Evening star., 1939-01-29

Social Security Reserve Called Sind While the
Labor War Is Discussed in Harper's; Mr.. Strauss
Defends the Housing Authority Program

ana upon Children
So we have a neurotic merry-go-
round indeed.
DR.. Menninger's solution is more
love, and through love a substitute
ton of will to live for a will to
die and destroy. Readers will per-
ceive that by love" DR.. Menninger
means something basically material.
AS a psychiatrist, of course, ne could
hardly be expected to mean any
other thing.
Well, the subject of sex hatred
is dark and dubious one for anna
teurs to venture into, and so it Is
with some trepidation that the re-
viewer offers any comments on the
learned doctors exposition. But the
subject is provocative, too, and it
is hard simply to let 1t pass. The
following thoughts kept passing
through the reviewers mind as she
read. She gives, as her excuse for
putting them down here, the state
ment that they are little more
on the optimistic side than DR.. Men,
ninger's gloomy, though no doubt
perfect, reasoning.
1t would seem then to a mere
lay person that there is really little
ground for believing that the great
number of women who are unhappy
in their marriages are SO because
social and economic conditions pre-
vent them from having families as
large as those of their grandmoth-
ers. On the contrary, it would seem
that married unhappiness such as
the doctor describes results from the
uncompleted state of present social
change-the change of womanHnd
from the status of the irresponsible
and governed adult child to that of
normal mature human being.
Men, as yet, have not gotten used
to the change (Which is very far
from being completed, as saiO and
they have not made the adjustments
necessary.
Women in the past have done
most of the adjusting that has
been done between the sexes. Wom-
en- indeed have, within history, been
called upon to accept ready y-made
concepts of themselves of amaz-
ing variety. Women have been told
they had no souls, that they had
souls but no minds, that they had
only rudimentary minds, that they
were the guilty ones in any i'm
morality while the male (of SUI
perior capacity for responsibility
was guiltless, that they were re-
positories Of the finest qualities of
which the race was capable, that
they were undeserving of civil rights,
that they had no possible status but
a sex one, that they could not en-
gage in any artistic or creative
work and in general what have
you. In the main they have ac-
cepted and acted up to these vio-
lently contradictory roles with
cheerfulness and spirit. They have
even kept perfectly straight faces.
Within the last so years, how
ever, all these old attitudes have
been pretty well scrapped. Women
have been accepted as human, re-
sponsible and creative. With their
customary versatility they have ac-
commodated themselves to the op-
| portunity. Men, on the other hand,
are still struggling with the change.
To say, as DR.. Menninger says.
that womans demand for and &C.
ceptance of the responsibilities Of
adulthood is manifestation of "ag-
gressiveness" of viciously destruc-
tive kind seems bit beside the
point. To say, too. that her accept
ance of mere mature humanity
threatens the virility of the mascu-
line part of the race is arguing
pretty widely. It is true that many
idea of women as actual members of
the race to which they themselves
belong. and II Is likewise true that
weak male characters resent that
idea and express themselves as
result IN neurotic opposition to
womaphind. But to proceed from
these facts to the conclusion that
women must bear more children in
order to soothe these affrighted ones
Is surely little funny.
The whole process represents a
step forward; II an enlightened and
responsible male citizenry is good
for a country surely the country
will be doubly served by having its
whole adult population enlightened
and responsible. 1t is for men to
grasp this fact and move with the
current. 1t is not for them to cling
theoretically to the past and seek
humoring, as sick children. from
their womenkind.
AS to the number of children in a
family why, that would seem to be
less important than the treatment
of those who are born. Humbly
aware of her lay status, the reviewer
still finds it hard to believe that a
woman with two or three children
subconsciously hates those children
because they are not nine or ten.
Woman's emancipation must have its
effect on family life to be sure. but
the effect ought to be in the direc-
ton of greater happiness for the
adults and the children, too.
When, after all, one considers the
agonies consequent upon growing up,
does it not seem futile to view the
painful process as having no end
whatsoever except to bring into be-
ing more of our kind to repeat it?
It is to be hoped that, with the
increase in medical understanding
and the dispersion of old supersti-
ton, children will become happy
incidents in their parents broaden
ing lives and not the whole ingrow-
ing preoccupation. This would seem
| to be the end toward which society Is
moving, at any rate, and wrecks are
inevitable in any change. Their re-
| grettable occurrence, however,
should not call for an entire rever-
sion of progress.
| X
The reviewer finds that she has
little space left for the other articles