She found, too, that this world into which she had entered was very
courteous, that it was even considerate and kind--as considerate and
kind as it was possible to be--for it seemed to understand her
position quite as well as she herself understood it. And this world
paid her very well for the services she was asked to render. But it
asked of her no favors. It accorded her no honors. It sought her with
no offering. And, because of this, the woman, in the heart of her
womanhood, felt ashamed and humiliated.
It is the right of womanhood to bestow favors. It is a woman's right
to be honored above all creatures of earth. Since the beginning of
life itself her sex has been so honored--has received the offerings
from life. Mankind, alone, has at times attempted to change this law
but has never quite succeeded. Mankind never can fully succeed in this
because woman holds life itself in her keeping. So the woman felt that
her womanhood was humiliated and shamed. But she hid this feeling
also, hid it carefully, buried it deeply, because she knew that if she
did not it would betray her and she would not be permitted to remain
in the world into which necessity forced her. To the woman, it seemed
that the world into which she had gone, itself, felt her shame and
humiliation. That, in secret, it desired to ask of her; to accord to
her honors; to seek her with offerings. But this world could not do
these things because it dared not recognize her womanhood. When a
woman goes into that world into which she must go alone, she leaves
her womanhood behind. Her womanhood is not received there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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