Page:Lesbia Newman - Dalton - 1889.djvu/130



‘Do I rightly understand you to mean, Lettie, that women are attracted downwards to men in the sense that they actually prefer a hirsute brute of a man to an Apollo Belvedere, or would do so if they had the choice? If such be your intention, I flatly deny the fact. I say that it is just through lack of that very choice, that women are driven to make the best of a bad situation, and cling to that caricature of the male sex which the races of this planet produce. Quand ou a pas ce que t'on aime, il faut aimer ce que t'on a. You will find that whenever women idealise manhood, in fiction or otherwise, they invariably tend to invest their beau ideal with feminine virtues and attractions; they may put some fierce whiskers and a horsey swagger, etc., to their hero, but if there is anything about him worth admiring, or which his creators admire, it is glaringly feminine. Woman, say what you will, does invariably and instinctively tend to reproduce and to worship her own beauty; she does but tack on the masculine capacities to it, to meet certain earthly and temporary requirements. There are exceptions to this rule, no doubt, but those exceptions are the fruit of perversion, especially early perversion. What indeed may not be accomplished in the way of degradation by this means? By perverted training you may debase a woman as much as or more than a man; you may teach her to care for nothing in the world so much as the brandy-bottle; you may turn her inclinations to all that is corrupt and nauseous. The wonder is that we are not much more debased than is generally the case. Therefore it is not difficult to account for the fact that here and there we do meet with a woman whose tastes and sympathies are on the side of brutality