Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-27
DOROTHY DIX TALKS
BY DOROTHY DIX
P1atonic Friendship
Copyright, 1920, by the Wheeler Syndi-
cate Inc
BRIGHT and clever young business

N woman. we'll along in her twenties,
has a man friend who comes to see
her every week The girl is not IN love Win
the man. nor the man with the girl They
are simply congenial companions VINO enjoy
each others society, but the girls father OBJ
iects strenuously to the mans calls, and
thinks it improper for his daughter TO re-
ceive attentions from a man without inten-
tions.
The father belongs to the old-fashionedI
school, which conceives of no relationship
between the sexes except the sentimental
| one He does not realize that the new statuSI
| of woman has made Platonic friendship pei
tween and woman possibility Tor
| the first time in history, and so added new
richness to the life of both.
! Heretofore, friendship between a man and
woman has been mockery and by word. LII
was the smoke-screen that each sex let down
! to cover it's maneuvers from the other, andI
| from behind which woman conducted herr
subtle attack on mans offensive, and Fl
man lay siege to Woman's aHectlons.
Both knew friendship for the hollow mock
| cry that it was, and played at it with their
| tongues in their cheek, for nobody had
dreamed of day when every single woman
would not be on still hunt for husband,
and the object of every unmarried femaleH
would be to get wedding ring
Hence the friendship of man for al
woman was about that of the hunted for theI
hunter, who was sure to get him if he didn't
watch out.
! Among older people, and in certain circles,
| the idea still prevails that every woman who1
isn't married is crazy to marry, and that sheI
! is always seeking a husband. They Think
that life is dull, and barren, and desolate tol
the single woman, and that she is eternally|
casting envious eyes upon the altar
Perhaps this was true in the old days inl
which the unmarried woman was supposed
to be perpetual debutante, and, even att
sixty, was not permitted by convention to|
have home of her own, or to go about un-
chaperoned; when she had to be the frihge|
on somebody elses family, and when no Oc-l
cupation was open to her save the most
mental and ill-paid ones. Then "a woman had|
to get married, whether she wanted to or|
not, in order to get meal ticket and have|
social standing.
Nowadays it is far different. Any womanI
with intelligence can support herself quite asI
| we'll as the average husband can support her.
and without working half as hard in store|
| or office as she would have to do in her own
home. In her profession she can find al
never-end1ng source Of interest and amuse-
ment, so that she has something to fill her
thoughts and her hands, and it is no more
remarkable now for bachelor woman to
have her own apartment, than it is for al
bachelor man.
Under these conditions it has developed
that there are large numbers of women wh0
do not want to marry. They look the ground
over, anu see CHaC marriage seldom Dr1ngSI
happiness to either party. They observe that
their friends who are married look older than
they do, that they are less well-dressed and
live less comfortably; that they have mol
freedom, and the prospect of exchanging their
good Jobs, and individual pocketbooks, and
latch keys just for a mere husband, doesn' d
look good to them.
OF course, if the Prince Charming of them
dreams were to come along, that would be al
different story. But the supply of Prince
I Charmings is not overabundant, and most
women never even get a glimpse of him ad
all.
So these women do not want to marry, but
they are not man-haters, or Indifferent TO the
pleasures of masculine society. They are
precisely in the position of the man who en-
joys pretty and attractive women, who likes
to talk to an intelligent and Sympathetic
woman, who would find moonlight evening
on the seashore, for instance, as at as an
egg without salt, without the companionship
OF something young, and charming, and fluff
fy-ruffled, and yet who does not want to as
sumo any woman's board bill, and shopping
ticket, or to put his neck in the domestic
moose. i
Perhaps the men and women who take this
attitude towards each other are selfish. Per-
haps they are slackers who evade assuming
their share of the responsibilities of life. We
are not arguing this point. We are merely
| saying that there are as many women who
are as eager and determined to sidestep mat
rimony as there are men, and that these
women have made Platonic friendship real
ity instead Of the camoufage for sentiment
that it used to be-
This knowledge that every woman is not
trying to marry has made for great free
masonry between the sexes, For the first
time men are not scared out of their lives
of women, and they can indulge their natural
craving for feminine society. For even the
most case-hardened old bachelors long for
a woman friend, someone to whom they may
pour out unabashed, the hopes, the plans, and
even the boasting they would not have the
face to tell another man. For men are as
loquacious with women, as they are dumb
with each other
OF course, Platonic friendship still does end
very frequently in love. man and woman
who have been good comrades and friends,
suddenly wake up to the fact that they are
something more and that life without each
other would be as ashes and dust.
And of course, Platonic friendship is not
for the woman who wants to marry. For
the man who takes up her time, and camps
on her parlor chairs, keeps away other men.
| So, after all, Platonic friendship is merely
the consolation prize for those who are not
/ sports enough, to take hand in the big
gambling game Of matrimony.