University of Virginia Library

9. CHAPTER IX.

"DO YOU know," suddenly continued Posd-
nicheff, "that this power of women from which

the world suffers arises solely from what I have
just spoken of?"

"What do you mean by the power of wom-
en?" I said. "Everybody, on the contrary, com-
plains that women have not sufficient rights, that
they are in subjection."

"That's it; that's it exactly," said he, viva-
ciously. "That is just what I mean, and that is
the explanation of this extraordinary phenom-
enon, that on the one hand woman is reduced to
the lowest degree of humiliation and on the
other hand she reigns over everything. See the
Jews: with their power of money, they avenge
their subjection, just as the women do. 'Ah!
you wish us to be only merchants? All right;
remaining merchants, we will get possession of
you,' say the Jews. 'Ah! you wish us to be only
objects of sensuality? All right; by the aid of
sensuality we will bend you beneath our yoke,'
say the women.

"The absence of the rights of woman does not
consist in the fact that she has not the right to
vote, or the right to sit on the bench, but in the
fact that in her affectional relations she is not
the equal of man, she has not the right to ab-

stain, to choose instead of being chosen. You
say that that would be abnormal. Very well!

But then do not let man enjoy these rights, while
his companion is deprived of them, and finds
herself obliged to make use of the coquetry by
which she governs, so that the result is that man
chooses 'formally,' whereas really it is woman
who chooses. As soon as she is in possession of
her means, she abuses them, and acquires a ter-
rible supremacy."

"But where do you see this exceptional
power?"

"Where? Why, everywhere, in everything.

Go see the stores in the large cities. There are
millions there, millions. It is impossible to esti-
mate the enormous quantity of labor that is ex-
pended there. In nine-tenths of these stores is
there anything whatever for the use of men?

All the luxury of life is demanded and sustained
by woman. Count the factories; the greater
part of them are engaged in making feminine
ornaments. Millions of men, generations of
slaves, die toiling like convicts simply to satisfy
the whims of our companions.

"Women, like queens, keep nine-tenths of the

human race as prisoners of war, or as prisoners
at hard labor. And all this because they have
been humiliated, because they have been de-
prived of rights equal to those which men enjoy.

They take revenge for our sensuality; they catch
us in their nets.

"Yes, the whole thing is there. Women have
made of themselves such a weapon to act upon
the senses that a young man, and even an old
man, cannot remain tranquil in their presence.

Watch a popular festival, or our receptions or
ball-rooms. Woman well knows her influence
there. You will see it in her triumphant smiles.

"As soon as a young man advances toward a
woman, directly he falls under the influence of
this opium, and loses his head. Long ago I felt
ill at ease when I saw a woman too well adorned,
—whether a woman of the people with her red
neckerchief and her looped skirt, or a woman of
our own society in her ball-room dress. But now
it simply terrifies me. I see in it a danger to
men, something contrary to the laws; and I feel
a desire to call a policeman, to appeal for de-
fence from some quarter, to demand that this
dangerous object be removed.

"And this is not a joke, by any means. I am
convinced, I am sure, that the time will come—
and perhaps it is not far distant—when the
world will understand this, and will be aston-
ished that a society could exist in which actions
as harmful as those which appeal to sensuality
by adorning the body as our companions do
were allowed. As well set traps along our pub-
lic streets, or worse than that.