WILL WOMAN CEASE TO ATTRACT MAN?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20810, 28 February 1931, Page 6 (Supplement)

WILL WOMAN CEASE TO ATTRACT MAN?

-O ! CHANGING FASHIONS IN LOVE. BY COUNTESS MARGIT BETHLEN. A woman's life is not complete unless }he has u husband and children. To men love- is incidental to the main theme of Existence; to a woman it is the Alpha hncl Omega. Bearing in mind these fundamental principles, we can proceed o a rational discussion of the position fc>f women in the world to-day. From ai, quarters now we hear reborls of the growing power of women In the spheres of activity, formerly confined exclusively to men. One would Imagine that it is something altogether Hew for women to lake an active and Intelligent, interest in everyday affairs. ■The more I tiavel about iti different Countries and listen to discussions on this tubject, the mora I am amazed at the fuss that is made over women. By what one hears one would think that they are <no longer human beings, but some otlnr species born into this Jkvorld to he the perpetual enemies of hian instead of his helpmate and comf anion. For that, after all. is the function of women .lust as fashions in dress thange with ea'ch successive generation, ko do tlus relationships between the sexes. Jn one i,ge woman is regarded merely US the wife and lover; in the next she fs a friend and/companion. But fundamentally their relations remain the same. .Women will always attract men, aind Uten will always attract women. In father .words, there will always be affinity between the sexes. The forms of interfcourse between will change from time to time, but the mutual attraction jtvill always remain. It is not only in this, the twentieth [century, that woman have been more to their menfolk than mere wives and

the mothers'of their children. In my

country_of Hungary women have always tlayed an important part in the affairs f their husbands. You must remember jthat for six hundred years Hungary was always at war with some foe or other. During those periods when the men were away at the wars somebody had to look kfter the. internal' affairs of the country, fend this task fell to the women. Hungarian women then had as much power fend freedom as., the women of any other icountry have to-day, and this makes it all ihe mce surprising to me that there khould be in some countries such acute land bitter controversies over the " rights pf women.-' Perhaps it is becaliso we in Hungary have never had to fight for these rights, and therefore we value them less Mghly- . i- I am not a feminist, far from it, but I jffeel quite sure that the time will come and is not .very far distant when .the last remnants of prejudice which still regain against women will have disappeared. In all civilised countries women Kvill have the same rights and privileges bs men.. We shall not say', "Ah, but the is a woman!" and make allowances tccordingiy. The question wrll be—can khe do the work ? ' Nature has made [women physically inferior to men and jthere will therefore always be a difference between the types of work suitable tor men and women;' It is no less true that ;women in their present stage of development are, on the whole, less gifted mentally than men. Probabjy the same limita-

tions that apply -in the physical sense will also apply in the intellectural sphere, r lThe feminine-intellect will never be of Ihe same calibre' as that of man. It is like comparing the rapier with the sajjre. jWoman's intelligence is finer, more acute, more intuitive, and just as there are friany spheres of human activity, where physical strength is required, so there are epheres where strenuous mental exertion is, continually demanded. These will Always remain to a very large extent the domain of the male sex, inasmuch as thsy provide more scope for the qualifications" possessed by men. But equally so .there are many spheres of life where the tapier<~to -continue the analogy—will be the better weapon. In these women will become predominant. For though the gf.rong man,, whether his strength is physical or mental, will always be the Superior of the strong woman, there will (always be room'for both. But, as I said at I lie beginning, this progress in the evolution of women will , never destroy woman's domestic tendencies. Woman's primary instinct will l&lways be that pt the home-maker. To marry and bear children and to take care bf her young is a too deep-rooted and ielemental instinct of the feminine sex fever to be sacrificed to other minor considerations. Plato envisaged a republic Inhere babies as soon as they arc born jwould be taken fi'om their mothers and reared en masse in creches. I can hardlv .believe that such a system will ever refcommend itself to intelligent women. It xnay have been, the ideal of a man, but it could never ,have been seriously considered by a woman. It is so contrary to everything in nature as to be beyond the pale of possibility. The life of the bees, I think, provides the only parallel to this kind of sche ( me, and heaven forbid that human beings should ever model their 'domestic life on the domestic life of the Lees.

We all know there are many instances fcf women to whom domestic life is a very minor consideration. But even in nature (here are deformities. So it is among human beings. .We must make allowrnces for fhoin:' If a woman is so constituted lhat she has no domestic instincts whatever, one can only conclude that Kiie is the exception lhat proves lie rule. J'or though we women may wear crinolines in one generation and ' f'l o*' 0 *' Sk ! l ' ls , lu fll « whatever we Nvear and whatever we do is worn and done primarily with a vie* to attracting And this will always be the same " l'„rr g " ;', iiy 10 i,uHi,ess •■•■" I euitijvate their intellectual side, it is largely because they kpow that the dull woman . yo unger appeals to men. Men seek to -vfn.djn wornci to-day intellectual comJjariiopship and sympathy: They wn.t . friend and a helpmate, for what is commonly meant l.v "Wo " 1 1 men and women (which is largely maTlc UP of physical attraction) is often transit and flws "