Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-06
DOROTHY DIX
DISCUSSES
LIFE
BY DOROTHY DIX
What's a Poor Weak Girl Going TO
Do to Be Both Shy Violet and

tain her ideals and still have beauX!
eff she don't let men kiss her
when they call upon her, they call
her 'Dumbi Dora and pass her by
Il she does indulge in petting par
ties they condemn her for lacking
j fmaidenly modesty.
IF she won't run around to all
might parties, and go to hectic dane
ing places, she spends her evening
as a fireside companion for mother.
If she does go the pace she isn't
the kind of a girl they want for a
wife.
eff she sits at home and waits for
the fairy prince to come, he never
shows up. If she goes out and
chases him down he never ceases
throwing it in her teeth that she
was a husband hunter.
IF a girl wants to have any at
tention from men she has to be a
stepper-out. If she wants to get
married, she has to be a go getter.
And then she has to listen to men
ask why girls aren't the shy violetS
tney uSeO 10 De.
so what's a poor girl to do?'
Alas. daughter this has ever heee
the case Man has always asked the
impossible of woman. BE fire to
me, and ice to all the balance Of
the world" is the masculine creed,
and from the time when the mem
DRY of woman runneth not to the
contrary. men have taught women
to do the very things for which
they most lambast them.
The reason that the feminine sex
is so variable and unstable is be-
cause it has had to change so per-
petually between what men say they
admire in women, and what they
really do like in women, that it has
nevre had a chance to jell. 1t has
always been kept in more or less
fluid state.
Every man has his ideal woman
who is modest, and shy and pure of
heart. and domestic, and patient
and devoted, but the women whom
men flock about are the gay and
painted butterflies, not the grubs.
1T is not the good women who are
the most loved, nor do the thrifty,
INDUSTRIOUS wives nave lhO AAOoI
faithful husbands.
ct is mans Inconsistency about
woman that keeps woman always
guessing Take the matter OF
CLOTHES, for instance. On no sub
ject are men more eloquent than
sthey are about the feminine weak
ness that causes it to make goo
Of a dress, and to spend the most
of its time, and thought, and money
on adjoining its body, instead of
beautifying its immortal soul.
No woman but who has listened
: to thouands of sermons and hearth
stone lectures on the folly of wear
ing high-heeled shoes instead of big,
flat, comfortable, Eoomy ones, and
+. the Stiffness of clothing herself In
chiffon instead of red . flannel, and
the immodesty sof going forth in
skirts that hit the knee instead of
those that drag the ground, just
because short skirts happen to be
the fashion, and the vulgarity of
= using rouge and a lip stick, and so
on. and SO forth.
Any woman, listening to any
mans diatribes against fashion,
would naturally think that all she
would have to do to make a hit
with him would be to chuck her
vanity case out of the window and
attire, herself in comfortable, senSi-
BILE, durable garments made for wear
and not for looks.
Such, however, would be far from
the case.
A man might be brave enough to
lead a forlorn hope in battle, but he
would not have the courage to es-
cort a Idly in a mid Victorian cos
tune to a table in a smart reStau-
rant. Experience has taught women
that if they want the attention Of
men that they must dress in a way
that makes men proud to be seen
out with them. Also that the only
women who ever walk all over men
do it in pointed-toed satin slippers.
Not brogans.
Nor do mems theory and practice
jibe any better as regards women's
CHARACTERISTICS. Abstractl., every
man admires above all else the
home girl who is mothers helper,
and who knows how to cook and
sew, and who reads serious books,
and teaches in the Sunday school,
and is otherwise a model of all the
domestic virtues.
All of US know plenty of such
girls, but we don't know a single
one Of them who is belle. On
the contrary, they have just about
as many dates as a hen has teeth
and when we tell our sons and
brothers what admirable wives they
would make, they agree with us,
but they leave these blessings I'M
appropriated while they rush off to
some frivolous little creature who
couldn't boil water without scorch-
ing it, but who has done her hair
in the newest way, and knows the
latest dance step.
AS long as Cinderella sits at home
in the ashes and does the family
chores no man is aware of her eX-
on her glad rags and her glass slip
pers and trips it among the dancers
that men discover that she is de-
sirable.
What is the moral of all this?
Perhaps it is that when girl darns
stockings she should always darn
them in public where men can per
ceive that she is domestic. Perhaps
it is that it is better to watch and
see what man does than it is to
listen to- what he says. Perhaps,
after ALL the only thing that a girl
can do is to do in Rome as the
Romans do, and do the masculine
Romans.
Couples Are Rescued
I1uoo Call Ca.1L4o