Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-20
SHOULD MEN RESPECT
ONLY THE GOOD WOMEN?

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 1S.-[Editor
Herald: When Mary Magdalene says,
Teach a boy to respect good Wo-
man." l wonder whether l should be
doing her an injustice in assuming her
thought to run on: And do as he likes
with the other sort" seeing that she
so much despises a "milksop.' There is
too much of this kind of morality
in the world. 1t is "the unwritten law
and all sorts of hell-and-fury heroics
when our own sisters, wives and
daughters are concerned. Sometimes
"our set is included, when we are
CLASSY" folk. But outside of our lit
tie family clique and class we do as
we please with the cowardly, paltry
excuse: "Oh the woman was only
such and SUCH OF all the sneaking
evasions! Who made her such and
such? Who first dragged her down
AS likely the self-excuser as another.
Even the most braZen and hardened
mercenary woman was once pure
girl and no girl or woman, l care not
who or what she be, ever went cold
blooded on her first departure from
the straight path. There was at least
some glamour of love, even though 1t
lacked depth and constancy on either
or both sides. There was in some sense
betrayal. either the man betrayed
the woman or else an excess of re-
ciprocal passion carried them away
and they betrayed each other. The
shamelessness, the badness" came
later, consequent, upon the loss OF
hope and ideals and helped often by
economic pressure. l want to say with
all the emphasis 1 am capable of that
there are no women who are Gin
trinsically) "such and SUCH" they are
as mythical as the criminal class" we
hear so much about. There are no
women who, individually, or as a class,
are fair game for the prowllng male.
If one woman, then all women; II one
class, then all classes are, and the
"honor' of the gentleman" whose re-
spect for women extends only to the
good" women Of his own family or
class, is a spurious honor and he a
whited sepulchre.
The sex question is a difficult one in
any case, and it will be only under a
vastly changed social and economical
regime that 1t can ever be approxi-
mately settled. Meantime the most We
can do is to clamor increasingly for a
leniency toward the frail woman equal
to that we show the man. If there Is
any favor shown 1t should be to the
woman, seeing we deem her the weak
er vessel" and she has to pay the
heavier penalty.
Now as to that word "milksop." It is
shifty, cowardly, question begging
word that may mean almost anything.
1t may signify some morbid idiot
whose prurlent "modesty" Is shocked
at the sight or the thought of nude
statuary, or even undraped table legs.
Or, again, it may be the slur cast at a
youth or man who is too conscientious
and unselfish to want to play the viii
lain with every woman that economic
or social conditions puts within his
power. 1 protest against its use in
the latter sense. If that be its true
sense, then doubly honored be the
mother who trained me a "milksop."
If that can hold up my head and say
without fear of challenge from any
quarter, mo woman, good or bad,
was ever the worse for me-" Prove
me a "milksop," then a "milksop" 1
am content TO be. If the being a
"milksop" carry any drawback and
penalty in oversensitiveness to all those
seething questions of right and wrong,
which leave so many people Indifferent
and unaffected, that penalty is at least
restricted to the despised "milksop"
himself, and I have known a "milksop"
blaze out upon occasion into very eff
fectual, articulate, moral Indignation
at times when those who were mo
milksops" We're dumb, either lacing
the acuteness OF moral vision or the
cleanness of moral record to render
them articulate in behalf Of the right.
If ever 1 should deliberately "sin"-
to use the cant term-at least I will
not try to excuse my act by pretending
to consider a certain class of bad"
women as the legitimate victims of my
illicit desires. One Of two things,
either my conduct will be wrong or
else my conduct being right and proper
and natural, the woman in the case
will be not bad" but good, and other
things being equal will not deserve to
be scorned and despised by the women
of my own family or class.