FROM A WOMAN’S ARMCHAIR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18045, 4 January 1927, Page 13

FROM A WOMAN’S ARMCHAIR.

WOMEN ON THEIR OWN. (By MAVIS CLARE.) I grow increasingly convinced that if you want to see women at their best at>u must join them at a merry “hen-party”! On their own, immune from attacks of sex-conscious-ness, the\ r are infinitely more attractive than when they are “ making up ” to men; a process, of course, that even the most enlightened still indulge in instinctively, no matter how fiercely they' may deny the charge! Jt is as true as it CA*er w*as that woman is one thing with her own kind and quite another in the company of the stronger sex. Left to ourselves, self-consciousness drops from us like a mantle. We entertain each other spontaneously and with no other thought than to keep the fun going and the atmosphere animated and bright. There are none of ■ those horrid undercurrents of speculation and conjecture and green-eyed misery that assail the feminine heart in a mixed company, where our little tricks may' win or lose some masculine allegiance or other. Wc are well content if our talents, our conversation, and such gifts of rapprochement as wc may possess help to make the time pass pleasantly for one and all. There is no striving to outshine one another. Some personalities inevitably must stand out from the rest; but there is no heartburning; no miserable consciousness that those outstanding gifts are being exploited to capture some member of the trousered fraternity'. On the other hand, those Avho are possessed of* some striking talent or some special charm get a fuller meed of praise at a hen-party' than would ever be accorded them in a mixed gathering. Devoid of that element of fear, of the jealousy that inspires it, the atmosphere radiates sweetness and goodwill. Wo go home telling ourselves, not for the first time, that really, when all is said and done, women have much better fun on their own. And the jolliest thing about the admission is that it is overwhelmingly' true. We know \*er\' well, an our heart of hearts, that the perpetual adjusting of the feminine to the masculine point 01 view is a wearying business, and that it is quite possible to have too much of it! We know that, unless wc are exceptional lucky, it is invariably the woman who must play second fiddle in a man-and-Avoman conversational duet. But on rollicking, jollicking “ henparty ” night, Ave can all l»e first violins, so to speak, and encore each other; singing our own songs, dancing to our own melodies, and hearing the real rvthm of the feminine heart. And such a happy rythm it can be! Happy because it is natural and unforced, and echoing the best that is in us when our one and only objective is just to gi\c each other a right good time.