The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-02
Dorothy Dix Tails
BIZ DOROTHY DIX
wO146'O Hlghese Paid Woman Writes.
Sensitiveness-1.

I know a woman who is healthy
strong and intelligent and amply able
to make her own living, but who has
to be supported by her friend because
she is so sensitive" that she cannot
go out into the world to work.
| 1 know young woman who is sc
/ sensitive she cannot bear to witness
! the suffering of one she loves, so she
sister nurses their mother who is slow
| ly dying of cancer.
| I know a wife who is so sensitive
| that her husband can never. share any
of his burdens with her, and who goes
into Mysteries every time any emer-
gency arises that calls for self-sacri-
| flee, or work.
1 know dozens of women who are
$50 sensitive that any association
with them is like walking on eggs.
over the place, and no matter how
warily you tread, you are dead certain
to step on some of them. They are
the banes of families, and the curse of
organizations, for they are eternally
taking offense where none was intend
ed, seeing Sights in the most casual
action, and perceiving hidden and sin
lister meanings in the most innocent
remarks.
To have to live with a sensitive per-
son, or do business with one is an af-
Fiction from which we might we'll
pray Heaven, On our knees, to deliver
US. Yet, curiously enough, the sensi-
tive, instead of regarding sensitiveness
as an abnormality and a deformity of
character, which they should do their
best to conceal, regard it is an orna-
ment to their personality, and are
proud of it, and boast of it and display
it on all occasions.
Women, in particular, take this at
titude towards sensitiveness. They
seem to think that their shrinking
from doing their bit in the every day
battle of life, and their giving away
to their emotions, shows that they are
of finer clay than the balance of US.
Their attitude is that they have been
set apart to be parlor ornaments,
while their sisters were fore ordained
to the fate of Kitchen pots.
LISA right for Sarah to stand for
hours behind the counter, and put up
with the tempers OF customers, and
for Jane to pound a typewriter all
day in the office of a grouchy old
man, because we must have money on
which to live, you know, but I'm so
sensitive that I just can't bear the
contact with the outside world they
say. Or, II am so devoted to mother,
and so sensitive that I simply can't
endure to witness her pam, but Mar
ion has no nerves and she just does
everything for the poor dear" Or,
Il m just so sensitive that I can't bear
the slightest disappointment. 1t
makes me sick, and 1 have such
ftOuS SpeAIS ndNo 70 sSHu LIZ TIE
doctor" Or, Perhaps Mrs. Jones
didn't mean what she said in her
speech for me, but I am Just so sensi-
tive I can't stand even implied criti-
cisn."
We all hear cOmplacent ladies make
speeches like these every day of our
lives, and We wonder that the poor
silly geese haven't intelligence enough
to realize that they are making an in
decent exposure of their weaknesses.
For their worst enemy couldn't tell
the world any more explicitly how
idiotic and vain and selfish they are.
If woman knew how outsiders re-
gard constituencies, she would soon ad-
init being 55 years old, and that her
teeth, and her hair. and her COM
plexion were only hers by right of
purchase.
For, stripped of ali camoufIage,
constituencies is nothing but ingrowing
vanity and self-centeredness.