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Typos — p. 89: sequatious [= sequacious]
Chapter III Woman's Future People ultimately become the image of their values. Discover their ruling values, and their future is foretold. Now, if we are right in inferring from the many signs and portents to which attention has been called, that our values are largely body-despising values, and that modern conditions already reveal these values well on their way to a complete triumph; if we are right, moreover, in recognizing in modern degeneration, science. Feminism, Puritanism, and the increasing cleavage between the sexes the logical outcome of these values, then there can be but two possible alternatives for the future: either the complete realization of the desiderata implicit in these body-despising values, or else a revolt against them, the strength for which will be drawn from the æsthetic, older, and more healthy side of our nature. As each of these alternatives is possible, and, moreover, will mean a different future for women, it will be necessary to examine them separately, We have seen that in our present world we have: (a) A population the bulk of which are physiologically sub-human, and frivolously oblivious of this fact. It is a population, therefore, to which the value of Life and Love is beginning to be a matter of doubt, and among which Puritanical prejudices are likely to become a spontaneous growth where they are not already present. Puritanism, however, must also bring about this indirect and unexpected result: that, where it prevails, man is likely to become an object of general disapproval; because, since the desires of the body are regarded as sinful, man as the initiator, instigator, and active agent in the sexual encounter, will gradually appear as the traditional villain of creation, the natural butt of all gratuitous moral indignation. (b) A body of sciences and commercial enterprises which, guided by body-despising values, tends rather to provide us with an extra-corporeal equipment for our declining bodies than to aim at (c) A marked decline in the ability, versatility, and masculinity of men, which is the outcome partly of physical and partly of intellectual inferiority, brought about on the one hand by besotting and cramping labour for generations, and, on the other, by the deliberate attempt, throughout Anglo-Saxon civilization and its imitations, to limit the notion of manliness to martial bravery and proficiency at sports. This has led to a loss of mastery over all things which is far from edifying, and has enabled women during the last century and recently to draw unduly favourable comparisons between themselves and men — which, while comprehensible in the circumstances, give quite a distorted view of the situation. It is the case of two climbers, M. and W., who, while ascending a hill, find that, through the sudden weakness of M., W.'s pace appears to be wonderfully enhanced. W., however, interprets M.'s slackened speed not as abnormal weakness but as accelerated speed on her part, and therefore feels contempt for M. as M., not merely as enfeebled M. (e) Social circumstances which force millions of women into open competition with men, and therefore increase the initial hostility fostered by (a), (c), and (d). (f) A state of abnormality so acute in some of the chief functions connected with the sexual life that more and more cogent arguments are found ready to hand for those who, through Puritanism, jealousy of the rising generation, or hostility to the male, wish to slander life and emancipate themselves and others from "that side of it." (g) A movement known as Feminism, generated chiefly by (a), (c), and (d), and greatly reinforced by (e) and (f), but having also a strong trace of (b) in its attitude, which claims that it can recruit among its own supporters the mastery, ability, and strength to put the world right, and which proposes to do so by superseding man This is the picture at a glance. To what can it lead? The history of all reforms and radical innovations in this world has shown that far-reaching changes are always the work of a leading, active, gifted, and small minority, striving with zeal and determination to realize an ideal. This ideal may be based on misconception or on error; but that does not matter. In the end, the wilful minority establishes the environment, or mould, and the inert, ductile masses pour into it and receive their shape. Now there is not a particle of doubt in anybody's mind that the leading, active, and gifted minority now constituting the van of the Women's Movement are by far the most vital and energetic body of women in the civilized world, admirable in their zeal, and noble in their readiness to shoulder the responsibility of setting things right. This does not prevent us, however, from believing them mistaken in their reading of the situation, and pathetic in their illusions about their own and their sex's capacities. So indefatigable are they, indeed, that large numbers of apparently monorchid and shallow-minded men have already gone over to their side; while the conversion of girls Given, therefore, the persistence of the body-despising values, and the conditions to which they give rise, we may expect to see the energetic minority of women, who now lead the Feminist movement, determine the future of their sex; and, if we watch them and try to understand them, we shall be in a position to describe the world they will call into existence. We have seen that Feminism is not only the outcome of the modern world's main characteristics, but also that it embodies these characteristics as elements in its general attitude. Truth to tell, if we take our values as given, together with all the results they were sure to Neglect and degeneration of the body were bound to lead to a loathing of the body and the wish to be emancipated from its thraldom. This, however, necessarily destroyed one of the chief bonds between man and woman, and left the natural and radical hostility of the sexes naked and unconstrained. This is one side of Feminism. Next we have the fact that physical neglect and degeneration were also bound to lead to the decline of man as the male, both in the material and in the spiritual senses. This, in its turn, led on the one hand to our lack of mastery in everything, which caused women to wonder whether they could not help to clear up the muddle; and, on the other, to a growing contempt of man's powers, and, as we have seen, to an exaggerated notion of woman's. This is the other side of Feminism. To complete the movement, all that we required was, (a) a large body of disgruntled females, either spinsters or wives, all ready to slander life and man; and (b) economic pressure driving women into open competition with men in all paid employment. Both these conditions having been fulfilled, the rest naturally followed. Without any promise whatsoever of doing better than degenerate men, and certainly without any past record of achievement that would justify us in expecting wonders from them — for in those departments of life over which they have held supreme sway for thousands of years the most deplorable muddle and ignorance prevail 1 — they claimed municipal and even parliamentary power, they sought prominence even in empty privileges, such as the right of sitting among the Peers; and were triumphant when, at last, they figured in a position which has naturally excited the abhorrence of all decent men for centuries — the jury box. The whole change revealed in the 1 Vide Chapter X of Woman: A Vindication. Nothing startling has come of women's political power, and we can prophesy with perfect confidence that nothing ever will; even when, as may quite possibly happen. Parliament consists only of females. So far, the measures they have introduced or clamoured for have indicated merely a continuation and intensification of the Puritanical tradition, but not a sign of anything hopeful or new, in the sense that it was beyond degenerate men. But the very demand for the vote was, in itself, merely a confirmation of the view, held by ourselves and a few others, that no possible good could come from Feminism, that it offered no hope of a better world, and that it was a quack remedy for our sickness. For, if there had been any intrinsic quality in it, any political or other genius peculiarly feminine and foreign in kind and degree to anything found in man, how can we ex- We are likely to suffer a rude awakening, therefore, if we look to Feminism for any marked improvement in our affairs. Nobody with any profound understanding of woman's nature, and of her past achievements, can possibly expect it. What we can expect, however, when once the forces of Feminism are completely organized, is a systematic intensification of all the tendencies that have culminated in the modern Women's Movement. The hostility to man and the jealousy of happy and passionate youth, felt by all disaffected women, whether spinsters or wives, is sure to lead to every effort being made to lure girls more and more from bodily happiness. We can, therefore, expect an increasing emancipation of girls and women from domestic arts and duties, together with an aggravation of our present vices regarding foods. This will be accompanied by the intensive manufacture of every kind of condensed, preserved, compressed, and synthetic food, with a corresponding multiplication of aids to minimize trouble in food-preparation. The ideal will be a standardized and complete food, containing its own correctives for failing digestion, to be obtained probably in tabloid form, The tendency as regards men will be to rear ever larger numbers of them along the lines already indicated by modern taste — that is to say, their manliness will be limited more and more to military courage and proficiency at games. Thus, while they will prove increasingly harmless and amenable to female rule — as Aristotle said such men always would — they will be even more besotted, more lacking in mastery, will-power, and understanding, more feeble as lovers, and more contemptible than the men of to-day. We can expect an increasing assertion of the rights of females in every branch of industry, commerce, and the professions, accompanied by such a multiplication of ready workers that competition between the sexes will become acute. The first moment of violent strain will Occasionally this bitter rivalry will lead to riots and savage street-fighting, in which, owing to the fact that moral indignation will always be on the side of the women, the men are certain to be routed, and to lose credit, prestige, and lives. In any case, owing to the continued besotment of men, the female domain will steadily corrode and eat into the male, and soon men will cease to be employers altogether, and become the poorest-paid workers in an industry run entirely by women. Meanwhile, owing to health having suffered a further decline, owing to motherhood having become more and more distressing, and owing to sexual and bodily joys having become more completely suspect, celibacy among women will be more common than it is at present, and legislation may have to be passed to Keeping pace with these changes, lactation will wholly disappear, and, even Meanwhile modifications will have occurred in the relations of the sexes. The congress of male and female will have begun to seem much more guilty and disgusting even than it is to-day, and as the male will still be looked upon (as he is now) as the principal culprit in the matter, the age of consent will probably be extended to thirty-five or forty, if not to the menopause. Seduction and rape will be punished brutally, probably by means of emasculation; and men of vigorous sexuality will be eliminated in order to make way for a generation of low-sexed, meek, and sequatious lackeys. It will not be long before even the necessity for male soldiers will vanish. When the manipulation of the engines of When once artificial impregnation is an every-day occurrence, a Parliament of women will doubtless pass legislation to make it illegal for any man to procreate a child naturally, if it is the wife's desire to have one by the intermediation of science; and, no matter how many children she may wish to have in this way, he will be compelled to support them. This, however, will be the final blow to marriage. Hundreds of thousands of women will still be naturally fertilized, but they will be despised, and form a class apart. Social prejudice will be against them, and movements will be started to emancipate and rescue them, just as there are movements to-day to rescue harem-women. Jealousy will still play a part in this movement; but, owing to the deplorable degeneration of men as lovers and mates, it will be fainter than ever before. There will, of course, be fluctuations in this development, and some decades will reveal shameful lapses into matri-
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But the aggravated horrors of childbirth, and the alarming increase in the performance of the Cæsarian section, together with the general surfeit of the body and the intensified loathing of men, will cause these retrograde movements to diminish, and very soon such a clamour will arise for extra-corporeal gestation that science will be allowed no rest until a technique is discovered that will meet the public demand. The results achieved by men like Alexis Carrel, Ebeling, and Fischer, all of whom are now working with success on tissue-culture and the transplantation of anatomical structures from one living organism to another, will be improved upon, and a means will be discovered by which the fertilized ovum will be matured outside the female body. At first, we venture to predict, this will Fresh legislation will now be passed, which will make it a felony for a man to give a woman a child in the old corporeal sense, and any male found guilty of such an offence will be sentenced to death or else to a long term of hard labour. In view of the initial heavy cost of extra-corporeal gestation, however, public centres will be provided where the Borough Council will undertake to "grow" children for the destitute and the poor. These discoveries are all potential in the scientific achievements of our day, and implicit in our values. All they need to bring them into existence is the further direction of these values, together with the continued anti-sexual and anti-masculine bias of Feminism. With this final blow levelled at the corporeal equipment of sex, triumphant Feminism will probably reach its zenith, and in a few generations a kind of woman will appear the only vestige of whose sex will be her smooth face and primary genital glands. Men will then be frankly regarded as quite superfluous. Having lost their powers, first as spiritual and bodily leaders, secondly as masters and lovers, thirdly as skilled craftsmen and soldiers, and fourthly as specialized workers, their social use will have lapsed, and their numbers will begin to be felt as a source of irritation and even indignation. At this stage the social muddle will have become so intricate, and have grown A sex-fight at the distributing station of a large store will suffice to light the first spark of this new conflagration. A dead set will be made against the men, not only round the original focus of the trouble, but everywhere. The legislature, recognizing their opportunity, will By that time, however, a significant precedent will have been established, and a lesson learnt that will not easily be forgotten. The superfluousness of men above a certain essential minimum (about 5 to every 1,000 women) will have become recognized officially and unofficially as a social fact. The legislature will establish laws to guarantee that this minimum should not be surpassed, and in a very short while it will become a mere matter of routine to proceed to an annual slaughter of males who have either outlived their prime or else have failed to fulfil the promise of their youth in meekness, general emasculateness, and stupidity. The only circumstance that can avert this ultimate development is the discovery by science of a means of determining the sex of the ovum. If this can be done, then, of course, only a certain small number of males (21/2 %) will be reared every year, and the periodical slaughter will be avoided. But in this connection it should be remembered that man will long since have grown too dull to be Meanwhile, to these millions of workers life will have become little more than a dreary, colourless, and hopeless round of toil and self-sacrifice. The only sources of excitement and pleasure will be the pastimes offering chances for public parade and appeals to vanity, the criticism of the latest Government foods and their corresponding digestive aids, and the reading in the papers about the prosecution of refractory female characters, either for sedition, immorality, or indolence. Under immorality will be included all attempts at writing, reading, or circulating any poem, novel, or treatise faintly reminiscent of love as we now know it, all attempts at unearthing or recalling the "obscene" literature of former ages — particularly the romantic fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and all efforts to draw, paint, carve, or otherwise represent any graphic Looking round upon this cold, hard, and business-like world, however, in which the unremitting industry, so much exalted by Maeterlinck, will be the only activity and almost the only interest, it is not unlikely that millions of these female workers will ask themselves, with ever increasing perplexity and distress, what purpose it all serves, what good it all does, and what advantage or pleasure they derive from it. In their lives of stoic "purity" and monotonous bread-winning alone, they are likely to discover that even waiting for the end is intolerable, and many who will regard the normal term of human life as an unmerciful prolongation of their inexplicable misery will have recourse to all possible means of terminating their hardships. Gradually it will dawn upon a few independent and rebellious natures that to have attempted to live like spirits before the spirit-world was reached, to have attempted to extinguish the joys and thrills of the body and to taste of the interests of angels, before having shuffled off this mortal coil — in fact to have planned and organized an æsthetic phenomenon such as life without retaining its æsthetic side, was a tragic and utterly brutal blunder. "Almighty God," they will cry in desperation, "mercifully spared the bees our consciousness!" |
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