Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1932-01-01
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Why We Behave
Like Human Beings
b GRoRGR DORSEY. Ph. D. LL. ..
Why Men Don't Understand

d agn Women. laa u
THE newborn is loaded stimulus
> 4 for parents and community. The
nature of the load 1t brings will vary
with the sex of the child. The girl
may be as welcome as the boy. But
the fact Of girl or of boy colors the
environment for the developing child.
Suppose there are twins, a boy and
a girl. Each may seem to face the
same situation day after day. But,
as society Is constituted each races
a different situation. The sister makes
certain appeals because she is a fe-
male; the boy, because he is a male.
Certain modes of behavior are ex-
pected because "You are boy; quite
different responses are expected be-
cause "You are a girl" AS a conse-
quence, before they have verbalized
behavior they have acquired the man
ual and emotional habits expected OF
boys and girls. The girl has no In
herent impulse to play with dolls and
mud pies, or to wear curls, dresses,
shoes, necklaces, earrings; nor has
the boy for drums and other noise-
making machinery, or for short halr
and pants,
The girl Is nodded to make "wom-
anly" responses; the boy, to behave
like a 'little man." Boys are condi-
toned to face one world; girls, to face
another. The two sexes do not see
alike because their eyes have not
learned to look at the same things
alike; for each sex, the glasses have
a different color, focus, and range.
Men do not understand women"
How can they? But the reason is not
because women's nature Is fundament-
ally different from mems; rather that
ten or twenty or fifty years Of having
to live "like a woman" go into her
makeup.
Freedom of movement is soon lin
tied for girls. Some learn to skip the
rope and play jackstones only under
parental frowns. And as for climbing
trees, playing marbles, going off swim
ming, "Who ever heard of such
thingW
Shades Of limited freedom for girls
depend on families, communities, rank,
class, etc. But in the background is
always a general limit In movement,
emotions, and language, beyond which
the girl is not supposed to go. "Proper
spheres" "womanly ways" "unmaiden-
ly manners" etc.
The boy of six has a much wider
field of exploration than his sister,
especially If sister is "handy about
. the house." By ten, his freedom is
greater yet. He can stamp around and
shout and whistle and scrap and "talk
back" in ways denied to his sister.
Because they must learn mice
ways" girls have less opportunity to
learn certain specific motor habits and
in general less occasion to de-
velop their skeletal muscles. She
cannot throw ball when she
is fourteen: she did not begin to
throw stones at the age Of three. Rules
of habit formation and limits of dex-
terity are not inherent in each sex.
How many boys of twenty could run
a hundred yards in ten seconds fiat If
they had worn dresses and such &C.
cess0ries all their life?
If 1t is "unwomanly" for girls to
throw stones and run races, 1t will be
unnatural" for them later to be ex-
pected to compete with men on equal
terms.
boy brought up on Don't be a
sissy" will have behavior different
from that Of sister for whom being
a sissy is normal behavior.
Men and women are emotionally
different; by training. Tears, pouts,
whims tantrums, grow up blsexually.
About sixteen years are required
to train girls to certain "womanly"
needs and desires. Thereafter 1t re-
quires some one mans lifetime to sat
isfy these desires. If women degen-
crate or go In for luxury, they are
only following their bent; their train
ing "fltted' them for such paths.
Many men think such paths natural
to women, and find themselves lad.
justed" when they hand diamond
dog-collar about the neck of a woman
who finds her life adjustments in lux.
uries from another's hands. She has
given all she has for all she wants.
That is adjustment. Life learns such
behavior as readily as other forms.
The two sexes may "grow up to.
gether," but they travel divergent
roads. BY the time they mate they are
likely to find themselves far apart.
Even words have different values they
may not understand each others Ian.
guage. But II their habits have not
been abnormal, and II they retain the
capacity to learn and the inherent love
for knowing, whole new world con
fronts them.
After all, there can be nothing in
n mans world more interesting than
a woman.
All normal newborns are efficient.
After few years, little sister can
never become as efficient as little
brother in many things A woman re.
qulres stout heart to dare to com.
pete with man. Her own sex says,
you should not" the other sex says
"You cannot" II women follow the
"easy" path, It is because that Is the
only path In which they have been
trained to show efficiency.
Blologlcally, man must mate. Why
men marry is matter Of Individual
behavior II marriage is n failure"
as we are often assured, II must be
for the same reason that any other
social institution fails" Man learns
new ways 70 adjust TO liviig impuises
i,c hg GHurir s. Dor -