FEMINISM IN 1958.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1388, 21 November 1918, Page 6

FEMINISM IN 1958.

BEEPS INTO THE FUTURE. A DELIGHTFUL SATIRE. Clement Vaulfl, a noted French satirist, has published' in a Parisian magazine, Ate Sals '.font,” a delightful satire upon the woman’s emancipation inovemeur. For (he following translation ol the- article wo are indebted to the New York Times: In that time women were happy (so (hey said). They voted; they tried oases; they carried sacks weighing 120 kilos; they debated in the Chamber and the. Senate; they ran express trains; they belonged to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres;

they smoked; they speculated on the Exchange ; ihoy were jockeys; they wrote books on political economy; they fired ofi cannon; and, long .since, had renounced the petticoats of mothers to adopt instead lather’s trousers, symbol and palladium ol the enfranchisement of the sex held for centurion in subjection to the tyranny ol man. Women had captured, one by one, the fortresses when- masculine feudalism offered resistance. They recalled with pride the most beautiful victories won in that long u ar. In .1917, 28 women had enetred the Chamber. Since then they had almost completely driven out the bearded race. In 1935 (lie Court for the trial of misdemeanours (president, the Citizencss Cos a rino Aloiutii) had sentenced to a week’s imvuisonment an old gentleman, the Marquis Seraphin des Angelnres, who, in an aero-bus, hud dared to offer Ids scat to a citizencss of (lie Metal Syndicate. The sentence was prefaced by this argument: “Whereas, the action of (he citizen des Angelnres Ims been inspired by the ridiculous and outrageous sentiment of gallantry which, under, the masculine regime, evidenced the state of inferiority and enslavcnieni- of women,” etc., etc. In 1954, live citi/.enessos were appointed lie,-ul porters of .the Parisian Markets. In 1935 (lie law was enacted granting io all citizenesses the right ro wear timisers. In 1946 women wen- admitted to the corps of the police and to the Republican Guard. Rut the true Feminist Fourteenth of July foil on (September 1, 1955. On (hat. day the Congress of Versailles elected as; President of, the Republic the ( -iti/.em-ss Christiaan Miiveillo Fromageot. President Fromageot put on the professional garb of chief of the State, saying: “Ah! if my poor mother could see me now; in her time they still wore petticoats!” When the High Chancellor of the Legion of Honour brought her the collar of the Grand .Master of the Order,. President Fromageot declared, with a dignified air: “No necklace !...'! he necklace Ims been for too long the badge of woman s servitude !”

She was, besides, immortalised iu tin* painting of Bora lie Mitouflet of the institute of France, a painting preserved in the Pantheon, the front of which building, modified, corrected, and rid of all its masculine personagV-, bears ihe famous device: TO THE GREAT WOMEN--THE GRATEFUL COUNTRY. This triumph of the Feminist idea had of course, transformed, nay, turned upside down, French society of the old type. The frivolous, capricious, many-sided and coquettish woman had completely disappeared, without causing 100 much regret. The hist specimens of that obsolete type were, moreover, of an ago that renders ineffectual its last, attempts n t captivation. Marriage had lost its old character; it was nothing but a partnership of two equal beings, (hut ,-s to say, of two rivals. Madame was no longer bound to follow her husband everywhere. She went, to her club as site went to her factory, to her office, to her amusements. When the association had lasted long enough, 'at the pleasure of one or the other interested parties, a simple notice—printed formulas were to be had by the public at all post offices —sent by means of the pneumatic tube, annulled this truly

modern marriage. Needless to say, tile “liberated" did not, know the coquettish ways of their mothers. Long since the manufacturers of fans, face powder, lace, etc., had failed. The .fashion magazines had been transformed into poli-tical-economic reviews. The last “midiuette” had been convicted .... of “wearing a costume said to be feminine, as it reminds one of the petticoat.’’ Mon no longer sought, as formerly, the society of women. The time. of flirtations, love letters, madrigals, of all those trifles which had delighted so many generations, had long been passed. Therefore, even when travelling, the sons of Adam cared very little about associating with the daughters of Eve. True politeness of a male to a female citizen consisted of elbowing her everywhere like a comrade. , . . Trying to kiss iho hand of a woman was accounted a grave insult; offering her an arm was an eccentricity that inevitably brought the perpetrator to a special division of an insane asylum. “And the children?” you ask. 1 knew you would ask that question. . . They become ever scarcer. They were picked up every week in each street by a special official and taken to a Stale institution, where they wore raised according to the principles of official morals. The few mothers who kept their children at. home were looked upon as eccentrics, and were pursued in tin* streets by feifutle “Apaches” who threw stones at thorn.' Now, it happened that in February, 1958,

an astonishing, surprising, bewildering, dumfounding poster wa s mysteriously posted on the walls of Paris, ft read as follows ; League of the “Now Feminists.” Women! Liberty weighs us down. Beside:-, like all liberties, it is a false liberty. Wo are told that our mothers were unhappy. Were they ? No!

They were Loved ! Our mothers were.: Wives— That is. queens of the home; Mothers — That is, queens of tho family; Women That Is, queens of man. What have they made us? Servants of all who formerly were (ho slaves of one only. Formerly, we were asked to be good, lo be beautiful. To-day they want ns Iq be homely and bad, everything that is neuter. Our liberty loads us with iron chains. . . In former times wo would not even have worn chains of flowers. Women! What do we want? Wo no longer want to dominate. We want to please ! The President of the League of the “New Feminists." ROSE-1 SLA NCI I F.-MA RIE FLEUR Y. The police tore, down these posters though a little too late. Many women had read them. They: were hoard to make observations like these:— ■ “It. is shameful!” “This woman has lost all her dignity!” “What do they take us for?” This Rose-Blanehe-Marie is crazy. Had they, however, observed more closely, they might have noticed in the groups formed before those odd posters some silent women who did not seem to share the general opinion. A few days later- there was a second poster:

League of the “Now Feminists

Women! You are requested to attend next Sunday, at 4 p.m., the mass meeting organised at the Gigantic Palace, Boulevard dn 9 Sepfombre. Speech by Rose-Blanche-Mario Floury, President of the League. This meeting was epic. The Citizeness Floury appeared on the platform. She was, indeed, very pretty in (he sense given to tin’s word in the centuries of masculine tyranny and bad taste. She had impudently nut on a dress, yes, a dress; and, what is more, a low-necked •dress. Resoivdcl to fly in the face of everything, she even wore jewels (think of it,

jewels!). And she had On the., so-called Louis XV. heels. Hoots greeted her from, every part of the hall. The ('ifi/eness Floury could not make herself heard. Only bits of phrases reached the eai of ihe bashful public: “The place of woman is the homo. . . Our trite purpose is to bo cherished ami loved. . . . \V,. are living outside the natural law. ... li is high time that we revolt.” Nevertheless this first manifestation of Ihe “New Feminists” was a success. No one doubted it, not evert the Citizencss Floury. The salons again opened their doors. And yet there was riolhitlg more feudal than a Aden. In ;he masculine Middle Ages wliai; did they cal) it salon? A pretentious place, ridiculously ornamental with objects of art, painting, flowers. Flowers! Is there anything more reactionary than flowers? And lo (grievous surprise)-—women were faking the- incredible initiative of reviving* those salons where their mothers had suffered So much !

At (he same time the converts tried to re-establish homes. They lived as much as possible in (ho home, wore morning gowns trimmed with lace accompanied their husbands without minding (he sarcasms of (lie multitude, or the coarse derisions of the Press. The “New Feminism" codified its ideas and its programme as follows: Woman is not man’s equal; she is “different,” All that- renders woman womanly is feministic. . . Marriage is the promised .land of woman, ilie lion if is her kingdom. Coquetry is not a weakness, but. a duty. To please, to love, to console, is our ,-u----promo mission., All religions have left beauty and charm to their goddesses. The religion of progress alouC has disfigured our sex. The performance of our true duties makes us happier titan the exercise of our vain rights. The hands of the woman who, at times, have ruled the world, were not callous or soiled with ink. With woman, intelligence, must be at Ihe order of the heart. To compete with man is to lose. With surprising rapidity “New Feminism” triumphed. From 1960 the women Deputies solemnly and definitely left the legislative halls'with the thousand-times repeated cry—■ “Let’s hurry home! The soup is going to be burnt ! .Magistrates refused to hold Court., under the, pretext that they had to stay ar home to scum off tlif “pot-au-feu” ; the Boloueless of the Republican Guard was seen, in a, petticoat, promenading her last little one in the Luxemburg Gardens, ' Cora lie AlilotiHot, of the French Royal Society, exhibited in the salon a painting entitled, “The Mother of the Gracin’,” and (’resident Fromageot, after resigning with eclat, had herself photographed in the act of mending a pair of socks.