THE RESPECTIVE VIEWS OF MEN AND WOMEN CONCERNING
BEAUTY AND INTELLIGENCE AS PRODUCTS OF MONOSEXUAL DOMINANCE The Dominant Sex: The Sociology of Sex Differentiation | ||
10. THE RESPECTIVE VIEWS OF MEN AND WOMEN CONCERNING BEAUTY AND INTELLIGENCE AS PRODUCTS OF MONOSEXUAL DOMINANCE
WHERE men rule, the current belief is that women are more beautiful than men, and that men are more intelligent than women. These differences are numbered among the sexual peculiarities whose origin is supposed to be traceable from inborn qualities that vary in the two sexes. In reality, the theory is a pure product of monosexual dominance. Only in the Men's State is beauty regarded as a predominant attribute of women, and there alone is livelier intelligence ascribed to men. In the Women's State, the usual opinions are the reverse of these. As the tendency towards sex equality makes progress, beauty and intelligence are considered to belong in equal measure to the two sexes.
Proneness to regard women as gifted with more intelligence than men is very plainly manifest in the Women's State. Among the Kamchadales, for instance, both the men and the women considered it unquestionable that women are far more intelligent than men. The investigators who have failed to recognise the influence of monosexual dominance accept the prevailing view of the Kamchadales as a fact. They believe that the Kamchadale women really were more intelligent than the men, and that this is why they held sway over the men. Do we not seem to be studying the opinions of our own day, but seen looking-glass
The views that prevail concerning the intelligence of a class, a caste, or a sex, are purely the outcome of the relationships of power. The dominant class, caste, or sex, uses its power to diffuse the idea that its members are endowed with exceptional intelligence. Of course it may chance that the more intelligent win to power. But it may equally well happen that the less intelligent
We do not need to go so far afield as Kamchatka to
find instances. The first historical reports concerning
the ancient Teutons unquestionably relate to a period
when equality of rights was being established between
the sexes, but when there were still obvious indications
of the transition from the phase of female dominance.[1]
At this epoch the women were considered cleverer and
wiser than the men. On account of her wisdom, Veleda
was almost universally looked upon as a goddess.
Tacitus tells us of the Teutons that they believed there
[1] It is a matter of common knowledge that Lamprecht has
demonstrated the existence of matriarchy among the ancient Teutons.
In ancient Egypt during the days of women's dominance,
there was likewise a general belief in the intellectual
superiority of women. This is shown by the
allotment of rôles to Isis and Osiris. Isis, the female
deity, was the legislator; Osiris, the male deity, was
the benefactor. The goddess, therefore, is the incorporation
of intellectual functions; the god, of affective.
Diodorus[2] records from the pillars of the shrines of
Isis and Osiris inscriptions which plainly indicate this
reversal of what among ourselves is regarded as the
natural antithesis between manly intelligence and
womanly sympathy. Isis boasts: "What I have established
as a law can be abrogated by no one." Osiris,
on the other hand, says: "There is no place in the
[2] I, 27.
Isis, the goddess, was mainly venerated as legislator; Osiris, the god, was mainly venerated as benefactor. Demeter, one of the oldest of the Greek goddesses, is described by Diodorus as "the legislator, the one who first prescribed the laws." To-day, under male hegemony, our views concerning the typical functions of the two sexes have developed in the opposite directions. Legislation is considered a specifically masculine function, whereas benefaction is assumed to be peculiarly accordant with the natural aptitudes of women. The relative positions of Isis and Osiris in ancient Egypt suffice to indicate that such views are the outcome of monosexual dominance. Isis takes precedence of her spouse Osiris, and is always named before him. Even Plutarch speaks of "Isis and Osiris." In the inscriptions reproduced by Diodorus, that relating to Isis begins, "I, Isis, am the Queen of all Lands," whereas that relating to Osiris begins, "My Father is Chronos." Whilst of Isis we are told that she rules all the countries of the world, of Osiris it is merely reported that he has visited them all. Indubitably at the time when these inscriptions were carved, Isis must have ranked higher than Osiris. Thus Isis was the personification of the dominant sex, which ascribed to her as her most characteristic quality that which was most highly esteemed among the attributes of the dominant sex.
In the case of beauty there is less abundant historical evidence than in the case of intelligence to indicate that its ascription in higher degree to members of the dominant sex is a direct outcome of sexual dominance.
There are factors which contribute in actual practice to make the subordinate sex better looking than the dominant sex. There are, in addition, psychological reasons why beauty should be speciously ascribed to the subordinate sex. At this stage the matter can be touched on only in passing. Each sex always looks upon the other sex as predominantly the embodiment of sexual qualities. Now, sexuality and beauty are intimately associated. Beauty plays a great part in stimulating the senses, in arousing sexual desire. The result is that, normally, each sex will regard the members of the other sex as better looking than the members of its own sex. In men, the physical excellencies of a man do not arouse a sexually tinged admiration; the charms of a woman leave another woman cold, or at most arouse a sexual envy. It is part of the essential nature of sexuality that we should tend to esteem intelligence more highly in members of our own sex, and to esteem physical beauty more highly in members of the opposite sex. What the average sensual man chiefly values in another man is the latter's wisdom; what he chiefly values in a woman is her physical "points." Conversely, what a woman finds interesting in another woman is intelligence, whereas in the case
Wherever one sex rules, one aspect of this duplex outlook will prevail. The standpoint of the dominant sex will dominate. When men rule, the masculine view that women are more beautiful than men, and that men are more intelligent than women, will be regarded as the natural opinion of all mankind. When women rule, the converse theory, equally subjective, equally one-sided, will be regarded as objective truth.
THE RESPECTIVE VIEWS OF MEN AND WOMEN CONCERNING
BEAUTY AND INTELLIGENCE AS PRODUCTS OF MONOSEXUAL DOMINANCE The Dominant Sex: The Sociology of Sex Differentiation | ||