The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1914-04-08
GIRL BABIES AND DOLL BABIES.

and may perhaps aim at that as niue
20 as at anything else, is quoted as fol
~ lows;
Little girls should not be allowe
Z, TO play with dolls and call them thei
- babies. Whether it is done instinc
+ lively or in imitation of their owl
> mothers, they should not play hous,
and pat their children 10 bed, MOI
harDor any of the emotions or duties
of mother, 1t is not childish it is
abnormal. That love OF little girls
to mother things is just another
proof that with woman her sex
pgedominates.
She is more a female than she is
d human being, and that is why she
has moi rosressed as man has. To a
man sex Is a thing apart; to a wo
man it constitutes nine-tenths OF her
whole being. don't want TO do away
with feminism, but ! do want TO try
to give women some sense of propor-
tion. Motherhood isn't everything III
life-it is only a preliminary; but to
most women it is all they are on
earth for"
1t is a rather uphill business-lsn't
it, Mrs Gnman?-to try to denature
the sex? individuals may be, para
doxically speaking, denatured by ma
ture, but the normals predominant. 1t
will always be so.
Mans, love is of mans life
thing apart, It's womans whole ex-
istence,' was written, in form oil
words, before Mrs. Gilmans day and
has been said in substance since the |
beginning OF things. But
to Mrs Gilman may be credited theJ
inconsistency of saying that the wom-
an, or baby girl, whose tendencies
Illustrate the proverb is abornmal.
The little girl putting her doll baby
10 bed and grooming her best lmlta-
ion OF her mothers cradle song is
perfectly normal, however objection
lble from the point of view of he
women or she-men who would have
women be primarily .agitators. law
'ers, doctors. merchants. chief COOKS
md bottle washers in political life,
md secondarily, if at ali, the
Mothers of men
That d girl baby, not yet old enough
0 use anything more than malt
oxen nouns plus the arts and sraces
f womankind, TO make known her t
,ants and get what she wants, wants
doll and a dolls cradle as play
Rngs, may lie a melancholy TACT +
-om the Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gil
ian angle of vision. But inasmuch
S nearly all girl babies prefer doll
nd a cradle above a window smash
re hatchet and a bottle of glue, the r
irl childs love for dolls is exactly
hat Mrs Gilman says 1t is not when
1a uses the term abnormal to de-
,ribe it.
The girl who grows up in giriish
ay and would rather philander in r
Ie moonlight than make a speech
the limelight upon the rights OF
omen TO wear trousers, in figura
ye or literal sense is the normal
,ung woman. Whether or not she =,
pitiable is a matter OF taste ana
Union. but she is the normal par eX- =,
.llence. Mrs. Gilman should con-
ol her emotion long enough TO I'M
owe her vocabulary. The pleasure
overlooking her verbal carelessness
I'd arguing with her as to the light
ass or wrongness Of girl babies be-
. allowed to play with dolls is lett
those who. being unoccupied, wish
10 employ their time. When Mrs
Imam succeeds in converting women
the view ttat girl babies become
.rverted 5v PLAYING dolls, and should
started in life by being taught
a, the east OF womsn's rights is the
eht TO be woman. then indeed
,all women vote. hold office ride
10 battle leave their socks to be a,
.rnea by the gentler sex. lectn tn
,ung men upon the indiscretion, and in
tual danger, OF walking in the h'
reefs unescorted. and in other ways 80
az the noble role Of cock Of the Il
ak In Christendom and Heathen- gi
m