Page:The rights of women and the sexual relations.djvu/237

Rh "democratic?" I vote for a democracy of superiority, in which the majority of mankind, especially the men, are as noble, as beautiful, as cultured, as independent, as gifted, as lovable, as happy as possible. Surely the minority will never have to complain of such a democracy.

I vote! But Mr. Ruge does not want to let me vote, me and some five hundred million other female beings. He even demands that we should first vote on the question whether we want to vote, and does not ask himself whether it might be adduced, as an argument against the enfranchisement of the slaves, that they had not voted on their human rights. He at least distinguishes us from the slaves in that he fixes a term for our liberation. "In the twenty-fifth year of the republic" we may begin to look upon ourselves as human beings, for by that time we shall have been educated into human beings by those of whom we have not yet sufficient evidence that they themselves are already human beings!

I do not discuss my human right, I assert it. It exists and does not cease to exist. Therefore I will not allow any one to fix a term when it is to begin; according to my interpretation, this term would only fix the time when the robbers of my rights would cease to be robbers. In the twenty-fifth year of the republic we shall emancipate the women merely means, in the twenty-fifth year of the republic we shall cease to be despots toward the women. If I had to consider only the male sex I would be modest