WOULD WOMEN LIKE TO BE MEN?

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3081, 11 May 1917, Page 3

WOULD WOMEN LIKE TO BE MEN?

Is it that every woman would be a man if she could be, while no man would he. a woman if ho could help it? .A; writer in the "Unpopular Re- • viow" answers the question thus: "Eve was created to stimulate Adam, i She had a fourfold purpose in being: first, to educate Adam; second, to conceal his education from liim ■ as the only practical way of developing in man the self-esteem necessary to keep Vim in his sex; third, to keep him from being bored by keeping him guessing; and, fourth, to keep from boring himself. And in the new trend_ toward 'feminism' the author sees simply a different niethod of accomplishing what Eve sought to do. <"Man," she goes on, "is a timorous, self-distrustful creaturo 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 in serving her. It is only recently that we have dare'! to be as athletic as wo might, and the effort is still tentative enough, to be relinquisher! if we notice any- resulting deterioration, muscular c.r 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 man's sood activities, but also as a means of turning them to nobler directions. Men are naturally acquisitive—compelled to work for (sold and gain: Unable to deter them from .this impulse, we fair* it to an unselfish end: that is, we let men support us. "Not only for the moral advantage gained, by men in supporting, us do women preserve the fallacy of physical feebleness, but also for the spiritual exaltation men may enioy by protecting us from perils. For ibis purpose, it is quite unnecessary that man should think the peril real, hut it is absolutely necessary tlwt he should think the woman thinlts it' Teal. It docs a man more good to save a woman from a mouse than from a tiger, as contributing more to the =.ense of' superiority so necessary to him.. '."The truth is that women arc rot really afraid of anything, but tbpv tvt- ' ceive how much splendid incentive would be. Inst to world if they did hot pretend to be." .