them, for sense, for shrewdness, for intelligent grasp of obscure
relations, for intellectual honesty and courage, with the ideas of the
average midwife.




34.


The Suffragette


I have spoken with some disdain of the suffragette. What is the
matter with her, fundamentally, is simple: she is a woman who has
stupidly carried her envy of certain of the superficial privileges of
men to such a point that it takes on the character of an obsession,
and makes her blind to their valueless and often chiefly imaginary
character. In particular, she centres this frenzy of hers upon one
definite privilege, to wit, the alleged privilege of promiscuity in
amour, the modern droit du seigneur. Read the books of the
chief lady Savonarolas, and you will find running through them an
hysterical denunciation of what is called the double standard of
morality; there is, indeed, a whole literature devoted exclusively to
it. The existence of this double standard seems to drive the poor
girls half frantic. They bellow raucously for its abrogation, and
demand that the frivolous male be visited with even more idiotic
penalties than those which now visit the aberrant female; some even
advocate gravely his mutilation by surgery, that he may be forced
into rectitude by a physical disability for sin.