
Woman's conviction of advantage supports her in
using her prerogatives first as if they were
deficiencies, and then in employing them to offset
man's deficiencies. Man is a timorous,
self-distrustful creature, who would never have
discovered his powers if not stimulated by woman's
weakness. Probably prehistoric woman voluntarily gave
up her own muscle in order that man might develop his
by serving her. It is only recently that we have dared
to be as athletic as we might, and the effort is still
tentative enough to be relinquished if we notice any
resulting deterioration, muscular or moral, in men.
Women, conscious how they hold men's welfare in their
hands, simply do not dare to discover how strong they
might be if they tried, because they have so far used
their physical weakness not only as a means of arousing
men's good activities, but also as a means of turning
to nobler directions their bad ones. Men are naturally
acquisitive, impelled to work for gain and gold, gain
and more gain, gold and more gold. Unable to deter
them from this impulse, we turn it to an unselfish end,
that is, we let men support us, preserving for their
sakes the fiction that we are too frail to support
ourselves. If they had neither child nor wife, men
would still be rolling up wealth, but it is very much
better for<7> their characters that they should suppose
they are working for their families rather than for
themselves. We might be Amazons, but for men's own
sakes we refrain from what would be for ourselves a
selfish indulgence in vigor. Man is not only naturally
acquisitive but is naturally ostentatious of his
acquisitions. Having bled for his baubles, he wishes
to put them on and strut in them. Again we step in and
redirect his impulse; we put on his baubles and strut
for him. We let him think that our delicate physique
is better fitted for jewels and silk than his sturdier
frame, and that our complex service to the Society
which must be established to show off his jewels and
silk, is really a lighter task than his simple slavery
to an office desk. How reluctantly men have delegated
to women dress and all its concomitant luxury may
readily be proved by an examination of historic