that I am old, too, and have read so much, I am perhaps a little nearer to understanding her feelings, I think." She looked at me curiously. And you, my dear. Perhaps you, too, were engaged to be married?"
"I was married for a little time," I told her.
She contemplated that for some seconds, then: "It must be a very strange experience to be owned," she remarked, reflectively.
"Owned?" I exclaimed, in astonishment.
"Ruled by a husband," she explained, sympathetically.
I stared at her.
"But itit wasn't like thatit wasn't like that at all," I protested. "It was" But there I broke off, with tears too close. To sheer her away I asked: "But what happened? What on earth happened to the men?"
"They all died," she told me. "They fell sick. Nobody could do anything for them, so they died. In little more than a year they were all goneall but a very few."
"But surelysurely everything would collapse?"
"Oh, yes. Very largely it did. It was very bad. There was a dreadful lot of starvation. The industrial parts were the worst hit, of course. In the more backward countries and in rural areas women were able to turn to the land and till it to keep themselves and their children alive, but almost all the large organisations broke down entirely. Transport ceased very soon: petrol ran out, and no coal was being mined. It was quite a dreadful state of affairs because although there were a great many women, and they had outnumbered the men, in fact, they had only really been important as consumers and spenders of money. So when the crisis came it turned out that scarcely any of them knew how to do any of the important things because they had nearly all been owned by men, and had to lead their lives as pets and parasites."
I started to protest, but her frail hand waved me aside.
"It wasn't their faultnot entirely," she explained. "They were caught up in a process, and everything conspired against their escape. It was a long process, going right back to the eleventh century, in Southern France. The Ro43 mantic conception started there as an elegant and amusing fashion for the leisured classes. Gradually, as time went on, it permeated through most levels of society, but it was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that its commercial possibilities were intelligently perceived, and not until the twentieth that it was really exploited.
"At the beginning of the twentieth century women were starting to have their chance to lead useful, creative, interesting lives. But that did not suit commerce: it needed them much more as massconsumers than as producersexcept on the most routine levels. So Romance was adopted and developed as a weapon against their further progress and to promote consumption, and it was used intensively.
"Women must never for a moment be allowed to forget their sex, and compete as equals. Everything had to have a "feminine angle" which must be different from the masculine angle, and be dinned in without ceasing. It would have been unpopular for manufacturers actually to issue an order "back to the kitchen," but there were other ways. A profession without a difference, called "housewife," could be invented. The kitchen could be glorified and made more expensive; it could be made to seem desirable, and it could be shown that the way to realise this heart's desire was through marriage. So the presses turned out, by the hundred thousand a week, journals which concentrated the attention of women ceaselessly and relentlessly upon selling themselves to some man in order that they might achieve some small, uneconomic unit of a home upon which money could be spent.
"Whole trades adopted the romantic approach and the glamour was spread thicker and thicker in the articles, the writeups, and most of all in the advertisements. Romance found a place in everything that women might buy from underclothes to motorcycles, from "health" foods to kitchen stoves, from deodorants to foreign travel, until soon they were too bemused to
"I was married for a little time," I told her.
She contemplated that for some seconds, then: "It must be a very strange experience to be owned," she remarked, reflectively.
"Owned?" I exclaimed, in astonishment.
"Ruled by a husband," she explained, sympathetically.
I stared at her.
"But itit wasn't like thatit wasn't like that at all," I protested. "It was" But there I broke off, with tears too close. To sheer her away I asked: "But what happened? What on earth happened to the men?"
"They all died," she told me. "They fell sick. Nobody could do anything for them, so they died. In little more than a year they were all goneall but a very few."
"But surelysurely everything would collapse?"
"Oh, yes. Very largely it did. It was very bad. There was a dreadful lot of starvation. The industrial parts were the worst hit, of course. In the more backward countries and in rural areas women were able to turn to the land and till it to keep themselves and their children alive, but almost all the large organisations broke down entirely. Transport ceased very soon: petrol ran out, and no coal was being mined. It was quite a dreadful state of affairs because although there were a great many women, and they had outnumbered the men, in fact, they had only really been important as consumers and spenders of money. So when the crisis came it turned out that scarcely any of them knew how to do any of the important things because they had nearly all been owned by men, and had to lead their lives as pets and parasites."
I started to protest, but her frail hand waved me aside.
"It wasn't their faultnot entirely," she explained. "They were caught up in a process, and everything conspired against their escape. It was a long process, going right back to the eleventh century, in Southern France. The Ro43 mantic conception started there as an elegant and amusing fashion for the leisured classes. Gradually, as time went on, it permeated through most levels of society, but it was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that its commercial possibilities were intelligently perceived, and not until the twentieth that it was really exploited.
"At the beginning of the twentieth century women were starting to have their chance to lead useful, creative, interesting lives. But that did not suit commerce: it needed them much more as massconsumers than as producersexcept on the most routine levels. So Romance was adopted and developed as a weapon against their further progress and to promote consumption, and it was used intensively.
"Women must never for a moment be allowed to forget their sex, and compete as equals. Everything had to have a "feminine angle" which must be different from the masculine angle, and be dinned in without ceasing. It would have been unpopular for manufacturers actually to issue an order "back to the kitchen," but there were other ways. A profession without a difference, called "housewife," could be invented. The kitchen could be glorified and made more expensive; it could be made to seem desirable, and it could be shown that the way to realise this heart's desire was through marriage. So the presses turned out, by the hundred thousand a week, journals which concentrated the attention of women ceaselessly and relentlessly upon selling themselves to some man in order that they might achieve some small, uneconomic unit of a home upon which money could be spent.
"Whole trades adopted the romantic approach and the glamour was spread thicker and thicker in the articles, the writeups, and most of all in the advertisements. Romance found a place in everything that women might buy from underclothes to motorcycles, from "health" foods to kitchen stoves, from deodorants to foreign travel, until soon they were too bemused to
Similar Books
