The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-23
DoR0FEY DIX TALKS
BIZ DOAorHY DIX
A MascuIIne Bugaboo.

day. I
'.Oh, yes" she said confidently,
mabel. will be sure to be a great
belle and will probably make 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 tennis. and
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 average man
has such horror of as intelligence in
a woman. He's as frightened of il as
children are of bugaboo Now I'm
still in my sweet-and-twenties. I'm
not bad looking. When it comes to
dancing, athletics. and even to flirt-
ing, / can tread a measure with even
the silliest debutante.
consequently when I meet young
man we get along famously together
until by some chance he discovers that
he withdraws himself from my pres
ence as expeditiously as decency per-
mits, and 1 see him no more. The
knowledge that 1 was leper would
no more quarantine me from the So
ciety of the majority of men than does
4
lege degrees, and teach higher mathe-
mates for a living.
IT wonder why. 1t isn't because I'm
a pedantic bore who backs a man up
against the wall and asks him what
he thinks Browning thought he
thought, or who insists on confirming
her cOnversati ton to highbrowed sub
! jects. Far from it. I'm willing to
chime in on any talky-talk key a man
wants to strike II he will only permit
M Ia a
panic because he suspects me of be-
, ing 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 har6i-
hood to go over the top and marry
/ college bred women. and even school
ma'ams, but they are the iron cross
heroes of their sex. The average man
still takes to his heels in fright when
he sees a woman who has the reputa-
ton of being a blue stocking ap-
\ preaching"
! 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 it always been a
reproach to say of a woman that she
is strong minded" thereby implying
| that feeble mindednesS is a feminine
virtue? Why do uen prefer feminine
brains in half portions and scrambled
at that?
There is no use in saying that they
don't. because all common observa-
ton proves the contrary. 1t is the
baby doll girls who have the most at
tention from men, and who never lack
for dancing partners. or automobile
rides. or hunger for chocolate creams.
not the intelligent. cultivated college
graduate. Any little puny fool of a
baby-talk lady can marry all around
a sensible woman The first question
a man ever asks about a woman is
whether she is good looking or not
1t apparently never interests him to
| telligence. He is concerned solely
! with the outside of her head. Not
/ what is within IL.
If 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 mas
culine vanity. Men have had the
| whole display privilege for brains so
| long that they dislike to share it with
| women. A man is afraid If he mar
| ries brilliant woman that she NAV
occupy the spotlight in their home in
stead of his monopolizing its benefit
cent rays. Also a man is well aware
| that IL he marries a woman who is as
Intelligent. as well educated. and as
well informed as he is that he cannot
pose as an oracle to her, or expect
her to accept all of her opinions ready
from him.
Undoubtedly these considerations
cause many a man to pass over a
clever woman for her stupid sister.
he D.
rifle price for the qualification of his
egotism. For in it's last analysis the
one absolutely essential ingredient to
a happy marriage if for the wife to
drop into it full weight brain, and
no woman without intelligence can be
a satisfactory life partner.
Woman's beauty is a matter of a
very Few years at the longest When
It is gone what charm has she to con-
Iure with II she has not intelligence,
and amuse a man she has no Longer
the good looks to charm his eyes
Living pictures deteriorate year by
year out brains are like wine, they
grow in flavor and richness with age.
And this also is to be said. that no
women in the world grow SO homeiv
with age as stupid women. who have
| no intelligence to light their faces
when the giamor of youth is dead.
When you travel in the Orient, and
observe the hideous. dull Darkness
81 the women's faces you realize that
it's worth while to educate women
Just for the sake of their looks.
Matriinony is the long, long trail.
It's queer that men who are intelligent
themselves deliberately pick out as
fellow travellers on this journey that
is going to last perhaps forty or fifty
years companions who will bore them
stiff after the first lap of the honey
moon.
You would think that a man who
is clever himself would hunt up the
cleverest woman he could find for a
follow voyager. that he would get one
who could discuss the books he liked
with him. who would understand his
little half word references to this and
that In literature on history, and who
could catch the y.rbf1eSf Hoyor oil