The Man‐Made World
They have to be. What man would “allow” his wife, his daughters, to visit and associate with “the fallen”? His esteem would be forfeited, they would lose their “social position,” the girl‘s chance of marrying would be gone.
Men are not so stern. They may visit the unfortunate women, to bring them help, sympathy, re‐establishment—or for other reasons; and it does not forfeit their social position. Why should it? They make the regulation.
Women are to‐day, far more conspicuously than men, the exponents
and victims of that mysterious power we call “Fashion.” As shown in mere helpless imitation of one another‘s idea, customs, methods, there is not much difference; in patient acquiescence with prescribed models of architecture, furniture, literature, or anything else; there is not much difference; but in personal decoration there is a most conspicuous difference. Women do to‐day submit to more grotesque
ugliness and absurdity than men; and there are plenty of good reasons for it. Confining our brief study of fashion to fashion in dress, let us observe why it is that women wear these fine clothes at all; and why they change them as they do.
First, and very clearly, the human female carries the weight of sex decoration, solely because of her economic dependence on the male.
She alone in nature adds to the burdens of maternity, which she was meant for, this unnatural burden of ornament, which she was not meant for. Every other female in the world is sufficiently attractive to the male without trimmings. He carries the trimmings, sparing no expense of spreading antlers or trailing plumes; no monstrosity of crest and wattles, to win her favor.
She is only temporarily interested in him. The rest of the time she is getting her own living, and caring for her own young. But our women get their bread from their husbands, and every other social need. The woman depends on the man for her position in life, as well as the necessities of existence. For herself and for her children she must win and hold him who is the source of all supplies. Therefore
she is forced to add to her own natural attractions this “dance of the seven veils,” of the seventeen gowns, of the seventy‐seven hats of gay delirium.
There are many who think in one syllable, who say, “women don‘t dress to please men—they dress to please themselves—and to