Lysistrata

by Anthony M. Ludovici

This is the picture at a glance. To what can it lead?

The history of all reforms and radical innovations in this world has shown that far-reaching changes are always the work of a leading, active, gifted, and small minority, striving with zeal and determination to realize an ideal. This ideal may be based on misconception or on error; but that does not matter. In the end, the wilful minority establishes the environment, or mould, and the inert, ductile masses pour into it and receive their shape.

Now there is not a particle of doubt in anybody’s mind that the leading, active, and gifted minority now constituting the van of the Women’s Movement, are by far the most vital and energetic body of women in the civilized world, admirable in their zeal, and noble in their readiness to shoulder the responsibility of setting things right. This does not prevent us, however, from believing them mistaken in their reading of the situation, and pathetic in their illusions about their own and their sex’s capacities. So indefatigable are they, indeed, that large numbers of apparently monorchid and shallow-minded men have already gone over to their side; while the conversion of girls and young women to a sexless life is one of the least obvious but most pernicious results of their activities. And, since there appears to be no general recognition that our present state of muddle and lack of mastery over all things is the outcome of masculine degeneracy; since, moreover, there seems to be no attempt made to discover how man himself can recover his quota of manly qualities, it is not only possible, but highly probable, that the mass of mankind, through not having its attention called to the only remedy, which is the regeneration of man, will, out of sheer lack of principles and policies, see in the quack-cure of Feminism their only hope.

Given, therefore, the persistence of the body-despising values, and the conditions to which they give rise, we may expect to see the energetic minority of women, who now lead the Feminist movement, determine the future of their sex; and, if we watch them and try to understand them, we shall be in a position to describe the world they will call into existence.

We have seen that Feminism is not only the outcome of the modern world’s main characteristics, but also that it embodies these characteristics as elements in its general attitude. Truth to tell, if we take our values as given, together with all the results they were sure to bring about, then Feminism was a foregone conclusion from the start.

Neglect and degeneration of the body were bound to lead to a loathing of the body and the wish to be emancipated from its thraldom. This, however, necessarily destroyed one of the chief bonds between man and woman, and left the natural and radical hostility of the sexes naked and unconstrained. This is one side of Feminism.

Next we have the fact that physical neglect and degeneration were also bound to lead to the decline of man as the male, both in the material and in the spiritual senses. This, in its turn, led on the one hand to our lack of mastery in everything, which caused women to wonder whether they could not help to clear up the muddle; and, on the other, to a growing contempt of man’s powers, and, as we have seen, to an exaggerated notion of woman’s. This is the other side of Feminism.

To complete the movement, all that we required was, (a) a large body of disgruntled females, either spinsters or wives, all ready to slander life and man; and (b) economic pressure driving women into open competition with men in all paid employment. Both these conditions having been fulfilled, the rest naturally followed.

The first indication we had that Feminism consisted of these elements was the fact that the old passionate calls to which women once responded gradually began to yield before calls of mere vanity and to the desire for notoriety. Numbers of women no longer showed the old eagerness to express physical passion, or the old sad resignation when it was rebuffed: they were content with gratifying their vanity in every kind of sterile pursuit that gave them the appearance of being important.

Without any promise whatsoever of doing better than degenerate men, and certainly without any past record of achievement that would justify us in expecting wonders from them—for in those departments of life over which they have held supreme sway for thousands of years the most deplorable muddle and ignorance prevail[^[10]]—they claimed municipal and even parliamentary power, they sought prominence even in empty privileges, such as the right of sitting among the Peers; and were triumphant when, at last, they figured in a position which has naturally excited the abhorrence of all decent men for centuries—the jury box.