SEX AND IDEALS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 March 1921, Page 1

SEX AND IDEALS

(By January Mortimer)

A woman correspondent suggests that 1 should write upon some of the traits of men for the enlightenment of women. She is concerned that men are not enthusiastic idealists. This is a common feminine criticism.

Men, according to the view of a '* large number of women, are interested in the concrete and material things, while women are more “idealistic” and •' “spiritual.” The mental sexual differ--11 dices in regard to ideals are not very marked, but men tend to exhibit rather more idealism than women. Twenty-live men students in an American college were asked by Professor JasLrow to write down a hundred words its quickly as possible, as <*i test of thought habits and ideas. .Most of the i words referred to implements, oeeupa- ” tions, animals, and geography, with a few abstract terms. Tiie sain® test was given to twentylive young women. Assuming that women are more “idealistic” than men, we might expect to find a preponderance of words associated with religious aspirations, patriotism, altruism, motherhood, and ideals of morality an 1 conduct. The largest mini her of words written by the women students were associated with wearing apparel. From this fact we might infer that dress is the chief ideal and absorbing interest of women and that abstract ideas do not appeal to them. Summing up the result of the inquiry, the professor concluded that “the masculine preference is for the more remote, the constructive, the useful, the general, and the abstract.” The feminine characteristics revealed were chiefly “the ornamental, the concrete, and the individual.” c * * * An investigation has been made among boys and' girls concerning moral ideals. i The hoys state that it is wrong to j steal, to get drunk, to break windows, * and to swear. The moral idealism of the girls is ( chiefly expressed by a regard lor personal neatness. They say that it is wrong not to comb the hair, wrong also to soil frocks, and to climb trees. J The idealism that is concerned with a search for truth is far commoner «= among men than among women. Very few women possess that devout zeal for " knowledge which will inspire a man to work in poverty and obscurity for the remote object of scientific discovery. :) Women are sometimes called “the j, religious sex.” But the eminent men o saints greatly outnumber the women. S In all the principal religious and moral B movements men have been the initia- c ” tors and the leaders. Idealism is not the exclusive possession of men or women. But the tendency among men to variation from the normal undoubtedly favours the development of idealistic aspiration and manifestation. The great idealists are men. Variation causes colour-blindness imbecility, and lowered (resistance to disease among men. But is is also the source of genius, fevid idealism, and a passion for abstract ideas that are at the base of ideals. Man’s ideal of love, l duty, and honour is at least as high as woman’s.