G. B. SHAW ON WOMEN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 764, 12 March 1910, Page 14

G. B. SHAW ON WOMEN.

HALF THEIR LIVES TELLING LITTLE LIES. Soma men who know a groat deal about women can't be induced to admit it There is Edward Bok, for example, editor of the. "Ladies' Home Journal," who, when interviewed recently on the subject of the eternal feminine, remarked demurely, "Considering all the years I have known, loved, and worked for women I know absolutely nothing about them, and am utterly unable to say anything in regard to thom." But one connoisseur in dames is less bashful. He is George Bernard Shaw, the daring English dramatist, who with play and novel and criticism of life and literature has been incessantly characterising la femme, in all her garbs and guises, for many years. And here are just a few of the things he declares he has found out about her: The ordinary woman's business is to get married. Women begin to be socially tolerable at 00, and improve until the deepening of their- consciousness is checked by the eav of their faculties. But they be»in to be pretty much earlier than 30, and are indeed sometimes at their best in that respect long before, their chattering is, apart from the illusions of sex, to be preferred in serious moments, to the silent sympathy of an intelligent pet animal. "Womanly s2lf-sacrifice" is an . essentially riianly weakness. He who desires a lifetime of-happiness with a beautiful woman desires to enjoj. the taste of - wine by keeping his moutb always full of it. The formation of a young lady's mind and character usually consists in telling her. lies. Women do not mind ill-usage so much, because the strongest position for a womau is that of a victim. It is the self-sacrificing women that sacrifice others most ruthlessly., I know a poor wretch whose one desire in life is to run away from his wife. She prevents him by threatening to. throw herself in front of the engine of the train he leaves her - in. That is what all women do. No -woman looks' her best after sitting up all night. ■ •- , . ' 8 ~A My who. is-invariably-exceedingly disagreeable, is,in consequence held to be exceedingly good. Mrs. Tanqueraiy was received with delight by the public:. Saint Teresa would have been hissed off the' same; stage for her contempt for - the ■ ideal-represented by a carriage, a fashionable dressmaker' and a -dozen servants.

In the past women have rather liked being worshipped on false pretences. In America they still do. _ Women, spend half theix lives telling little lies for men, land sometimes big onos. ■ When women are offended they do not group ■ themselves pathetically to sing "Protegga il Giusto Cialo" they, grasp formidable legal and social weapons and retaliate. A, man who discusses his conscience is much like a* woman-who discusses her modesty. ; If women wore as fastidious as men, morally or physically, there would be an end of the race. Sometimes we grumble ungallantly at a lady because she does not act as well as she looks. ... ■- When a lady, ; .because-she .is ' a > lady, will face any extremity ■of . parasitic ' dependence rather ,than -take a;situ'atiori -as cook or parlour maid/we'makelarge allowances for her. • "I cannot understand why, she is so unlucky: she is such a nice woman!" That is the formula. As if women with any force in them ever .were altogether nice! The whole world is strewn with snares, traps, gins, and pitfalls for the capture of men by women. The Eternal Feminine draws us ever, upward and on—-without getting us a step further. Literary and cultured persons have been for years, sotting.up:y the 'ory;-,of the New Woman' whenever some unusually oldfashioned * female came along., -;j' : f' .• Man is rio. : longer victor.in the duel of sex., Whether he has ever really been, may be doubted. At all events, the enor : mous 'superiority of natural position in this matter is telling with greater and' greater force.