The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-17
Dorothy Dix Talks
BY DOROTHY DIX
WoFld's highest Paid Woma1 Writer,
The VaIue of Beauty.

If a woman is sufficiently pulchri-
tudinous there is no sin under Heaven
that a man will not forgive her. He
will stand for extravaganza, and self
ishness in a pretty wife. He will over
look bad spelling and mistakes for a
beauteous stenographer. He will con-
done murder if committed by a lily
white hand, for it has been proved
time and time again that no male
jury will convict young and pVtty
female criminal.
The first question a man ever asks
about a woman is not: rs she intelli-
gent? Is she of a high and noble
character? Is she interesting?" No.
He asks: SIS she good-looking? If
she is, nothing else matters. If she is
not good-looking, neither does any
thing else matter. There is nothing
stirring for him. Being a gentleman,
he treats her as such, but he does it
with the air of performing duty, and
not as a. pleasure.
The pretty girl has the cakes and
ale of life handed to her on a silver
salver. She gets the first pick of the
husbands. She gets the best jobs, if
she goes to work. A dozen men jump
to their feet to offer her their seats in
a crowded car, but the homely girl
gets what she fights for, and precious
little of that.
Since men have put this premium on
woman's looks, is it any wonder, then,
lIdI WOHl6u nave accepted Inelr ValQ-
alton of beauty, and have made it their
fetish? How else could it be, when
every woman from Mother Eve down
to the little chicken that teeterS on the
jay heel shoes down the street, knows
that the chief end of woman, as far as
men are concerned, is to be easy on
the eyes, and that cow-like eyes and
a Cupid's bow mouth will avail her
more than college education, and an
unabridged set of all the virtues?
It is both humorous and pathetic
that women should spend more time
cultivating their hair than they do
their minds and that they should take
a more vital interest in the state of
their compilations than they do in
their immortal souls, but men are to
blame for this, because men have made
it compulsory for women to; be good9
looking whether nature made them
that way or not. 2.sf
Therefore, women have to call art
to their aid. They have to devote
anxious hours of thought and days of
an illusion of beauty where there is
none. Because men admire curling
locks they go thru the fortunes of
being sealped, and scared with hot
irons at the same time, in having
permanent criHps put into their hair.
Because men sing the praises of little
feet, women limp around in agony in
shoes three sizes too small for them
and with heels set in the middle of
their feet.
Because men admire pink and white
compilations and red lips, women cal
somine their faces, and have per-
petual taste of grease paint in their
mouths. Because no man loves q. fat
woman, women heroically starve
themselves. and deny themselves eV-
erything they like to eat and drink.
Left to themselves, women would
wash their faces, screw up their hair
into a knot the size Of a walnut, put
on their kimonos and flip-flop slip
pers, and be as old, and fat, and home
ly, and comfortable as God made 'em,
but as long as there is a man left they
can never do that. They have got to
camouflage good looks as well as they
can, for Paris still hands out all the
prizes in life to the best locker.