CHANGE, NOT DECAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17326, 11 February 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

CHANGE, NOT DECAY.

SINCE HAIRPINS WENT OUT.

(By “Darius.”)

Since the time the austere apostles to the Gentiles made rules and regulations for the head adornment of women attending the divine service the Church on earth has been busy in a more active way, and the general attitude has been one of condemnation and censure. We have had sermons on bobbed and shingled hair, short skirts, silk stockings of unwomanly price and length, powder, lipsticks, dances and the rest. In fact, since the birth of religion woman appears as the besetting sin; and I ask you, Has she ever had a fair deal? First of all we see her in the old garden as an afterthought of creation. To quote Burns —

Her ’prentice hand she tried on man. And then she made the lasses, 0.

A most gallant reference to her superior physiognomy and charm. No sooner, however, is she depicted on the stage of life as the companion of man than she becomes the cause of original sin. She is the first to transgress the order of her Creator and to make a rebel of man. For that she is cursed to bear children in great pain and travail. All along the line of descent she is treated as an inferior being, condemned to comparative slavery and made a menial for polygamous man. As a transgressor of the moral code she is of all things that conceive and bear the most pitiable. From the Turkish harem she is thrown into the Bosphorus in a sack, with the strangling bowstring round her neck. - From the highly Christian home of such men as John Wesley she has heen banished like a thing unclean. For little faults the extremes of punishment have been meted out. About the only fair treatment she got she got from Jesus, called the Christ. For His attitude and His words to women I adore Him, and by the woman taken in adultery and by the sorrowful Magdalen does He not stand up as a God. He said “Neither do I condemn thee.” He said “Because she loved much much has been forgiven her.” The Church says “I also condemn thee." The Church says you are hateful and outcast because of sin. Is it not enough to make one sick at heart—the utter injustice and hypocrisy of humanity? A man—any man—respects his mother. Has he the same respect for the other man’s mother? Was his mother of different and finer clay? What sour and censorious celibate Is qualified or authorised to preach to me of the follies and vanities of my fair daughters, who dance and shingle, use powder and lipstick, like, well, like the Duchess of York and all the rest?

Thee* Fashions Also Will Pass. The ever-changing fashions take away from the monotony of life. They are an evidence of great originality and invention. Mostly the fashions are in good taste and charming. We certainly would not have our womenfolk out of the fashion any more than we ourselves would be out of the fashion. I have often wondered what is the real objection to the lipstick, since I was persuaded to carry one, a simple rod of salve in a silver tube, that has saved me from the discomfort of cracked and bleeding lips on many a hot and many a stormy journey; and as for facepowder, have you stem saints never used powder after shaving? If not, why not? I could recommend an excellent brand, but I am not permitted to advertise it in these columns. I think the blue-black, wavy, bobhed hair of a certain young lady very beautiful, and her dancing, even of the Charleston, extremely pleasing. She designs and makes most of her dresses. The fabrics are, I think, delicate in artistry of colouring, and the whole effect of the toilet and drapery delicate and dainty. I should not be ashamed to introdnee her to the gentle Nazarene, who told Mary not to fuss about Martha, and the cooking, but to love and be loved. There never was a time when all girls were deoent and lovable, but I like to think the world Is better off for bonnie, well-dressed, companionable women than ever before. They may not he as seemingly meek and demure and regular in church attendamV as once they were; and I do not wonder at it. I should not go to church to hear womankind preached at and condemned. What if the starts of women are shorter than they were I Their limbs come nearest to the form divine; and naked we came from God, and naked we shall return to Him. We do not want exhibitions of the nude body, but so far I have seen no indecencies in dress in the families that previously observed the decencies. The fashions will change, hut who amongst us would favour a return to the fashions of our grandmothers? We have only to look back into old albums to see how ridiculous our grandparents look in the light and gaiety of modern modes.

A good deal of joyousness has come m since hairpins went out. There are those who have kept the long glory of tbeir hair, but that cannot now be displayed in public—it is a hidden glory. Now we see the beautiful mould of the* woman-head, rising “like a bell-flower ?® r i ts bed ”~7 youn & womanhood going hlhely and blithely about her business with a fine freedom of form such as no other age has known. I wish I could be sure that hairpins had gone out for ever, and that an age of classic mould is dawning, in the full light of which we shaii use armsi and legs of Grecian beauty, and love lighting faces fair as Helen s of old Troy, i look out of the window and see five fine healthy children trooping off with the baby in a go-cart. They are good chums. They play together happily. They do not cry out unless they are hurt The mother told me she thought less of 5*2??. V al,y ttaD »* tbo flu. She wears short skirts uses face-powder, and has forgotten hts“ pins were ever made; but she knows SSs'lrT* bS a mothcr ' Ood