The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-01-31
Denies Love
Is Most of
Woman slot
Intelligent Man Asserts
Emotion Important
Also to Male.
JAN. 81, 1884
BY GRETTA PALMER,
Tines Special Writer

NEW YORK Jan efficiently
We we're guilty Of q cliche. We told
an intelligent man. quite placidly.
that love plays a vastly more i'm
portant part in a woman's life than
in a mans-that it occupies the CEN
ter Of her attention and obscures
her other interests and Is a pesky
nuisance when she wants TO get
some work done. And we were prop
erly and promptly cOntradicted.
To talk OF men and women as
II they were fundamentally differ
ent orders Of beings is an Outworn
and disproved notion" he said.
There are differences in their edu-
cation. but nowadays those are so
few that they can be alE.fOst diSre-
garded.
We are 90 per cent human be-
ings and only 2 per cent men or
women. Why lay such emphasis on
the 2 per cent?"
InferiOrity Idea Wanes
It is largely true. Girls still are,
of course, given a certain tendency
70 underValue their capacities by
the attitude Of their mothers. They
still are forced into an attitude Of
inferiOrity or defiance by references
TO the weaker sex" and TO the fact
that some one IS only a girl" But
they are learning how to right
themselves later-to recover their
self-esteem ana to accept the fact
that they are women, with neither
regret nor shame.
Women and men are fundamentally
very much more alike than we have
been taught 70 believe. But the in
teresting thing is that a man should
say so.
So much of the unhappiness WOm-
en- have felt over their inferior role
has been a baCkwash of mems in
sistence on the uncOnquerable SUI
periority of the male. So many gen.
erationS of men have laughed pity
ingly at the suggestion that they
would change their sex if it were
possible. He would just as will
lingly be a woman as a man.
Start Was Wrong
Humanity got off on the wrong
foot very early in this matter Of
the distinction between the sexes.
There is nothing in biology to sug=
gest that there must be a higher
and a lower in the human race. But
for many generations We have dis
regarded this simple fact; many a
woman has been brought to tragedy
because of mems abrOgation of SUI
peTiOrity to themselves.
It is the theory of one school of
psychiatristS that the whole wrong
attitude grew out of the fact that
women could bear children and men
could not. Being jealous of wOm-
ems special accomplishment. they
suggest, men set out to prove them
selves in other ways in order to
compensate for their lack of this eS-
sential function.
Well. they did a good job Of it
for a very long time. They made
their mark in developing superior
strength and wisdom in council and
an obvious superiority in the arts.
They did such a very good job, in
deed. that women ceased to be proud
of their original superiority of &C
complishment and bitterly regretted
the fact that they. too. were not
men.
If men started us off on this
centuries-Old belief that We we're
different and less capable creatures
than they. then it is really up to
them to set things straight. And
a very reaSSuring and pleasant
thing it is to discover that We have,
at last, a generation of men gen.
erous and gallant enough to admit
that they are almost indistinguiSh-
able. in capacity and emotion, from
ourselves.