A WOMAN’S FEATHERS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8179, 22 July 1912, Page 5

A WOMAN’S FEATHERS

(By Edith Howes.)

There are few subjects which provide man with such a delightful field for humour as woman’s dress. Ho glories in sarcastic print, in pictured caricatures, in gentle wit on tho subject at homo’ and abroad. It furnishes many a quip, points many a joke. As a subject of mirth it is a leal pleasure, for it is besides a continual reminder of manly superiority. Its reform would deprive the world of much male laughter. In the matter of a woman’s feathers the -laughter changes to severity. Playful wit vires place to accusing scorn, outspoken condemnation, righteous horror. The whole position is a little Confusing at first sight, but is perhaps understandable if one looks below the surface. ...

Tho more brilliant hues of the male butterfly’s wings, his plumes and scents; the gayer plumage of the male bird, his louder, sweeter song; the antlers of the stag; the lion's mane; all these are decorations of the male for tho allurement of the female. Why does woman, alone of all the females in nature, array herself for the attraction of the male. That clear thinker, Mrs Gilman, gives us the answer. Woman, she tells us, is the only female dependent on the tnale for lifelong subsistence. Just so soon as she lost her independence she lost the privilege, common to all other females, of choosing the father of her children. So long as she is dependent she must submit to be’.the chosen, not the chooser. And to be chosen, she must attract.

The burden of plea sin", then, is shifted from the shoulders of the man to that of the woman. This is not so In many primitive races, where the male still adorns himself to attract, the female still has freedom of choice. But civilised woman is in this respect less hanpy than her savage sister. It follows that her adornment of her person is not vanity; it is necessity. That it has had other issues, becoming a convention and a means besides of aesthetic pleasure, does not disprove it* primitive and still underlying cause. The woman arrays herself in butterfly hues, calls to her aid the gayest feathers of the bird, the richest gems of earth and sea. And man looks and is flattered—and laughs. Why? He laughs because the woman is in an unnatural position, doing an unnatural thing. He feels instinctively

that, she does not do tho thing properly, but is too indifferent to her difficulties to 'jiouiro why. If he did investigate, ho would 'realise that showingoff for purposes of sex-attraction is essentially a male function. Tho mans innate and natural love of display is shown bv his thoroughness and naive pleasure in uniforms and church vestments. That for woman competition in attraction is a perversion of nature is shown by her want of thoroughness and her dependence on fashion. Someone else must tell her what to wear. She has no inward monitor. .Following her blind leaders of the blind, she wears her hat one- season nearly on her nose; next year she wetfrs it almost on tho back of her neck. | Her skirt will bo so long as to sweep tho dust and the mud; or almost alarmingly short. Hot sleeves will dip into the jam and smear tho butter; or will be so shortened ns to be but little protection. tier hat will be so small as to serve no single purpose of a bar; or so huge that, it dwarfs tho wearer and takes awav all personal dignity. Her skills will be so full that ono fears a return of the crinoline; or so tight that a natural walk is impossible, Her materials and Styles are more often than not out of harmony with the weather, the occasion, and the wearer., No wonder man laughs. Yet in reality it is no matter for laughter* it is tus somewhat pitiful attempt of helplessness to adjust itself to the conditions imposed upon it. A significant fact is that tho women who show themeo'ves most independent of tho monstrosities of fashion, most determined on a simple and unostentatious style of dress, are the women who earn their own living and refuse to be kept, except in the event of, and for tho sato of, children. . The reason of his selection of womans feathers as his chief objects of attack is man's own little secret. No woman may understand the logic of it. She may only see in it the same propensity as that which lays on her tho blame ot plucking the first apple. Sheep are slaughtered to feed her —and him; skins of animals protect her feet—and his; silkworms are robbed of their cocoons to make her ribbons —and his ties; yet never a word says he. But when it comes to the birds—tho cruelty of it. The wick 1 d callousness which wit; slaughter birds for vanity! Yet all tho time it is he who performs the cruelty, carries out the slaughter. It is men who shoot and snare the biros, or pluck the ,liv*ng feathers from the throbbing, living flesh, bringing them in to tempt tho woman with their beauty of scarlet and green or downy white. She sees the shining things only in. the -shop, far removed from all trace of life. The cruelty is but hearsay to her, difficult to uelieve or realise. _ Men ior their own gain do this thing, introducing the trade and persevering in it; women, who neither see nor handle nor understand its details, receive the blame. I There was once a boy who went birdnesting.- He twisted _ off tho heads o{ the helpless baby birds, and devised several othsr soul-satisfying methods of killing the n. Later, he went rabbiting and rat-catching, delighting in the sights and sounds and scents of slaughter. With manhood's years ho entered into all the joys of man's estate. He fished, he shot, he killed wherever he had time and space to kill. Haros were kept confined that ho might watch for joyful hours their agonies of fear, and finally their death in the jaws of Ins fierce mate, the hound. Areas and sea-

sons were sot apart for his enjoyment of the sweets of taking life. Ho marri-.d ono whoso hand had never hurt a th'ng that breathed. “That aigrette in your hat!”_ ho said. '"I should never have believed it of you. How co.n <v woman be so cruel? You have no feeling/’ And ho dons his newest killing suit, takes his gun, and goes off for a day's pleasure among the birds and little animals.