Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man Made World

rocentric" we owe

"Pure Sociology," C

Theory of life, h

duces his own "Gyne

ted in the deeper s

rged to read that c

ind the most impo

nce the Theory of Ev

important that has

rning

power and knowledge. All creatures suffer from conflict with the elements; from enemies without and within-the prowling

; if you shoot a bear or a bird, it is a fair sample of the species; yo

wed; the dog is said to have the most diseases second to man; the horse comes next; but the wild

in this way. We speak of "the ills that flesh is heir to" as if the inheritance was entailed and inalienable. Only of late years, after much study and long struggle with this old

fective, the digestion unreliable, the nervous system erratic-we are but a job lot even in what we call "good health"; and

n any crowd you meet; compare the average man or the average woman with the normal type of human beauty as given

alth and beauty? Is the practical ugliness of our men's attire, and the impractical absurdity of our wome

be the loveliest of all. We are so sodden in the dull ugliness of our interiors, so used to calling a tame weary low-to

cial trades. The Man with the Hoe becomes brother to the ox because of over-much hoeing; the housepainter is lead-poisoned

far as they go; but do n

ing from his labor; but that does not ac

nd even a half-fed savage better developed than a well paid cashier; and a poor peasan

are even doctors who can boast no beauty and but moderate health; there are some of the petted children of t

s, but there is another far more universal in its application and its effects. Let us

ble of maintaining themselves. Every creature which has remained on earth, while so many less effective kinds died out, remains as a conqueror. The speed of the deer-the constant use of speed-is what keeps it alive and makes it heal

on. Throughout nature the male is the variant, as we have already noted. His energy finds vent not only in that profuse output of

stronger than his fellows; he is first proven equal to his environment by having lived to grow up, then more than equal to his fellows by overcoming them. This higher grade of selection also develops not only the characteristics necessary to ma

erfered with the laws of nature. The ancient proprietary family, treating the woman as a slave, keeping her a prisoner and subject

mile after mile, hour after hour. Running is as natural a gait for genus homo as for genus cervus. Now suppose among deer, the doe was prohibited from running; the

dden in harems, kept to the tent or house, and confined to the activities of a house-servant. Our stalwart laborers, our proud soldiers, our athletes, would never have appeared under such circumstances. The confinement to the house alone, cutting women off from sunshine and ai

at even under confinement and restriction women could have kept up the race level, passably, through this great function of selection; but here is the great fundamental error o

is clear. The woman was deprived of the beneficent action of natural selection, and the man was then, by his own act, freed from the stern but elevating effect of sexual selection. Nothing

lligence, strength, skill, health, or beauty to be a h

intelligence, strength, skill, health or beauty to

, at the beginning of life, we have perverted the

at the squaw belongs to a decadent race; that she too is subject to the man, that the comparison to have weight should be made between our women and the women of the matriarchate-an obvious impossibility.

into the race, is a blow at real human progress in every particular. In our upward journey we should and do grow larger, leaving far behind us our dwarfish progenitors. Yet the male, in his unnatural position as selector, preferring for reasons both practical and sentimental, to have "his woman" smaller than himself, has deliberately striven to lower the standard of size in the race. We used to read in the novels of the last generation,

bred a race of women who are physically weak enough to be handed about like invalids; or mentally weak enough to pretend they are-and to like it. We have made women who respon

ged. This is a particularly undignified and injurious characteristic, bred in women and inherited by men, most seen among those races which keep their women most closely. Yet when

rom gymnasium measurements of thousands of young collegians of both sexes all over America. The statue of the girl has a pretty face, small hands and feet, rather nice arms, th

human beauty of m

f choice. Bought or stolen or given by her father, she was deprived of the innately feminine right and duty of choosing. "Who

e what is left; and the poor women, "marrying for a home," take anything. As a consequence the inferior male is as free to transmit his inferiority as the superior to give better qualities, and does so-

tion, does there not? Do not the males still struggle to

he field of social service. What is required in organized society is the specialization of the individual, the development of special talents, not always of immediate benefit to the man himself, but of ultimate benefit to society. The best social s

expense of human ones. This may be broadly seen in the slow and painful development of industry an

d reason. Read about any "hero" you please; or study the products of the illustrator and note the broad shoulders, the rugged features, the strong, square, determined jaw. T

og and the alligator, and toward the measured dignity of the Greek type. The possessor of that kind of jaw may enabl

on of our bodies, what is the inf

an appearance of the masculine instincts of self-expression and display. Alone among all female things do women decorate and preen themselves and exhibit their borrowed plumage (literally!) to attract the favor of the male. This ignominy is forced upon them by their position of economi

eme, and when we add to it the flow of color, the ripple of fluent motion, that comes of a soft, light garment over free limbs-it is a new field of loveliness and delight. Naturally this should have filled the whole world with a new pleasure. Our garme

is th

ironment, have evolved the mainly useful but

show no signs of knowing the difference. They show no added pride in the beautiful, no hint of mortification in t

sorption in dress and decoration is abnormal, and they have never looked, from a fra

me clothes. There follow other influences, similar in origin, even more evil in result. To roughly and briefly classify we may distinguish the diseases due to bad

well recognized evil of the second, so long called "a social necessity," and from it, in deadly sequence, comes the "wages of sin;" death not only of the guilty, but of the innocent. It is no light pa

too should bear part penalty was found unavoidable, though much legislation and medical effo