Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German EditionWeininger, Otto
Philosophy
Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
Weininger, Otto
Character; Sex; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics
[21] A real dame would never dream of asking her husband what she was
to do, what she is to give him for dinner, &c.; the hysterical woman,
on the contrary, is always lacking in ideas, and wants suggestions
from others. This is a rough way of indicating the two types.
The consequences of this theory are fully borne out by experience. The
Xanthippe is the woman who has the least resemblance to the hysterical
type. She vents her spleen (which is really the outcome of unsatisfied
sexual desires) on others, whereas the hysterical woman visits hers on
herself. The “shrew” detests other women, the “servant” detests herself.
The drudge weeps out her woes alone, without really feeling
lonely--loneliness is identical with morality, and a condition which
implies true duality or manifoldness; the shrew hates to be alone
because she must have some one to scold, whilst hysterical women vent
their passion on themselves. The shrew lies openly and boldly but
without knowing it, because it is her nature to think herself always in
the right, and she insults those who contradict her. The servant submits
wonderingly to the demands made of her which are so foreign to her
nature: the hypocrisy of this pliant acquiescence is apparent in her
hysterical attacks when the conflict with her own sexual emotions
begins. It is because of this receptivity and susceptibility that
hysteria and the hysterical type of woman are so leniently dealt with:
it is this type, and not the shrewish type, that will be cited in
opposition to my views.[22]
[22] It is the “yielding type” and not the virago type of woman that
men think capable of love. Such a woman’s love is only the mental
sense of satisfaction aroused by the maleness of some particular man,
and, therefore, it is only possible with the hysterical; it has
nothing to do with her individual power of loving, and can have
nothing to do with it. The bashfulness of woman is also due to her
“obsession” by one man; this also causes her neglect of all other men.
Untruthfulness, organic untruthfulness, characterises both types, and
accordingly all women. It is quite wrong to say that women lie. That
would imply that they sometimes speak the truth. Sincerity, _pro foro
interno et externo_, is the virtue of all others of which women are
absolutely incapable, which is impossible for them!
The point I am urging is that woman is never genuine at any period of
her life, not even when she, in hysteria, slavishly accepts the aspect
of truth laid on her by another, and apparently speaks in accordance
with those demands.
A woman can laugh, cry, blush, or even look wicked at will: the shrew,
when she has some object in view; the “maid,” when she has to make a
decision for herself. Men have not the organic and physiological
qualifications for such dissimulation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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