Must Woman be Dominated to be Nice?

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 1, 18 July 1930, Page 47

Must Woman be Dominated to be Nice?

Has Man’s Softness and Chivalry Encouraged Woman's Cruelty and | Vindictiveness ?

A BRITISH author and lecturer, Mr.,A, Corbett Smith, now lecturing in, the United States, has propoundéd views which are likely to precipitate’ a first-class controversy. He definitely charges women with being by nature cruel and vindictive and gloating in the infliction of pain. His charge is general, applicable not only to individuals but to groups, and to spinsters as well as to the married woman. Is he correct? The "Radio Record" offers a guinea prize for the best views on the subject. . Mr. Corbett Smith backs his charge with evidence. These are his main points. Women are attending prizefights in increasing numbers and ¢lamour for a "knock-out." When it was. proposed in London that a very harrowing crucifixion scene against which critics had protested, should be excised from a play, the box-office manager expressed his astonishment at the rush of women to see it, seeking the rance that the scene in question wot be retained. Mr. Smith usserts that it is women, comprising seveneigths of the reading public, who support the sale of lurid war books. Few men can stomach their obscenities and blood and filth, but it is in these details that women revel. The harshness’ and cruelty of women managers to girls in their employ is becoming proverbial. Even more significant, he states, is their domineering behnviour to junior male employees. In this field they have a new opportunity-and seem to be exploiting it to the full. "Now these casual examples," he says, "with a hundred more like them, are not just symptoms of the present age. Or, rather, they are only accentuated, because history repeats itself. We face a psychological condition of womanhood whic’ is best educed and intensified by existing social conditigns. "Fo@@t is not disputed, least of all by women, that, compared with man, woman is both largely inured and insensitive to pain and suffering, and also is more prone to the infliction of cruelty, mental and physical. This, even upon those whom they love. "Upon the first count; we remember that the life of every twoman is largely compounded of suffering, while any house surgeon of a great hospital will testify to the stoicism of women under a major or minor operation.

"TJPON the second count, the history of specific ages and people is packed with examples of the more intense, the more refined cruelty of women. One recalls the women Tet yorist8 of the French Révolution, whé ‘revolted even their male colleagues by their barbarity’; the patrician women

of Rome during the first and second centuries A.D., the women of muny native races, East and West, to whom is especially given the task of torturing prisoners, "Whenever the balance of the sexes has swung toward the dominance of woman and the degeneration of man, woman instinctively and inevitably tends to assume and exaggerate the normally accepted attributes of man. "She has become impatient of his apparent failure, and so she comes increasingly to despise him. Hence her desire to wound. But, with her impulsive outlook, she makes the cardinal mistake of regarding cruelty, mental or physical, as an attribute of strength instead of weakness, . "Justified or not, this outlook by women is perhaps the most deplorable of all phases of our social life to-day. It ruins the home, it tends to dislocate business and voluntary social effort, and it keeps men in constant antagonism, leading them to retaliate in kind, when they should be seeking and winning sympathy, encouragement, and comradeship from woman, the sheet-anchor of their hopes and aspirations. "But no society is static. It must advance or regress. The oméns to-day are good. There aré may suges-

tions of a steady swing-back td a happy femininity. Woman's imagined dominance of the moment is a myth. It is built upon self-defusion, To-morrow she will awaken, the balance will adjust itself and, in the words of Pope: ‘If she rules him, never shows she rules.

Charms by accepting; by submitting sways,’ " Is He Right? WERE we have the views of Mr. Corbett Smith. How far is he

justified in his charge? That women ean be cruel and vindictive wher roused is beyond question. Shakespeare knew that and set the standard for all ages by his sapient "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." But Mr. Smith would seem to imply that woman is not waiting to be scorned individually but that as the sex balance of the world bas been disturbed and larger numbers of women, the world over, are being more or less compulsorily "s¢corned" in being obliged to go "muneless" through inadequate "supplies of man.« power," there is developing a general cruelty and vindictiveness in woman as @ result. Will man have to reassert his natural dominance to put woman in het proper piace as a mate -and a "nice" one? What do you think? A prize of one guinea (£1/1/-) will be awarded to the best essay of approximately 700 words answering the questions submitted above. ‘The accompanying article must be rend in conjunction with this question. Essays must bé addressed to "The Lady Editor," N.Z. Radio Record, P.O. Box 1032, Wellington. Closing date July 30. The right is reserved to publish extracts from contributions either in "The Radio Retord"’ or over the air.

oe oF SIS IP SDPO PSS PSG LGD POSS D LD DPR LSDDLES An Astounding Statement! "Women Must be Dominated ! They are Harsh, Cruel and , Vindictive" ' What Do Our Readers Think of This? Expressed Opinion to be submitted to the Lady Editor before July 30. A Guinea For the Best S ‘ 7 =