The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-10-07
WOMEN'S MAGAZINES
PREPARED BY MEN
Many of the Messages Passed Along
Lack Saving Grace Of
Naturalness.
BY FRANCES sHAt'FER.


You know. sometimes IT is right funny
yes, that and nothing more-to read.
! from cover to cover a woman's maya
zine brimful of thoughts and messages
from the minds of men. And IL is funny
because many of the thoughts and mes
sages are passed along without a glimmer
of the saving grace of naturalness. They
do not come from the mind and the heart
Of a real live woman, who has lived in
woman's world and in a woman's way,
and who looks out upon the great drama
moving along with sure-sighted eyes Of
her own.
They somehow stammer and falter. these
thoughts and messages that come from
the minds of men, and in the enc, the
very things that would constitute the
heart of the worlds are left unsaid, be-
cause, you see, the men who are trying
their best to make an impression, never
have lived in a real woman's world
Now, in some of the magazines prepared
by men for women. there is scarcely an
issue that is not loud in declaring that,
after ALL in spite of the great hue and
cry over wider activities for women, the
real heart-call from every woman worthy
the name is for home Of her own,
home made glad and royal by the sound
Of childish voices and the clinging touch
of tiny, helpless hands.
They say that while women are pre-
testing their right to serve wherever
their fancy or fitness incite, and that
even while they are helping to burn old
barriers away, their very soul cries out
for the normal woman's life and the old,
familiar way. They may win, these mes
sages admit, may pronouncedly succeed
in the mans world which they enter. and
may gather the practical fruits of their
unnatural labors; but all the while there
is a bit of heartache for the things they
have left behind.
Ambition and one thing or another
spur them on TO travel the roads over
which men have gone before. but there's
an instructive something calling them
back again-the wise, unfailing voice
of MotherNature that will not be de-
MED.
There are some of the messages that
are sent out, over and over again, in as
many different ways as there are men
to write them.
And IL one had not the actual knowl-
edge, how could one easily guess that
women were not the writer's?
Well, perhaps, for one thing. IL wo-
men were editing women's magazines
and surely. they ought to edit them
they would not bother their heads, at
least not so often, to tell them all about
their destiny. hen tell them nothing
more. They would know that it did not
require cold ink. and words as cold, to
arouse the heart. the soul of a woman,
to the highest kind OF life that might
be hers. They would be very sure that
women. the kind of women who can ac-
complish anything at all worth while,
know for themselves, better than anyone
else can tell them, where and how the
ideal life may be found. They would re-
member, too, that the very highest types
of women among those who apparently
have wandered farthest away from old
time traditions in the way of competing
with men in their active pursuits, are
quite ready to admit that the lure OF the
family heartstone is the sweetest lure in
the world and promises the greatest hap
piness when il fulfills all or even half of
its promises.
And it is just because they know II
so well and are convinced that IL is only
the very exceptional woman who needs
to be educated along these lines that
they would not plead with them regard
ing their highest possible destiny-they
would take all that for granted, for it
would be the woman-heart and the
woman-mind that would be inspiring the
talks to women.
These busy masculine writer's would be
more practical if they would take some
other things for granted. Dreams, as
everybody knows, sometimes have a way
of not fitting in with the scheme of a
wonan's life, and it would be sort of
nice once in a while to write under
standingly Of the way things happen when
dreams so by.
1t would be a bit refreshing to have
these experienced menfolk tell us how
the world and the conditions the world
has to offer really look, viewed through
the eyes and with the minds and hearts
of women and know all about their
highest destiny. but are still out per-
forming what is classed as :he work Of
men. If the writer's would remember that |
these women are not always there because
of their love of the field. or even to
write their names high on the roll of
honor, they might Oftener pause to |
hearten them jim their needful labors |
rather than try to drive them back home |
and TO the normal woman's life. II Just |
talking of the path that Nature ordained |
them to travel and telling them how |
to adorn II would provide the ways |
and means, then their lectures would |
be quite practical But, alas! it does |
not and when they try to enlighten |
women upon the secrets of their soul, |
and fail to touch upon some of the |
problems before them, they |
betray their inexperience in the wom-
ans world, and their words do not ring |
very true.
For they tell what the whole world |
knows, and there they pause.
While the woman's way, when writing |
for women, is to assume that they under
stand just a bit about themselves and |
their dreams.