Woman's aptitude for religion—Her need for a protection—Relation between the sexual and religious emotions—Deprivation of love and satiety of love the sources of religious needs—Religious prostitution—Religio-erotic festivals—Sexual mysticism in Christianity—The lives of the saints—Religious sexual perceptions—Their influence on the emotional feminine character—A personal experience—The association between love and salvation—The same sense of the eternal in the religious and the sexual impulse—Asceticism—Its origin in the sexual emotions—Preoccupation of the ascetic with sex needs—The transformation of the sex-impulse into spiritual activities—Examples—The modern ascetic—The fear of love—This the ultimate cause of the contempt of woman—Example of Maupassant's priest—In love the way of salvation.
CHAPTER IX[ToC]
APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING CHAPTER WITH SOME FURTHER REMARKS ON SEX DIFFERENCES
I.—Women and Labour
"The fullest ideal of the woman-worker is she who works not merely or mainly for men as the help and instrument of their purpose, but who works with men as the instrument yet material of her purpose."—Geddes and Thompson.
When we come to consider the detailed differences between woman and man, a sharp separation of them into female qualities and male qualities no longer squares with the known facts. Any attempt to lessen the natural differences, as also to weaken at all the attractions arising from this divergence, must be regarded with extreme distrust. There is a real and inherent prejudice against the masculine woman and the feminine man. It is nevertheless necessary very carefully to discriminate between innate qualities of femaleness and maleness and those differences that have been acquired as the direct result of peculiarities of environmental conditions. It is certain that many differences in the physical and mental capacity of women must be referred not to Nature but to Nurture, i.e. the effects of conditions and training. Let me give one concrete case, for one clear illustration is more eloquent than any statement. Long ago Professor Karl Vogt pointed out that women were awkward manipulators. Thomas, in Sex and Society, answers this well: "The awkwardness in manual manipulation shown by these girls was surely due to lack of practice. The fastest type-writer in the world is to-day a woman; the record for roping steers (a feat depending on manual dexterity rather than physical force) is held by a woman." I may add to this an example of my own observation. In a recent International Fly and Bait Casting Tournament, held at the Crystal Palace, a woman was among the competitors, and gave an admirable exhibition of skill in salmon fly-casting. In this competition she threw one cast 34 feet and two of 33 feet, making an aggregate of 100 yards, which gained her the prize over the male competitors. It has also been recently stated that women show equal skill with men in shooting at a target.
It is plain that the more we examine the question of sex-differences the more it baffles us. The only safeguard against utter confusion and idleness of thought is to fall back on the common-sense view that woman is what she is largely, because she has lived as she has, and further, that in the present transition no arbitrary rules may be laid down by men as to what she should, or should not, can, or cannot do. Even in fear of possible danger to be incurred, woman must no longer be "grandfathered." The scope of this chapter is to make this clear.