Page:Personal Beauty and Racial Betterment.djvu/88

 practice the more oriental form will whither and decay.

Less numerous than the hetairæ of the class we have bene discussing, but relatively more important because selected from these women who possess beauty in the highest degree, are public entertainters; actresses, singers, chorus girls, and dancers. A certain small percentage of the female entertainers are presented because of qualifications other than beauty; for histrionic or terpsichorean ability or for mere voice quality, but the majority are selected on the basis of sexual attractiveness exclusively or in large part. Even on the “legitimate” stage, the demands made on the actress are not similar to those made on male players; the most successful actresses are with few exceptions those who most copiously display their personal charms—not merely of physique, but of all the qualities, including the subtler mental and emotional qualities, which affect and attract the better type of male. It is true that we have our great exceptions: Bernhardt and others; but it must also be admitted that while they, like Shakespeare, are revered, the larger group who merely exploit their pulchritude, are more popular. In musical comedy, which is in many ways the most important division of the sage, the actress without exceptional sexual attractiveness is soon eliminated.