Sex and Society by William I. Thomas

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But the evolution of a courageous and offensive disposition naturally
did not result in an eminently domestic disposition. Man did the
hunting and fighting. He was attached to the woman, but he was not
steady. He did not stay at home. The woman and the child were the core
of society, the fixed point, the point to which man came back. There
consequently grew up a sort of dual society and dual activity. Man
represented the more violent and spasmodic activities, involving
motion and skillful co-ordinations, as well as organization for
hunting and fighting; while woman carried on the steady, settled life.
She was not able to wander readily from a fixed point, on account of
her children; and, indeed, her physical organization fitted her for
endurance rather than movement. Consequently her attention was turned
to industries, since these were compatible with settled and stationary
habits. Agriculture, pottery, weaving, tanning, and all the industrial
processes involved in working up the by-products of the chase,
were developed by her. She domesticated man and assisted him in
domesticating the animals. She built her house, and it was hers. She
did not go to her husband's group after marriage. The child was hers,
and remained a member of her group. The germ of social organization
was, indeed, the woman and her children and her children's children.
The old women were the heads of civil society, though the men had
developed a fighting organization and technique which eventually
swallowed them up.

From the standpoint of physical force, man was the master, and was
often brutal enough. But woman led an independent life, to
some extent. She was, if not economically independent, at least
economically creative, and she enjoyed the great advantage of being
less definitely interested in man than he was in her. For while woman
is more deeply involved physiologically in the reproductive life than
man, she is apparently less involved from the standpoint of immediate
stimulus, or her interest is less acute in consciousness. The excess
activity which characterizes man in his relation to the general
environment holds also for his attitude toward woman. Not only is the
male the wooer among the higher orders of animals and among men, but
he has developed all the accessories for attracting attention--in the
animals, plumage, color, voice, and graceful and surprising forms of
motion; and in man, ornament and courageous action. For primitive man,
like the male animal, was distinguished by ornament.

Up to this time the relation of man to woman was the natural
development of a relation calculated to secure the best results
for the species. His predacious disposition had been, in part at
least, developed in the service of woman and her child, and he was
emotionally dependent on her to such a degree that he used all the
arts of attraction at his command to secure a relation with her.
In the course of time, however, an important change took place in
environmental conditions. While woman had been doing the general work
and had developed the beginnings of many industries, man had become
a specialist along another line. His occupation had been almost
exclusively the pursuit of animals or conflict with his neighbors; and
in this connection he had become the inventor of weapons and traps,
and in addition had learned the value of acting in concert with his
companions. But a hunting life cannot last forever; and when large
game began to be exhausted, man found himself forced to abandon
his destructive and predacious activities, and adopt the settled
occupations of woman. To these he brought all the inventive technique
and capacity for organized action which he had developed in his
hunting and fighting life, with the result that he became the master
of woman in a new sense. Not suddenly, but in the course of time,
he usurped her primacy in the industrial pursuits, and through his
organization of industry and the application of invention to the
industrial processes became a creator of wealth on a scale before
unknown. Gradually also he began to rely not altogether on ornament,
exploits, and trophies to get the attention and favor of woman. When
she was reduced to a condition of dependence on his activity, wooing
became a less formidable matter; he purchased her from her male
kindred, and took her to his own group, where she was easier to
control.

In unadvanced stages of society, where machinery and the division
of labor and a high degree of organization in industry have not been
introduced, and among even our own lower classes, woman still retains
a relation to industrial activities and has a relatively independent
status. Among the Indians of this country it was recognized that a man
could not become wealthy except through the possession of a sufficient
number of wives to work up for trade the products of the chase; and
today the West African youth does not seek a young woman in marriage
but an old one, preferably a widow, who knows all about the arts of
preparing and adulterating rubber. Among peasants, also, and plain
people the proverb recognizes that the "gray mare is the better
horse." The heavy, strong, enduring, patient, often dominant type,
frequently seen among the lower classes, where alone woman is still
economically functional, is probably a good representative of what the
women of our race were before they were reduced by man to a condition
of parasitism which, in our middle and so-called higher classes, has
profoundly affected their physical, mental, and moral life.

On the moral side, particularly, man's disposition to bend the
situation to his pleasure placed woman in a hard position and resulted
in the distortion of her nature, or rather in bringing to the front
elemental traits which under our moral code are not reckoned the
best. In the animal world the female is noted for her indirection. On
account of the necessity of protecting her young, she is cautious and
cunning, and, in contrast with the open and pugnacious methods of
the more untrammeled male, she relies on sober colors, concealment,
evasion, and deception of the senses. This quality of cunning is, of
course, not immoral in its origin, being merely a protective instinct
developed along with maternal feeling. In woman, also, this tendency
to prevail by passive means rather than by assault is natural; and
especially under a system of male control, where self-realization is
secured either through the manipulation of man or not at all, a resort
to trickery, indirection, and hypocrisy is not to be wondered at. Man
has, however, always insisted that woman shall be better than he is,
and her immoralities are usually not such as he greatly disapproves.
There has, in fact, been developed a peculiar code of morals to cover
the peculiar case of woman. This may be called a morality of the
person and of the bodily habits, as contrasted with the commercial and
public morality of man. Purity, constancy, reserve, and devotion are
the qualities In woman which please and flatter the jealous male;
and woman has responded to these demands both really and seemingly.
Without any consciousness of what she was doing (for all moral
traditions fall in the general psychological region of habit), she
acts in the manner which makes her most pleasing to men. And--always
with the rather definite realization before her of what a dreadful
thing it is to be an old maid--she has naively insisted that her
sisters shall play well within the game, and has become herself the
most strict censor of that morality which has become traditionally
associated with woman. Fearing the obloquy which the world attaches to
a bad woman, she throws the first stone at any woman who bids for the
favor of men by overstepping the modesty of nature. Morality, in the
most general sense, represents the code under which activities are
best carried on, and is worked out in the school of experience. It
is pre-eminently an adult and a male system, and men are intelligent
enough to recognize that neither women nor children have passed
through this school. It is on this account that, while man is
merciless to woman from the standpoint of personal behavior, he
exempts her from anything in the way of contractual morality, or views
her defections in this regard with allowance and even with amusement.

In the absence of any participation in commercial activity and with no
capital but her personal charms and her wits, and with the possibility
of realizing on these only through a successful appeal to man,
woman naturally puts her best foot first. It was, of course, always
one of the functions of the female to charm the male; but so long
as woman maintained her position of economic usefulness and her
quasi-independence she had no great problem, for there was never a
chance in primitive society, any more than in animal society, that
a woman would go unmated. But when through man's economic and social
organization, and the male initiative, she became dependent, and
when in consequence he began to pick and choose with a degree
of fastidiousness, and when the less charming women were not
married--especially when "invidious distinctions" arose between the
wed and unwed, and the desirably wed and the undesirably wed-woman
had to charm for her life; and she not only employed the passive arts
innate with her sex, but flashed forth in all the glitter which had
been one of man's accessories in courtship, but which he had dispensed
with when the superiority acquired through occupational pursuits
enabled him to do so. Under a new stimulation to be attractive, and
with the addition of ornament to the repertory of her charms, woman
has assumed an almost aggressive attitude toward courtship. The means
of attraction she employs are so highly elaborated, and her technique
is so finished, that she is really more active in courtship than man.
We speak of man as the wooer, but falling in love is really mediated
by the woman. By dress, behavior, coquetry, modesty, reserve, and
occasional boldness she gains the attention of man and infatuates
him. He does the courting, but she controls the process. "Er glaubt zu
schieben, und er wird geschoben."

The condition of limited stimulation, also, in which woman finds
herself as a result of the control by man of wealth, of affairs, of
the substantial interests of society, and even of her own personality,
leads woman to devote herself to display as an interest in itself,
regardless of its effect on men. In doing this she is really falling
back on an instinct. One of the most powerful stimulations to either
sex is glitter, in the most general sense, and the interest in showing
off begins in the coloration and plumage of animals, and continues as
ornament in the human species. It is true that the wooing connotation
of ornament was originally its most important one, and that it was
characteristic of man in particular; but woman has generalized it as
an interest, and as a means of self-realization. She seeks it as a
means of charming men, of outdoing other women, and as an artistic
interest; and her attention often takes that direction to such
a degree that its acquisition means satisfaction, and its lack
discontent. Sometimes, indeed, when a woman is married and knows that
she is "sped," she drops the display pose altogether, tends to lose
herself in household interests, and to become a slattern. On the
other hand, she often makes marriage the occasion of display on a more
elaborate scale, and is pitiless in her demands for the means to
this. A glance at the windows of our great stores shows that men
have organized their business in a full appreciation of these facts.
Dressing, indeed, becomes a competitive game with women, and since
their opponents and severest critics are women, it turns out curiously
enough that they dress even more with reference to the opinion of
women than for men.

The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
And these are of them.

It would, of course, be absurd to censure woman too greatly for these
frailties, and it would be very unjust to imply that all women share
them. Some women, in adapting themselves to the situation, follow
apparently, a bent acquired in connection with the maternal instinct,
and become true and devoted and grand to a degree hardly known by man.
Others, following a bent gotten along with coquetry in connection
with the wooing instinct, and having no activity through which their
behavior is standardized, become difficile, unreal, inefficient,
exacting, unsatisfied, absurd. And we have also the paradox that
the same woman can be the two things at different times. There is
therefore a basis of truth in Pope's hard saying that "Women have no
characters at all." Because their problem is not to accommodate to the
solid realities of the world of experience and sense, but to adjust
themselves to the personality of men, it is not surprising that they
should assume protean shapes.

Moreover, man is so affected by the charms of woman, and offers so
easy a mark for her machinations, as to invite exploitation. Having
been evolved largely through the stimulus of the female presence, he
continues to be more profoundly affected by her presence and behavior
than by any other stimulus whatever, unless it be the various forms of
combat. From Samson and Odysseus down, history and story recognize
the ease and frequency with which a woman makes a fool of a man. The
male protective and sentimental attitude is indeed incompatible with
resistance. To charm, pursue, court, and possess the female, involve a
train of memories which color all after-relations with the whole sex.
In both animals and men there is an instinctive disposition to take a
great deal off the female. The male animal takes the assaults of the
female complacently and shamefacedly, "just like folks." Peasants
laugh at the hysterical outbreaks of their women, and the "bold, bad
man" is as likely to be henpecked as any other. Woman is a disturbing
element in business and in school to a degree not usually apprehended.
In her presence a man instinctively assumes a different attitude.
He is, in fact, so susceptible as seemingly, almost, to want to be
victimized, and, as Locke expressed the matter, "It is in vain to find
fault with those arts of deceiving wherein men find pleasure to be
deceived."

This disposition of man and the detached condition of woman have much
to do with the emergence of the adventuress and the sporting-woman.
Human nature was made for action; and perhaps the most distressing
and disconcerting situation which confronts it is to be played on by
stimulations without the ability to function. The mere superinducing
of passivity, as in the extreme case of solitary confinement, is
sufficient to produce insanity; and the emotion of dread, or passive
fear, is said to be the most painful of emotions, because there is
no possibility of relief by action. Modern woman is in a similar
condition of constraint and unrest, which produces organic ravages for
which no luxury can compensate. The general ill-health of girls of the
better classes, and the equally general post-matrimonial breakdown,
are probably due largely to the fact that the nervous organization
demands more normal stimulations and reactions than are supplied.
The American woman of the better classes has superior rights and no
duties, and yet she is worrying herself to death--not over specific
troubles, but because she has lost her connection with reality.
Many women, more intelligent and energetic than their husbands and
brothers, have no more serious occupations than to play the house-cat,
with or without ornament. It is a wonder that more of them do not
lose their minds; and that more of them do not break with the system
entirely is due solely to the inhibitive effects of early habit and
suggestion.

As long as woman is comfortably cared for by the men of her group or
by marriage, she is not likely to do anything rash, especially if
the moral standards in her family and community are severe. But an
unattached woman has a tendency to become an adventuress--not so much
on economic as on psychological grounds. Life is rarely so hard that a
young woman cannot earn her bread; but she cannot always live and have
the stimulations she craves. As long, however, as she remains with
her people and is known to the whole community, she realizes that any
infraction of the habits of the group, any immodesty or immorality,
will ruin her standing and her chance of marriage, and bring her
into shame and confusion. Consequently, good behavior is a protective
measure--instinctive, of course; for it is not true that the ordinary
girl has imagination enough to think out a general attitude toward
life other than that which is habitual in her group. But when she
becomes detached from home and group, and is removed not only from
surveillance, but from the ordinary stimulation and interest afforded
by social life and acquaintanceship, her inhibitions are likely to be
relaxed.

The girl coming from the country to the city affords one of the
clearest cases of detachment. Assuming that she comes to the city to
earn her living, her work is not only irksome, but so unremunerative
that she finds it impossible to obtain those accessories to her
personality in the way of finery which would be sufficient to hold
her attention and satisfy her if they were to be had in plenty. She is
lost from the sight of everyone whose opinion has any meaning for her,
while the separation from her home community renders her condition
peculiarly flat and lonely; and she is prepared to accept any
opportunity for stimulation offered her, unless she has been morally
standardized before leaving home. To be completely lost sight of may,
indeed, become an object under these circumstances--the only means by
which she can without confusion accept unapproved stimulations--and
to pass from a regular to an irregular life and back again before the
fact has been noted is not an unusual course.

The professionally irregular class of women represents an extreme and
unfortunate result of an adventitious and not-completely-functional
relation to society. They do not form a class in the psychological
sense, but only a trade. There are many sorts of natural dispositions
among them--as many perhaps as will be found in any other occupation.
None of the reputable occupations are homogeneous from the standpoint
of the natural dispositions of the men and women who compose them,
and the same is true of the disreputable occupations. Many women of
fine natural character and disposition are drawn in a momentary and
incidental way into an irregular life, and recover, settle down
to regular modes of living, drift farther, are married, and make
uncommonly good wives. In this respect the adventuress is more
fortunate than the criminal (that other great adventitious product),
because the criminal is labeled and his record follows him, making
reformation difficult; while the in-and-out life of woman with
reference to what we call virtue is not officially noted and does not
bring consequences so inevitable. But "if you drive nature out at the
door, she will come back through the window;" and this interest in
greater stimulation is, I believe, the dominant force in determining
the choice--or, rather, the drift--of the so-called sporting-woman.
She is seeking what, from the psychological standpoint, may be called
a normal life.

The human mind was formed and fixed once for all in very early times,
through a life of action and emergency, when the species was fighting,
contriving, and inventing its way up from the sub-human condition; and
the ground-patterns of interest have never been, and probably never
will be, fundamentally changed. Consequently, all pursuits are irksome
unless they are able, so to speak, to assume the guise of this early
conflict for life in connection with which interest and modes of
attention were developed. As a matter of fact, however, anything in
the nature of a problem or a pursuit stimulates the emotional centers,
and is interesting, because it is of the same general pattern as these
primitive pursuits and problems. Scientific and artistic pursuits,
business, and the various occupational callings are analogues of the
hunting, flight, pursuit, courtship, and capture of early racial life,
and the problems they present may, and do, become all-absorbing. The
moral and educational problem of development has been, indeed, to
substitute for the simple, co-ordinative killing, escaping, charming,
deceiving activities of early life, analogues which are increasingly
serviceable to society, and to expand into a general social feeling
the affection developed first in connection with courtship, the
rearing of children, and joint predatory and defensive enterprises.
The gamester, adventuress, and criminal are not usually abnormal in
a biological sense, but have failed, through defective manipulation
of their attention, to get interested in the right kind of problems.
Their attention has not been diverted from interests of a primary type
containing a maximum of the sensory, to interests of an analogous type
containing more elements of reflection, and involving problems and
processes of greater benefit to society.

The remedy for the irregularity, pettiness, ill-health, and
unserviceableness of modern woman seems to lie, therefore, along
educational lines. Not in a general and cultural education alone, but
in a special and occupational interest and practice for women, married
and unmarried. This should be preferably gainful, though not onerous
nor incessant. It should, in fact, be a play-interest, in the sense
that the interest of every artist and craftsman, who loves his work
and functions through it, is a play-interest. Normal life without
normal stimulation is not possible, and the stimulations answering
to the nature of the nervous organization seem best supplied by
interesting forms of work. This reinstates racially developed
stimulations better than anything except play; and interesting work
is, psychologically speaking, play.

Some kind of practical activity for women would also relieve the
strain on the matrimonial situation--a situation which at present
is abnormal and almost impossible. The demands for attention from
husbands on the part of wives are greater than is compatible with the
absorbing general activities of the latter, and women are not only
neglected by the husband in a manner which did not happen in the case
of the lover, but they are jealous of men in a more general sense than
men are jealous of women. In the absence of other interests they are
so dependent on the personal interest that they unconsciously put a
jealous construction, not only on personal behavior, but on the most
general and indifferent actions of the men with whom their lives are
bound up; and this process is so obscure in consciousness that it is
usually impossible to determine what the matter really is.

An examination, also, of so-called happy marriages shows very
generally that they do not, except for the common interest of
children, rest on the true comradeship of like minds, but represent an
equilibrium reached through an extension of the maternal interest of
the woman to the man, whereby she looks after his personal needs as
she does after those of the children--cherishing him, in fact, as
a child--or in an extension to woman on the part of the man of that
nurture and affection which is in his nature to give to pets and all
helpless (and preferably dumb) creatures.

Obviously a more solid basis of association is necessary than either
of these two instinctively based compromises; and the practice of an
occupational activity of her own choosing by woman, and a generous
attitude toward this on the part of man, would contribute to relieve
the strain and to make marriage more frequently successful.

THE MIND OF WOMAN AND THE LOWER RACES

I

The mind is a very wonderful thing, but it is questionable whether it
is more wonderful than some of the instinctive modes of behavior of
lower forms of life. If mind is viewed as an adjustment to external
conditions for the purpose of securing control, the human mind is no
more wonderful in its way than the homing and migratory instincts of
birds; the tropic quality of the male butterfly which leads it to the
female though she is imprisoned in a cigar-box in a dark room; or the
peculiar sensitivity of the bat which enables it, though blinded, to
thread its way through a maze of obstructions hung about a room.

The fact of sensitivity, in short, or the quality of response to
stimulation, is more wonderful than its particular formulation in
the human brain. Mind simply represents a special development of the
quality of sensitivity common to organic nature, and analogous to the
sensitivity of the photographic plate. The brain receives impressions,
records them, remembers them, compares new experiences with old, and
modifies behavior, in the presence of a new or recurrent stimulation,
in view of the pleasure-pain connotation of similar situations in the
past.

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