The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-23
Dorothy DiT Says
BY DOROTHY DIX
Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer
Parasites-MaIe and Female. !

turns to and begins flaying the woman
who lives at home, and isn't out in the
world wrestling with a job, as a para
site
Whenever a foreigner who has spent
two weeks in this country takes pen
in hand to describe America, he dips it
in gall and devotes pages to telling
about the parasitic American woman
who does nothing on earth but waste
the money with which her poor, pa
tient, long suffering husband tolls like
a slave to supply her.
We hear so much about the parasitic
woman that we have almost come to
believe that the entire female sex be-
longs to the vampire breed, in spite
of the fact that none of us have ever
personally encountered one of these
domestic monstrosities. The women
we know are not engaged in sucking
the life blood of their men. Instead,
they are working, tooth and toe nail,
to help their menkind along in the
world.
OF course, there are parasites. de-
spicable creatures who take everything
and give back nothing of service to the
world and who live upon the work of
others, but the dead beats of society
belong to no one sex.
If there are men who have their
strength sapped by clinging vine
wives, there are also women who are
crushed to the earth by dead weights
of husbands. The census report of
wives who support trifling, loafing
husbands is simply appalling. Indeed,
one of the greatest arguments against
women becoming wage earners is that
it seems to promote parasitism among
their male relatives, for, as soon as a
woman begins to earn money, some
man comes and camps down upon her
and forces her to feed and cloth him.
And when it comes to being a real,
genuine, OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES parasite,
the male can give the female cards
and spades and beat her hands down
at turning out a workmanlike job of
sponging. The woman vampire feels it
incumbent upon herself to, at least
make herself pleasant and agreeable
to those upon whom she lives, while
the male parasite considers that he
has a perfect right to be as brutal as
he pleases. 1t is the boarding house
keeper who takes care of her hus-
band who lives in fear of his grouchi-
ness and temper. 1t is the wash wom-
an who bends over a tub to support a
drunken loafer who gets beaten up
by him for her reward.
There is, however, a spiritual para
sitism as well as a physical one, and if
It is true, as is asserted, that n other
women in the world get so much Of
their husbands money, and give so
little work in return for it as Amefi-
can women, it is equally true that no
other men in the world demand so
much socially and spiritually from
their wives, and give so little in re-
turn for it, as American men do.
No other men depend so completely
on their women for their amusement
and entertainment.
In other countries men make the
Social running, they lead the con-
versation, they think up ways to en-
terrain women. The American man
practically never does this. He fur
nishes the money to pay the bills for
Il good time, and the woman has to
do the rest.
If you doubt this, just look about
you. Between the acts a the theater
or opera, you will see nine-tenths of
the men sitting up like craven images
while the women with them are put
Eting on full steam trying to sparkle,
and be vivacious, and win a smile from
their escorts. At every dinner table,
it is the women who are laboring like
coal beavers trying to make things go
and to amuSe their dinner partners
In every drawing room in the land,
the women are, figuratively speaking,
dancing like HerodiaS' daughter be-
fore the men.
1t is women who read up on topics
men are likely to be interested in,
never men who try to inform them
selves upon topics of interest to wom-
en- Wife puts out her eyes studying
look of the steel market, so that she
can converse intelligently with her
husband of an evening, but you never
hear of husband perusing the fashion
sheets so that he and his wife may
spend a happy hour discussing togeth-
er whether skirts are to be short and
full or long and skinny.
Il is women in America who become
expert in flattery, not men who per-
feet themselves in the gentle art of
tor
of fact, conversation would perish and
we should become a nation of dunn
mics if women did not keep ii alive.
The American man is a spiritual
parasite in his own home. He pro-
vides the money to run it, but he ex-
poets his wife to furnish everything
else She must give it its tone! She
must draw about them the kind of
people they want to know, and that
il is to their advantage to know. she
must do the social climbing and make
the position for him and the children
AS for his children, the American
father seems to consider that he has
no other duty than to pay their bills
He leaves their tearing entirely TO
their mother and holds her responsible
for the way they turn out; she de-
cides on their clothes. She selects
their schools for them. She forms
their manners and their morals. and so
completely does she monopo1ze the
whole parenthood Of the family that
half the time the father calls her
s'mother'' himself.
Also, the American husband depends
upon his wife 20 keep him entertained
Outside of his business. the average
man is a pauper in interest He mas
never taken time to develop any side
line. He has no outside interest, no
hobbies, no fads. He does not very
often even care for any other reading
except newspaper.
This leaves the men perfectly at sea
when they have any leisure. and puts
it up to their wives to steer them into
some pleasant port. It is not because
American women have a natural ten
dency to henpeck that they choose the
theaters to which they shall go, and
drag their husbands around in their
wake with them when they travel 1t
is because the men don't know what
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