The day book. [volume], February 03, 1914, NOON EDITION, Image 12

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
CONCERNING THE MASTERFUL MAN AND THE
SUPERIORITY HE WANTS
BY NIXOLA GREELEY-SMITH
(Copyrighted, 1914, by the Newspa
per Enterprise Association.
Bo women prefer- masterful men
' as lovers and husbands?
From the beginning of the world
men have cherished the belief that
the strong arm is. as effective in love"
as in war. And many a middle-sized,
middle-aged-citizen whom you and I
think of merely as "Mamie Jones'
brother" or' "Susie - Johnson!s hus
band" goes through lfe with the de
lusion that h is a ,Gaesar of senti
ment, an invincible Napoleon of sex.
But does anybody, take him seri
ously? Has he really any reason for
believing that -women like his airs . of
conquest; his swaggering assumption
of superiority to them?
Rosa Mayreder, a German femin
ist, has written a brilliant bok, "A
Survey of the Woman Problem," in
which she discusses the power of "the
strong-arm in love and asserts the
vogue of .the masterful man is very
much on the decline. She says swag
gering in men is the equivalent" of
coquetry n women that it is, in fact,
masculine coquetry, but adds that,
outside the realm of sex, the "su
periority" of the masterful lover sel
dom asserts itself. She says for in
ferior men "woman is always the,
best audience." Howev,er tame' and
feeble they may be in reality these
men like, to swagger before women's
eyes like stage heroes.
"The man with a genius for love"
is just the opposite of the masterful
man in this author's opinion. He is
all sympathy and respect for women
and realizes that she is "the other
half of his soul," as Goethe express
ed it. x
Now what do you think about it?'
Less than 50 years ago the romantic
novelist, in describing the first soul-
ful meeting of the drooping heroine
and the dark, melancholy, arrogant
henvdid not fear to write "Claribel
took one look in those flashing eyes
and realized that .at last she had
found her master!"
It's my opinion there are still plen
ty of Claribels alive, that there is
unfortunately a type of woman who
enjoys being browbeaten and bully
ragged by men. No one who has
spent much time in those clearing
houses of family strife, the domestic
relations courts in our big cities, can
fail to realize women actually exist
who do not object seriously to being"
beaten by their husbands. Discussion
of their peculiar characteristics does
not belong in a newspaper. It is part
of the strange pathology of sex.
We must rememberthe. woman
who takes the masterful man at his
OWN VALUATION is sometimes
laughing in her sleeve. If. by con-
, ceding the superiority of the master
ful man, you can induce him to do
all your thinking, to work for you, to
permit you all the follies of irrespon
sibility and expect from you nothing
but the cuteness of a kitten playing,
with a ball of yarn, it takes strength
of mind and genuine moral force to
do it!
And thai is practically what wo
men have done for a longtime. They
concede the masterful man all the
superiority he wants and put him
to work for them! But I don't be
lieve they love him as they do the
man who has too much brains to
Iswagger before them. I think even in
'Turkish harems there must be wives
who view the peacock poses of their
fractional lords with a smiling," pro
found contempt!
In more progressive countries the.
masterful man is getting rather
scarce and pretty soon he will disap
pear from earth altogether and re
lieve that awful "isolation" not whol
ly heid by the dodo!