The Washington herald., 1918-04-22
A Masculine Bugaboo
n0pnrIIx
DIX,
THE WORLDS HIGHEST PAID WOMAN WRITER.

A worldly wise woman was
speaking OF her young daughter
the other day.
"Oh yes" she said confidently.
Mabel will be sure to be a great
belle and will probably make a fine
marriage. She's just the type that
men admire most-very pretty and
not very clever. brains mostly in
her heels and hands, you know. so
that she can dance and play ten
mis-, and golf with them and do
things to make them comfortable,
and make them feel like Solomons
because they know so much more
than she does"
Lucky girl" exclaimed a pretty
young woman who was listening to
this description of the masculine
ideal, there's nothing that the av-
erage man has such a horror Of as
intelligence in a woman. He's as
frightened of it as children are of
a bugaboo. Now I'm still in my
sweet-and-twenties. I'm not bad
looking. When 1t comes TO dancing.
athletics. and even to flirting
can tread a measure with even the
silliest debutante.
consequently when I meet a
young man we get along famously
together until by some chance he
discovers that 1 am a college pro-
fessor, whereupon he withdraws
himself from my presence as expe-
ditiously as decency permits, and
see him no more. The knowledge
that 1 was a leper would no more
quarantine me from the society OF
the majority OF men than does the
knowledge that have several col
lege degrees, and teach higher
mathematics for a living.
IT wonder why. 1t isn't because
I'm a pedantic bore who backs
man up against a wall and asks him
what he thinks Browning thought he
thought. or who insists on combining
her conversation to highbrow sub
jects. Far from It. I'm willing to
chime in on any talky-talk key a man
wants to strike If he will only permit
me. But he won't. He fees from me
in a panic because he suspicious me
Of being clever. and that's woman's
capital sin in his eyes.
"Of course there are exceptions to
this rule There are some bold and
adventurous men who have the har-
dihood to go over the top and marry
college bred women, and even school
ma ans, but they are the iron cross
heroes of their sex. The average man
still takes to his heels in fight when
he sees a woman who has the repu-
tation OF being a blue stocking ap-
proaching.'
This is true and It is one of the
mysteries of masculine psychology at
which women perpetually marvel, and
which they can never explain. Why
are men so afraid OF cleverness in
women? Why has 1t always been a
, reproach to say of woman that she
IS "strong-minded' thereby inferring
that feeble-mindedness Is a feminine
virtue? Why do men prefer feminine
brains in half portions and scrambled
at that?
There is no use in saying that they
dont' because all common observa-
ton proves the contrary. It is the
baby doll girls who have the most
attention from men, and who never
lack for dancing partners, or automo-
olIe rides or hunger for chocolate
creams, not the intelligent, cultivated
SSAS6S SiohAdIC' any Duny IOOl
Of a babytalk lady can marry all
around a sensible woman. The first
question a man ever asks about a
woman is whether she is good look
ing or not. 1t APPARENTLY never in
terests him to know whether or not
she has any intelligence. He is con-
cerned solely with the outside of her
head. Not what is within It.
II men themselves were idiots and
uneducated one could understand how
they would prefer female idiots as
companions and wives, but men are
not idiots and so the wonder grows
when we see them preferring dull
women to bright ones.
OF course one reason that may be
assigned for men liking silly women
better than they do clever ones is
masculine vanity. Men have had the
whole display privilege for brains so
long that they dislike to share it with
women. A man is afraid IL he mar
ries brilliant woman that she may
occupy the spotlight in their home
instead of his monopolizing its bene-
ficent rays. Also a man is well aware
that II he marries a woman who is as
Intelligent, as well educated, and as
well informed as he is that he can
MT A.