WOMEN AND BEAUTY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1964, 22 January 1914, Page 3

WOMEN AND BEAUTY.

BRITISH ASSOCIATIONS ,VIEW,! jfiJtHAT IS THE ATTRACnpN?^i| jy-It^3 ; sc?ms : ?Lard "V believe .■'British'"Association "could/, ever ■' descend to frivolity. But' tho report, on.some of their recent pro-.'ccedings'are-strangely suggestive'of it,, unless the volatile ■ reporter has taken 'j : t|ivppii: : himself 'to make good .'what seems to him to bn a deficiency. ■ For' example (says the "Argonaut")'we find a, long" discussion on the causes of beauty,'among women .and of ugliness among men.-/ Furtively glancing at our-, selves in a convenient, mirror,'wo. wonder.if wo are actually so very ugly, hut finding no reassurance from that-faith-fid mid ..candid surface, we revert unwil'ingly to generalities. Women, says Dr., He'ifry Campbell,, are beautiful because men, liaviug a.sonso of the beauty, that they themselves do not' possess,' '.haw'always insisted upon * beauty in. their mates. Women, on . the ' oilier. hand, having no sense of beauty, have been willing to accept "any old thing," and tlioreforo men have neglected to cultivate a loveliness for which there was no demand. It seems reasonable enough if wo can only swallow a. few of tho theories that happen to be diametrically opposed to the .'facts'.;,...;.';... ■■; "L In the first place, women., are'not riioro beautiful, than men. .It might bo': asserted with, safety that there are more handsome men than beautiful women. The director of one of the great historical pageants, with _ which England recently, amused li-erself, said that ho found it easy to secure handsome men, but that beautiful women .wero. far, more 'scarce.. Then, again, so.much depends.upon our conceptions of' beauty. Alt authentic portrait of Helen of' Troy shows a singularly unattractive female, and certainly the Venus do Milo in the flesh would not attract attention bv the beauty of her face.'". A second'fallacy is to bo found in "tho prevailing idea that men prefer beautiful women to plain women. Undoubtedly cveryo.no likes to look at a beautiful woman, but it is an obvious fact that tho plain ones ate married just, as rapidly as' their supposedly more fortunate sisters. As to the point of . happiness ' tho beautiful woman is'7-probably at a disadvantage. Certainly beauty does not conduce to those' inner 'graces that arc the only source of felicity. 'The beautiful woman i;; far more likely to bo spoiled than her plainer sister, and far more likely to bo married for her beauty alone and so to meet..with disaster. There is therefore no reason why Nature should develop beauty, among women as a desirable ■ thing,'■ for we may greatly question if it is desirable, and whether the honestly unbeautiiul face is not far more conducive to happiness. Therefore the scientific theory seems to break down wholly when confronted with tho facts, by no means an uncommon event with scientific theories.

. It is certainly true that women are not attracted by 'male beauty.' Nor are they attracted by male ' intelligence, which.'-is a very fortunate thing for a male- humanity that is rapidly becoming wholly brainless outside the sphere of commerce. Of■ course the selfish woman is attracted by money. That goes without saying, but the averagely unselfish woman is probably moro susceptible to the charms of deference than to anything, else. And deference is by no means the same thing as worship. Deference implies a desire to appreciate the'woman's standpoint and to value it.'Vrhat is why theilSuropeanis often so acceptable to tlio American woman. He has been trained in deference,;?: and that .the woman cannot always ■sree ; ,t'hat it. is-a'matter of training'in hcrmisfcrtuno. . Tho .European is trained to converse'. with the woman as -though her opinions were matters of importance to him, and so to lead the'conversation that slks may. the most easily express them...,..1t is often a pose, but it is a good pose. '.Pile American man adulates the Woman, but he- is not disposed .to treat,her with deference. He is at no pains.to. find those topics ..of. .conversation that shall place them on mi'i equality: of knowledge. It is very sol-1 dom that he has any topic of conversation-, at his command. Still loss does] he diov,' tho woman that her opinions are matters of weight to liim. The man who Wishes to excite tho interest of tho average!}' good woman will find that his automobile and his theatre tickets will count for very little in compar/son with the delicate deference that never varies, Was it not Tom I'aine who boasted .that he could easily make himself irresistible with women in competition with wealth and good looks and by the simple mean:; of! a power of conversation that lay in its. implied deference? Perhaps all of : this' might he'epitomised by tho simple suggestion that women are won by courtesy.. But then courtesy itself needs the "most elaborate definition nowadays.