Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-04-26
DOROTHY DIX
DISCUSSES
LIFE 1
BY DOROTHY DIX
Women Are Invincible in Their
Own Field but They Make
Poor Showing When They
Invade Mans Sacred

imitation men OIL themselves, uTS-
ing them to hold on with both
hands to their femniity.
LAS an educator and psycholo-
gist," he says. II seriously affirm
that if women continue in their
present endeavors to be like men,
and do like men, wearing mems
clothes, training in mems military
camps, playing mems games and
parting their short hair on the left
side, they will weaken and cheaper
their sex.
Women, after ell, must have the
good opinion of men, and there is
no better way to bring that about
than for them to be as feminine as
possible.
Wise words these, which recon-
mend to every woman, and especial
ly to every young girl. When the
good God created the two sexes, he
knew what He was about. He made
them different, and He intended
them to stay different, and either
one peaches on the others pre-
serves, at his or her peril. There is
something in us instructive that
makes both an eliminate man and
mannish woman repulsive to US.
Men have enough sense to see this.
and it is not very often that you see
a sissy man. You never behold a
youth dolled up in pink chiffon
with a filet of roses in his hair,
sallying forth in society, thinking to
make a hit with the girls by dress
ing as they do. Nor do you see men
sitting around embroidering mono
grams on doilies because that is a
favorite feminine pastime, and they
want to understudy the diversions of
women as much as possible.
But the grotesque spectacle of
women dressed up in mems clothes
is so common that we have almost
ceased to notice it, through, good
ness knows, a man in a decollete ball
gown is no funnier looking than a
woman in pants. There are thou
sands upon thousands of young wom-
en- who have wrecked their health
for life by broad jumps, and flat
jumps, and hurdle jumps, and other
strenuous athletic stunts in which
they have sought to emulate the
achievements Of men.
Now the pity of the thing is that
when a woman tries to make an
imitation man of herself she fails
between the stools. She neither
pleases men nor herself. When
she puts on a pair of llnickerbock-
ers instead of lovely, soft, clinging
dress, she does violence to her own
inherited instincts, which bid her
clothe herself in silken raiment and
enhance her beauty by the aid of
harmonious colors. And she doesn't
make a hit with the men, who see
nothing to admire in their own tu-
bular garments and who invariably
fall for the frills that custom does
not permit them to wear.
It is equally disastrous for women
to try to contend with men in their
sports, for men are boared to death
with the woman who is duffer
at a game, and they loathe the wom-
an who can beat them at it.
Hence, the woman who knows
what's what sits on the side lines
and applauds her hero's exploits,
She doesn't cramp his style by tag
ging along a poor second, and she
never, never, NEVER let's him see
by winning the blue ribbon.
Women are invincible in their
own field, but they make a poor
showing when they invade mans
sacred sphere. Women, for in
stance, have not the physical
strength of men. In stand-up
fight the men would knock the wom-
en- out in the first round. But if
a survey could be taken Of all of
the husbands and wives in the coun-
try, you would find more husbands
afraid of their wives than wives who
are afraid of their husbands. Also,
1t is a matter of common knowledge
that in nine homes out Of ten it is
the hen who rules the roost.
But these ladies did not achieve
their victory by using masucline
methods. On the contrary, they EN-
ployed the tactics that their grand
mothers, and their -grandmoth'
ers, and their great-great-grandmoth-
ers have used through the centuries.
They used finesse and tact, and blar'
ney, the womans weapons against
which man has no defense.
And just as a woman can man
| age her husband by brute force, SO
no woman can convince her husband
and bring him around to her point
of view by argument. She may
have all the facts on her side, and
| plead her case with the logic OF a
| Portia and the eloquence of spell
binder. Nothing doing. But when
| she weeps on the second button OF
his waistcoat, and he pats her on
the back and says, There, there, y
her case is won.
The women who have got what
| they wanted are not the women who
| have talked about the rights of a
wife; they are the women who have
wept for them. For there is some
alchemy in a woman's tears that
melts down a mans resistance as
an icicle melts in the sun.
| Foolish are the women who think
that they endear themselves to men
| by understanding them. If man
| wanted q coQ1panion who dressed
like himself and acted like himself.
| and talked like himself, he wouidn
| bother with women whose mascu'
| line achievements are, after all, as
| DR.. johnson said, those OF the dane
| ing dog-the marvel of which is not
that he dances so well, but that he
dances at all. They would hunt up
masculine society to begin with.
Man is attracted 10 woman be-
| cause she is different. And the
more a woman emphasizes this diff
ference, the greater her attraction.
She will always come nearer hitting
the bull's-eye Of mans heart with
a glance from her eye than she will
with a repeating rifle; her most eff.
fective powder will be that she car
ries in her vanity case, and she will
deal her solar pleXus blow with a
Believe me, it's back to Eve for
women when they deal with men.