From the birth of the Church, out of the womb of Fear and the fatherhood
of Ignorance, it has taught the inferiority of woman. In one form or
another through the various mythical legends of the various mythical
creeds, runs the undercurrent of the belief in the fall of man through
the persuasion of woman, her subjective condition as punishment, her
natural vileness, total depravity, etc.; and from the days of Adam until
now the Christian Church, with which we have specially to deal, has made
_woman_ the excuse, the scapegoat for the evil deeds of _man_. So
thoroughly has this idea permeated Society that numbers of those who
have utterly repudiated the Church, are nevertheless soaked in this
stupefying narcotic to true morality. So pickled is the male creation
with the vinegar of Authoritarianism, that even those who have gone
further and repudiated the State still cling to the god, Society as it
is, still hug the old theological idea that they are to be "heads of the
family"--to that wonderful formula "of simple proportion" that "Man is
the head of the Woman even as Christ is the head of the Church." No
longer than a week since an Anarchist (?) said to me, "I will be boss in
my own house"--a "Communist-Anarchist," if you please, who doesn't
believe in "_my_ house." About a year ago a noted libertarian speaker
said, in my presence, that his sister, who possessed a fine voice and
had joined a concert troupe, should "stay at home with her children;
that is _her place_." The old Church idea! This man was a Socialist, and
since an Anarchist; yet his highest idea for woman was serfhood to
husband and children, in the present mockery called "home." Stay at
home, ye malcontents! Be patient, obedient, submissive! Darn our socks,
mend our shirts, wash our dishes, get our meals, wait on us and _mind
the children_! Your fine voices are not to delight the public nor
yourselves; your inventive genius is not to work, your fine art taste is
not to be cultivated, your business faculties are not to be developed;
you made the great mistake of being born with them, suffer for your
folly! You are _women_! therefore housekeepers, servants, waiters, and
child's nurses!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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