The "Rule Britannia" of the Male Sex

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3016, 29 November 1898, Page 7

The "Rule Britannia" of the Male Sex

WOMEN EVEBJ EVER/ EVEB SHALL I BE; SLATES/,.. Elizabeth Bisland contributes to tb< • North American Review. ' for Augußi an article on " The Abdication o! Man " which is calculated to mak« many women blaspheme not a little Mi«=s Bisland is an uncompromising advocate of the subjection of women She will not listen-for a>moment to anj question of the equality of the sexes Such a claim appears to her to be little short of downright blasphemy She exultß in the fact that the outbreak of war between the United States aoc Spain by bringing the soldier to the front has relegated women's suffrage tc the rear. She says : — War legitimatieea man's claim tc superiority. When th« sword is drawn he is forced to again naonnt th«< ancient seat of rul<? frooi which he ht* c only recently been evicted : or rather from which he has himself stepped down. The democracy of ccx at once becomes ridiculous — the old feudal relation reassert itself. ABJECT SUBMISSION TO MAN. This is but another way of saying that in a society based upon militarism the naked aesertion of the sovereignly of material foroe naturally entails «he negation of any ci^im to equal risjbtn on the part of thosa who are physically weaker, which after all i< only arouudabout way of formulating the wellknown fact that war is essentially barbaric, and if a state of war is to be the normal state of Bociety Women's Suffrage may be at once ruled out of court. Miss Bisland, however, goes much further than this. She maintains that by a law of nature roan is the natural and eternal lord and master of woman, and no ore is so much con» vinced of this as women themselves. Indeed, the whole gist of her article is that the present deplorable tendency of society to recognise the equality of the sexes is due far more to the shameful abdication of man than to any desire for emancipation on the part of the subject female. Miss Bislaud, speaking on the sentiment of women on tbia Bubjecc, says : — I believe that if man were willing she would always maintain h ; that it depends npon him whether she returns to it permanently or rob. I believe that her modern attitude is not of her own choosing — that man has thrust that attitude upon her. For the oldest of ali empires ia that of man ; no royal house is so ancient as his. It id his own abdication that drives him from p Ower — abdication of his duties, his obligations, his opportunities. Ceasing to rule, he ceases to reign. It ia evident that Miss Bisland is not very far removed from our excellent friends the Chinese, who regard the birth of a female infant as little short of a calamity. She exulta in the recollection, of a period when even from his cradle the boy was set apart and treated with special reverence, such as is specially reserved for the heir-ap-parent to a sovereign throne, while the girls were summarily thrust to the wall in order to allow the son of the royal house full scope for the development of his selfiahnaas and other innate capacities of his nature. Miss Bisland says : — So venerable, so . deep-rooted in the eternal verities seamed the authority of man over woman that the female miod, until the present day, never doubted its inevitableness. It was not until a hundred years age fchat Mary Wollstonecraft attempted to challenge the sovereignly of man, and — go henioua seemed her offence of lesemajesfce in questioning man's divint right that one of the most famous ol her contemporaries did not hesitate tc stigmatise her as " a hyena in petticoats." IN BETUN POS TWO FAVORS. Woman in return for her abject submission to man demanded fronc him two things— firstly, that he shoulc provide for her, and secondly, that h« should attire himself in a costum? adequate to her notions of hit transcendant majesty. It was not ar ecomic revolution which was the fira! factor in the emancipation of woman :— The all-powerful male admitted hit inability to provide for these sisters, cousins, aunts, and more distant kir who had looked up to him as the foni of existence, and had toiled and fee contentedly under his roof, yielding t( him obedience as the natural provide! and master. Women went awaj sorrowful and— very thoughtful. But a second thing which destroyer her faith in her lord and master wa hia fatal refusal to drees himsel smartly. He preferred a plain bifar eated garment, instead of following th example of other males of creation In old times when he was aovereigc and knew it, he dressed in aecordanc with hia station ; — Wtoß eke thought of bim she w«

j hy pnojiiped^ by ; a ; ; memory ■of gold, a paving of purple,; ac glitter of steel, a flatter of ! scarlet. ■ He > knew that this admiration of hera for beauty and color ypaa as old ?aa the world; From primordial periods the- male- has reeog--9 nised this need.pftbe female. The fish t in the sea, the' reptile in tjie dusfc^fche f bird in the'fofe&t, tlie wild 'beast iiTthe a jangle are all aware of' their' mates' } passion for gleaming scales, for glowing plumes, for dappled hides, and orgu- * lous crests of hair. They know, they * have always known, ! thac no king can T reign without splendour. Ooly man, bent solely upon his own comfort, «nd, it would seem, upon the abandonment of his power, has ignored this need of 1 the female. A woman like the child 1 and the savage, loveß pomp of nnnner as * well as of garment, and that what abe 3 doesnot see she finds it hard to believe. ) Every wide lover noon learna that it is necessary to reinforce the tenderness of his manner by definite assurances of affection several times in every twenty four boms. Then and then only, is a wotnm sure she ia loved. How can Bhe believe man heroic unless he use I the appearance and manner of tlu--5 hero ? [ NO PLUMES ; NO POWER. He ignored this need of the female, and sbe, no longer finding him ar- ; rayed in the plumes of power, refused i him the reference which she would r otherwise only have been too glad to ( yield. Mieß Bisland darkly hints that t as a result of this decay of women brought about by the abdication of man the emancipated female will strike against the performance of domestic duties. She says : — , Where in the man in all the word who would exchange even the most , laborious of his occupations for bis wife's daily existence ? The only con--1 aideratioos that can permanently r^i concile human beinga to unattractive i labors is first the sentiment of loyalty — ■ that such labors are performed for onti who is loved and admired — and second the fine, noble old habit of submission. These incentives to duty, these helps to happiness, man has t>iken from womau by weakly shuffling off hia mastership.