Omaha daily bee., 1919-09-05
Sex War ak
Is Foolish
Fiction
God Divided the Race In
Two and Man or
Woman Cannot
Change It.
BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX.

idooI SitudtiOii, III CdtCuS Us WIN q
sex war;" 1t is safe to say this
gentleman never wrote what is
known as best seller" and that a
knowledge of human nature plays
no part in his journalistic equip
ment.
The bugaboo that has terrified
him into prophesying sex warfare
with its doleful accompaniment of
mo homes" and mo population" is
nothing more serious than groups
of English women dressed suitably
for the heavy work their country
demanded of them during the war.
If they had worked in mills and
factories or on buses and street rail-
ways in their good old reliable georg-
cites and high-heeled slippers, he
wouldn't have said Z word-but fat
heeled shoes and trousersl-he cries
havoc, and lets loose 4 threat of a
sex war.
Bodied hair he also considers the
final symbol Of celibacy. why, if
a woman intends to marry" he
asks, should she rob herself of her
browning glory?" Other times,
other fashions-the gallants of the
'40s were equally perturbed when
the ladies pinned up their ripglets.
Perhaps some kindly missionary
may agree to meet this pessimistic
scribe on his return to New York
and lead him to Greenwich village,
where he will find bodied hair and
romance to be almost interchange
able terms.
Prophecies About the Bicycle
Twenty years ago pessimis,s were
saying the same thing when women
adopted boomers for the bicycle
Yet we had no sex warfare on &C
count of the gentle and antiquated
wheel. On the contrary, with
greater opportunities for comrade
ship, and Americas first introduc-
ton to the great out-of-doors, there
was tremendous speeding up OF
romance. Open any of the maya
zines of 20 years ago and the bicycle
story was then what the aeroplane
yarn is today in up-to-the-minute
fiction.
If women have been able to en-
dure the disadvantages incidental
to setback of education, opportu-
nifty, unjust laws, etc.-without re-
sorting to sex warfare, it is not
likely that they are going to start
anything of the sort at present, with
the dawn of better things in sight
The tragic question that is agltat-
ing European women at the pres
ent time is not concentrated sex
crouch that will commit them to
celibacy-in order to hold war jobs
but the well-grounded fear that
there will not be enough husbands
to go round.
The future of the third SEX" as
the women who have adopted male
attire for faster working conve-
nience are called, does not convey
vistas of celibacy to friends OF la
Dor. They are better informed, they
know through the statistics that
have already been published. just
what proportion of these women are
already married and the mothers OF
families. And the figure is a large
one. Il,
have gone out into the world as
conductors, bus-drivers, messenger
girls, porters and the like, there is
absolutely no ground for presup-
posing them vowed to ce)ibacy.
Their chief concern, as has been
stated, is a lively fear of enforced
spinsterhood.
Uniform Highly Becoming.
And as for the uniform being de-
terrent of romance, which is more
attractive-the "yeowoman' or
"condurtorette" in her neat, service
able uniform or her stay-at-home
sister clad in an unrelated assort-
ment of styles" each of which is
on bad terms with the other?
The strongest passion in woman
is the maternal. 1t has taken ma
ture some millions Of years to de-
velop this overwhelming impulse
which has been instrumental IN
leading the race from the blacklist
savagery to such development as
it now boasts. And it is going to
take more than a uniform and the
opportunity of earning fairer
wage to kill that which is stronger
than life itself.
With new conditions, brought
about by the war, revolutionary
changes are bound to come. Women
will be forced from home in greater
numbers to help maintain the fam
lily, but the child will continue, as
from the days of our cave ancestors,
to be the great uplifting influence
in human destiny.
Therefore, when the pessimistic
correspondent says that the sight
of short-haired women wearing
trousers and doing mems work
with excessive competence and self
assurance" was shock to him, and
he began to inquire what is the
future of this third sex?' |, for
one, do not share his panic. Women
working in big industrial centers-
even if they bob their hair and wear
trousers-are not as appalling to me
as women whitening away in the
sequestered villages of New Eng
land or the south, where they have
no opportunity for either marriage
or acknowledgment.
These are the women who are
likely to become man-haters-if
there is such a thing, which | doubt
rather than the women who keep
sane because they are busy and be-
cause their minds come in daily
contact with other minds. The cor
RESPONDENT says that in London he
has talked with "trousered conduc-
torettes" and that they show lack
of sex consciousness which is ap-
palling."