THE AMERICAN WOMAN AN ANALYSIS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2652, 11 January 1905, Page 73

THE AMERICAN WOMAN AN ANALYSIS.

BY-H. B. MARRIOTT WATSON.

[Criticised by Colona.] j This and a preceding article by the same j •writer have attracted more attention than : they deserve. Let a social critic be extreme, paradoxical, sensational ; let him paint a glaring picture of modern degeneracy, and he is sure -to have hundreds of readers, where a thoughtful, judicial writer, careful of the- accuracy of his fact and of the justice of his inferences from them, will not find tens. The result of Mr Harriott Watson's analysis of- 'the. American woman is that she has developed an independence of character ■ and a 's&lfishness and coldness of heart that is inimical to the -well-being of the race, and, in the long run, destruc- j tive of her own: happiness. Her indepen- i .dence leads, her to.. earn her own living instead of looking to marriage as 1 her vocation.' Her, coldness of nature enables her to dispense witH love, and her selfishness leads her — when it has already led ' her to form, an advantageous, marriage — to\ride over, her husband rougfishod, to " get all the pleasure arid luxury she can out of life, leaving her" husband the privilege of toiling for the gratification of her vanity. We are accustomed to hear of the extravagance and selfishness of American fashionable women. Nothing too severe ■can be said in condemnation of the sense- & less and tasteless profusion and the insane freaks of many -nouvelles riches ; and no doubt, apart from extreme instances, there is much frivolity and extravagance in America as elsewhere. But if we begin at the beginning of Mr" Marriott Watson's article, and read what he has to say of woman's nature in the abstract, we shall be disposed to question the validity of his j denunciation of modern American women in the concrete. - Mr Marriott Watson is a firm believer | in the natural and necessary inferiority of 1 woman. Masculine rule has followed inevitably from the physical superiority of man, andi physical characteristics are responsible'for the correlated" mental and moral~ characteristics of the sexes. Let me quote ' the writer's summary of the mental and i moral constitutions of woman, thus inex- j tricably hound.-up ~with her physical struc- j ture. - - - "- , j The broad characteristic of -the female, j sex is the inferiority of physique which it \ necessarily derives from it's enforced fund- j tions. This inferiority is partly muscular, j but mainly nervous. . . The .nervous,] constitution of woman is responsible for I the larger part of her .character. Her func- j tions create an emotionalism which is inter- : mitten*, violent, irrational, and often un- \ selfish. But this, so to speak, is mere staccato in her ; it is not her normal mood > which gives an ordinary andante. IBy the I laws of her descent and heritage she- must i preen herself and decorate for her master ; | hence she has gathered an inordinate I vanity, or, at least, the capacity for it. j She loves .jewels and colours, and she delights in such' gifts , as the man who has chosen- her may offer at her altar. By these. is she not c&isoovered to her rivals j as the chosen woman? Vanity baffled and vanity triumphant are jointly responsible for niost of her acts and sentiments. Jealousy to ,her is less what a man understands by jealousy than that same baffled vanity. •In consequence of this dual control "wherein she swings sh§ has developed a defective taste—^that is to say, her taste has been j perverted by ~ her appreciation of the gifts of man as tributes to her beauty. A man will_ take a thing to eat or wear or use j somehow, because whethei it be bad or ! good he likes it. Awoman's possessions '&re__rather the fruit of her vanity than her taste. She acquires things, not because she likes them or needs them, but because | they represent self-esteem, gratification — the humiliation of rivals. . When, you have learned how greatly woman hinges on her vanity, you have then to reckon with that Emotionalism of which I have spoken. It \ is at its extremes, sudden, abrupt, precipitous, and blind. Consequently, it may commit a woman to the most heroic of sac- j rifices, and it may also plunge her in j shame. She may fight for her own hand or for another's with equal madness and lack of scruple. Thus, in that wavering find changeable sea of dimples anav arise in a moment' devastating storms. Woman's passion is ever a bolt from the blue." This reacts very like the denunciations of some mediaeval monk. One might, on a hasty reading, have supposed that Mr Marriott Watson was enlarging on the ; ,vicious passing of the more showy section ' ef the Parisian demi-monde. But, no, it is '

• HSiiet&eath Century foi Septeisifeer, ißoi,

1 the whole sex he characterises thus. Onewonders if the writer ever knew his mother or any ordinarily . good woman. - I An involuntary smile cam© over my face in reading the passage, as I recalled the aspect of the worthy woman who comes to do my — a haTd-working mother rf 12 children, whom she has done her best, tc bring lip decently. Little time for "preening" in the lives of such as siirj, And the vast majority of women in tra world are working women, and poor. I suppose Mr Marriott Watson woali say thai it is their' poverty, not their virtue, the keeps them from vanity. But it is not only in th 6 case of women tha+ "Satan finds some mischief for idle hands'' and minds. Think ot 11 the honest toiling peasant wives of Europe, of the respectable women of the- lower -jid middle classes Id the civilised world generally, and compare" their liveswith tlia picture of Mr Watson's abstract womarf. Vanity plays but A small part in the lives'" of women who have to take life seriously. Surely a little fonidmess for dress can be pardoned to a woman in the "brief springtime of youth before the -burdens of toil and maternity ' crush all vanities out of her. Are not many wives and mothers all too careless of their appearance as of their health? And if they strive to look their best, is it not mainly to, please those dear to them, or from selirespeot,' not vanity? There are vain women, and there are vain men. I wonder if Mi* Watson remembers some words of Thackeray — no mean judge of the faults and foibles of mankind. - Jos. Sediey, 1 c tells us, was, as vain %s a girl 5 then checks himself, and adds that men may talk of^ I the vanity of, women, but they have a good j right to turn the tables and say, "S*ie is as vain as a man." But we are perhaps n»vd' lessly wasting time' in-" diafe^ ** \g woman from the imputation of vanity. Xfr Marriott Watson does not lay vanity- 'o Wr charge as a "fault. No, it is inherent m . lieV nature, as well as jealousy and fickleness; she cannot get rid of these quaiiir-s without unsexmg herself. We may imagine some woman vrndirig this pleasing characterisation of her sex, "ready to learn, and willing to be admonished." "Really," she may .say to herself, "this is- a sad picture if 9 true one ; how can suci beings as Mr Marriott Watson depicts be fitted to be the mothers otbe human race? Hew can they control a household and rear and teach their children in. the first impressionable years, /which wise men. say count for more inthe ffirtviation of character than aIL that^come^after? It behoves us to .examine and correct our faults, to^try self-restraint and self-discip-line. Let us conquer tliis excessive emotionalism, this base jealousy and absurd 1 vanity ; let us try to enlarge and) train our- intellects so that we may form tru«r views of life and our work in it than we have held in the -past. Let us, to do all this, go to the fountain head of all 4he evil in us. , 'Does not the writer clea-rly " show that it comes from woman looking to man for everything, and being unable to stand alone? Let us cease, to ' preen' ourselves for our masters, let us fit ourselves to be useful and happy in the iworld without depending on any man. Thus shall we -be untoitured by jealousy, when we see other JTOinen courted by men ; and if the true love 01 a good man falls to our lot, we shall be capable of becoming wise helpmeets -and good mothers." Is not this how modern women have - practically argued., m advancing the status, of their sex. But' in so doing, they have, according to Mr Marriott Watson, been flying in the face of nature. For observe," the flattering passage quoted describes the normal woman. The author goes on — "I have endeavoured to indicate the main features of woman's nature, which I prefer to sum up in the word "muliebrity.' This muliebrity, with its decorative modifications, is essential to the well-being ef mankind ! The American woman is lapsing from it." One might have thought that it were a virtue in the American or any other woman to "lapse" from '•muliebrity," according to Mr - Marriott Watson's pattern. The prince of the, realm of nonsense praises Shadisvell because he' never "deviates into sense." Mr Marriott Watson denounces the American woman for "lapsing" from vanity, jealousy, caprice, and general irrationality, into — I what? We might answer, "sense," and not; be very far wide of the mark. Mr Marriott Watson shows us plainly that he \ is one of those men — all men are not so — j pendent on man, than that they should remain weak and silly, and therefore dependent on man, than that the yshould become strong and wise, and therefore j able to live self-sustaining existences. Is not tliis a vivid side-light on masculine vanity. The fons et origo mali among ■ American women is independence. An impartial visitor from another sphere might start at hearing this, and doubt if he had heard alright. Sursly independence is & good quality — honoured ia America

above all countries of the world. Let him ] listen to Mr Watson again : "it has been objected that criticism which is aimed at the voluntary woman in America, can only be fairly directed against a single class, and that a small class. This is a mistake; for it is the spirit abroad among American women which the critic calls in question, and that spirit is visible in all classes of real Americanised women, ■whether in the daughter of the millionaire or in the factory hand. It is the spirit of independence* which finds its logical issue in cold selfishness. [It is not the want of independence that makes many men and women selfishly impose themselves as a burden on others?] The factoiy girls refuse to be married and take up the buxdens of maternity ; they put the It savings on their backs, and "have a good lime.'" We believe that the 'careful researches' of Mrs and Miss Van Vorst. whom the writer quotes, have demonstrated that the factory girl, being able to support herself, is in no great hurry to get married ; and that, not having enjoyed the benefits of a liberal education and refined surroundings, she finds her pleasure in dress and cheap excitements. For the rest she is virtuous and industrious — "cold of heart and cool of head." "American women never lose their heads, and rarely their hearts." Nothing worse than that they 3an live without ministering to the desires of man. One would like to ask" our censor, and others like him, what is the alternative for an American factorj' girl, and for a woman worker in general, if she does not earn her living? Does she, on 'arriving at maturity, find a suitable lover waiting to marry her?. If not, are her parents to support her? They, probably, would be disagreeably surprised if she did not show the "independence" that Mr Marriott Watson finds so terrible. How many factqry girls, and others; under 25, have refused an offer from a man whom heir best friends would consider a good match? Probably less than hall; and it may be conceded to the minority that love cannot be commanded', 'and that a woman may be excused from marrying where she does not love. Do not many men shun the burdens of marriage, far lighter for them than for women? The old order, under which early marriages were the rule with both men and women, has passed away. Increased , ■ education, the substitution of, machinery ' for hand" labour, and many sorial and economical changes connected with these— most of all, probably, toe interference of the modern sfete svith. the lives of its peopkj^-have all combined to loosen family bonds. • This is in itself a subject for regret, but each type of- civilisation has its own-- difficulties and dangers. We might be better and happier could we return to the gge of home-spun, but progress, not retrogression, is the law of human life. The love of mere material pleasures, and the absence of high 'moral ideals, is the real evil vrith both sexes in' America and elsewhere: Women will best combat this by so moulding their characters and shaping their lives as to set forth higher ideals. And to do this they must abandon the old creed, reiterated by Mr^ Marriott Watson, that a woman is a being whose "existence is alone excused or explained by her functions as wife and mother." Has not woman a soul of her own? Biology teaches" us that the individual must be sacrificed in the interests of the race. In the lower world this holds for male and well as female ; many injects become perfected merely to re-pro-duce their species and die. In the" human species too, if one generation does not in some measure sacrifice itself for the next, the race must gradually perish. The decline of marriage, and the decreasing proportion of children born to a marriage among the higher races of the world, and especially among the highest individuals of such races, is one of the gravest problems that modern civilisation has to face. But railing at modern women will do nothing to answer it, and Mr Marriott Watson shows himself signally unfit to grapple with it.