that _modesty comes from man_; that consequently all the young girls who
have been seduced, all the little girls whose corruptors and violators
are punished by the courts, are but jades, who, through their initiative,
have caused men to forget their character as inspirers of chastity!
You enlighten me, illustrious Master; and I shall at once draw up a
memorial to demand that all seduced and violated women and girls shall be
punished as they deserve; and that, to console the seducers, suborners,
corruptors and violators, poor innocent victims of feminine ferocity, for
having sinned against the _corollary of justice and the product of manly
dignity_, rose-trees shall be forced to blossom, in order that the
_maires_ of the forty thousand communes of France and Algeria may crown
them winners of the roses.
PROUDHON. Jest as you please; woman is nevertheless so perverse in her
nature, that, through inclination, she seeks men who are ugly, old, and
wicked.
AUTHOR. Is not this somewhat exaggerated, Master?
PROUDHON. (Forgetting what he has just said,)
"Woman always prefers a pretty, finical puppet to an honest man; a beau,
a knave can obtain from her all that he desires; she has nothing but
disdain for the man who is capable of sacrificing his love to his
conscience."
You see what woman is: "_unproductive by nature, inert, without industry
or understanding, without justice, and without modesty_, she needs that a
father, a brother, a lover, a husband, a master, a man, in fine, should
give her that magnetic influence, if I may thus term it, which will
render her capable of manly virtues, of social and intellectual
faculties."--_Id._
And as "all her philosophy, her religion, her politics, her economy, her
industry are resolved in one word: Love;
"Now shall we make of this being belonging wholly to love, an overseer,
an engineer, a captain, a merchant, a financier, an economist, an
administrator, a scholar, an artist, a professor, a philosopher, a
legislator, a judge, an orator, the general of an army, the head of a
State?
"The question carries its answer within itself."--_Id._
I have laid down and proved my thesis, I am about to draw my conclusions.
"Since in economical, political and social action, the strength of the
body and that of the mind concur and are multiplied, the one by the
other, the physical and intellectual value of the man will be to the
physical and intellectual value of woman as 3 × 3 is to 2 × 2, or as 9 to
4.
"In the moral, as in the physical and intellectual point of view, her
value (that of woman,) is also as 2 to 3.
"Their share of influence, compared together, will be as 3 × 3 × 3 is to
2 × 2 × 2 or as 27 to 8.
"According to these conditions, woman cannot pretend to counterbalance
the virile power; her subordination is inevitable. Both by nature, and
before justice, she does not weigh the third of man."--_Id._
Do you understand clearly?
AUTHOR. Very clearly. Your theory, if theory there be, is only a tissue
of paradoxes; your pretended principles _are contradicted by facts_, your
conclusions _are equally contradicted by facts_; you _affirm_ like a
revelator, but you _never prove_, as a philosopher should do. There is so
much ignorance and senseless metaphysics in all that you say, that I
should rather give you credit for bad faith than be compelled to despise
you.
I have listened to you patiently while you have said to me, in saying it
of all women:
You are inert, passive, you possess the germ of nothing;
You are a mean term between man and beast, you have no right to exist;
You are immoral, immodest, imbecile, aristocratic, the enemy of liberty,
equality and justice.
In your turn, endeavor to listen to me calmly, while I refute your
allegations by facts, by science and by reason.
III.
There is, by your own confession, but one good method of demonstration;
that of basing every affirmation _upon well established facts, not
contradicted by others, legitimately deduced_.
Let us see how you have followed this method.
In order to prove that the _thetic_ woman, or woman considered apart from
the influence of man, is such as you depict her, it is necessary that you
should bring us face to face with an assemblage of such women, and
afterwards, with another assemblage composed of men who have never been
subjected to the influence of women, that we may verify for ourselves the
native activity of the latter and the native inertness of the former.
Have you had at your disposal, can you place at ours these proofs _de
facto_?
No; and if you neither have them nor can procure them, what is your
thesis, if not the illusion of a brain sick with pride and with hatred of
woman?
1. You say: man alone produces physical germs. Anatomy answers: _It is
woman that produces the germ_; the organ that performs this function in
her, as in all other females, is the ovary.
2. You say: woman is a diminutive of the man; she is an imperfect male;
anatomy says: _man and woman are two distinct beings, each one
complete_, each one furnished with a special organism, the one as
necessary as the other.
3. You say with Paracelsus, of whom this is not the only absurdity:
_where virility is wanting, the subject is imperfect; where it is taken
away, the subject deteriorates_. Mere good sense replies: the being can
only be incomplete or deteriorate _when it differs from its type_; now
the type of woman is feminity not _masculinity_.... If, like you, I were
a lover of paradox, I would say: _man is an imperfect woman_, since it is
the woman that produces the germ; his part in reproduction is very
doubtful, and science may even learn some day to dispense with it. This
is Auguste Comte's paradox; it is worth as much as yours.
To prove that woman is only an imperfect male, it is necessary to
establish by facts that man on being deprived of virility, finds the
organs developed in him peculiar to woman, becomes qualified for
conception, gestation, delivery, and giving suck. Now I have never
learned that any keeper of a seraglio had been transformed into an
odahlic; have you?
4. You say: the organs peculiar to woman are inert, and purposeless with
respect to herself; physiology answers: the labor that these organs
accomplish is immense; pregnancy and the crisis that terminates it are
incontestable proofs of this. The influence of these organs makes itself
felt, not only on the general health, but in the intellectual and moral
order. Pathology, no less eloquent, depicts to us the grave disorders
produced among women by forced continence, incontinence, the excessive or
perverted vitality of these organs which you pretend are inert.
5. You say: woman is the soil, the place of incubation for the germ.
Anatomy has told you in reply that the woman alone produces the germ.
Read my reply to your friend Michelet on the subject of the resemblance
of children and you will know what facts add to the answer of science.
Your affirmation is no less absurd in the presence of these facts than
that of a simpleton who should pretend that the soil in which the seed of
the carnation or the oak is deposited, has the property of causing
rosebushes or palm trees to spring up.
From this _false_ supposition that woman has not physical germs, you
conclude that she is destitute of intellectual and moral germs.... And do
you really dare accuse woman of thus _taking false analogies for
principles_?
Grant that when a man indulges in them thus wantonly, and mistakes them
for principles, we ought to be more inclined to laugh than to be vexed.
6. You say that intellectually and morally, woman is in herself, nothing.
Now, if I am not mistaken, you admit that our functions have our organs
for their basis, and you place the functions of intellect and morality in
the brain, according to Gall, or similarly.
Well, Anatomy tells you: in both sexes, the cerebral mass is similar in
composition and, adds Phrenology, in the number of organs. Biology adds:
the law of development of our organs is _exercise_, which supposes action
and reaction, the result of which is the augmentation of the volume,
consistency and vitality of the organ exercised.
The point in question then, to convince your readers of the truth of
your affirmations, is to prove that _the two sexes are subjected to the
same exercise of the brain and to the same stimulus_, and that despite
this identity of education, woman constantly remains inferior. Have you
proved this? Have you ever thought of doing so? No. For if you had, your
theory would have fallen to to the ground, since you would have been
forced to acknowledge that man and woman cannot be alike, for we say to
man from his infancy: resist, struggle;
To woman: yield, always submit.
To man: be yourself, speak your thoughts boldly, ambition is a virtue;
you can aspire to everything.
To woman: dissemble, calculate your slightest word, respect prejudices;
modesty, abnegation, such is your lot; you can attain to naught.
To man: knowledge, talent, courage will open every career of life to you,
will make you honored by all.
To woman: knowledge is useless to you; if you have it, you will pass for
a pedant, and if you have courage, you will be disdainfully called
_virago_.
To man: for you are instituted lyceums, universities, special schools,
high prizes; all the institutions through which your intellect can be
developed; all the libraries in which is accumulated the knowledge of the
past.
To woman: for you is history in madrigals, the reading of prayer-books
and novels. You have nothing to do with lyceums, special schools, high
prizes, anything that would elevate your mind and enlarge your views; a
learned woman is ridiculous!
Man must display the knowledge that he often possesses but superficially,
woman must hide what she really possesses.
Man must appear courageous when he is often but a coward; woman must
feign timidity when in reality she is not afraid.
For where man is reputed great and sublime, woman is found ridiculous,
sometimes odious.
If you had verified as you should have done, these diametrically opposite
systems of training, the one tending to develop and ennoble the being,
the other to degrade it and render it imbecile, instead of writing such
absurdities, you would have said to yourself: woman must really have the
initiative to resist the iniquitous system of repression that weighs upon
her; she must have great elasticity to show herself so often superior to
the majority of men in intellect, and _always in morality_.
I am curious to know what you males would be if subjected to the same
system as we. Look at those who have not studied like you, and tell me
whether they are not in general beneath uncultivated women. Look then at
the men who have received a feminine education; have they not all the
affectation, all the narrowness of mind of silly women?
Look, on the contrary, at those women who, through the wish of their
teachers or their own energy, have been subjected to masculine
discipline, and tell me, on your conscience, whether they do not equal
the most intelligent, the firmest among you?
7. You say: intellectual force is in proportion to physical force.
_Facts_ reply: great thoughts, useful works, date from the period when
the physical forces began to decline. _Facts_ say also: the athletic
temperament, which is the most vigorous, is _the least intellectual_:
statuaries fully comprehend this, and sculpture Hercules with a large
body and a small head.
8. You say that morality is in a direct ratio to physical and
intellectual force combined. This pleasantry we will not refute; every
one knows too well that these things have no relation, and that facts
contradict your assertion.
9. You say: woman being one third weaker, should have in social labor one
third the privileges of man.
Upon what elements do you base this proportion? In order to establish it,
did you carry a dynamometer about through our districts and measure the
strength of each man and of each woman?
But were your affirmation true, is naught but _strength_ employed in
labor? Then, great economist, what do we do with _skill_? What Samsonian
muscles are needed to keep books, dispense justice, measure cloth, cut
and sew garments, etc.!
And what is the end of civilization if not to shift the employ of our
strength from ourselves to machinery that we may be at liberty to use
only our intellect and skill?
10. You say: the infirmities, the weaknesses, the maternity of woman, and
her aptitude for love, exclude her from all functions; she is _judicially
and absolutely_ excluded from all political, industrial and doctrinal
direction.
She cannot be a political leader.... Yet history shows us numerous
empresses, queens, regents and sovereign princesses who have governed
with wisdom and glory, and have shown themselves far superior to many
male sovereigns, unless Maria Theresa, Catherine II, Isabella and Blanche
of Castile, and many others, are but myths.
Woman cannot be a legislator.... All the women whom I have just cited
have been so, and many more beside.
Women can be neither philosophers nor professors.
Hypatia, massacred by the Christians, taught Philosophy with luster; in
the Middle Age and later, Italian women filled chairs of Philosophy, Law
and Mathematics, and excited admiration and enthusiasm; in France, at the
present time, the Polytechnists are making great account of _the
geometrician_, Sophie Germain, who has taken it into her head to study
Kant.
Woman cannot be a merchant or an administratrix... Yet a great portion of
the feminine population devote themselves to trade, or fill commercial
positions. It is even admitted that the prosperity of commercial
establishments is almost always due to the administrative genius of
woman.
Woman cannot be an overseer, a foreman of a workshop... Yet a host of
women superintend workshops, invent, improve, carry on manufactures
alone, and contribute, by their taste and activity, to the increase of
the national wealth and the industrial reputation of France.
Woman cannot be artist... Yet every one knows that the greatest literary
artist of our age is a woman, George Sand; yet every one bows before
Duchesnois, Mars, Georges, Maxime, Ristori, Rachel, Dorval; yet every one
pauses before the beautiful paintings of Rosa Bonheur; yet since the
revival of the fine arts, every century has registered many celebrated
women.
We meet women everywhere, working everywhere, competing with man.... Yet
Proudhon pretends that she can be nowhere, that she is excluded from
every place absolutely and _judicially_; that if she governs and
legislates like Maria Theresa, it is a contradiction;
That if she philosophises like Hypatia, it is a contradiction;
That if she commands an army and wins victories like the wife of the
conqueror of Calais; if she fights like Jeanne d'Arc, Jeanne Hachette,
Madame Garibaldi and thousands of others, it is a contradiction;
That if she is merchant, administratrix, superintendent of a workshop,
like thousands of women, it is a contradiction;
That if she is learned like Dr. Boivin, Sophie Germain, and many others,
if she is a professor as are many among us, it is a contradiction.
The thesis sustained by Proudhon is, as we have just seen, contradicted
by _science_ and by _facts_. We ask ourselves whether it is possible that
he is ignorant of the simplest notions of Anatomy and Biology; we ask
ourselves whether it is possible that he is so far blind as not to see
that woman _is in reality_ all that he pretends that she _absolutely and
judicially_ cannot be in his absurd and insulting theory; and we conclude
that the author is struck with ignorance and voluntary blindness.
Your reproaches are pleasant; from the origin of society, man has been
the master; now, the ancient world sunk beneath the weight of slavery,
usury, and the most shameless vices; the modern world seems doomed to
perish through inequality and its sad consequences, you yourself
acknowledge that injustice _caused by your sex_ exists every where in the
world, and you say that man has judicial sense!
And, in the face of the inequality and oppression created by men, of
their love of puerile distinctions, of the base deeds which they commit
for a bit of ribbon, you accuse women of loving inequality and
privileges!
They may love them, _like you_, but they are better than you, if not more
just; they pray for the vanquished, you kill him!
I do not deny that women did much harm to the Revolution of February, for
they are as intelligent as men, and have great influence over them. But
what did this Revolution do for them, I pray?
Mark me well, you and all those who are blind enough, proud enough,
despotic enough to resemble you, and remember what I say.
Woman is like the people: she desires no more of your revolutions, which
decimate us for the benefit of a few ambitious babblers.
She will have liberty and equality for all men and women, or she will
take care that no one shall have them.
We, Women of Progress, openly declare ourselves adversaries of whoever
shall deny the right of woman to liberty.
Our sisters of the people, indignant at their exclusion from the popular
assemblies, say to you: you have lured us long enough, it is time that
this should end. We will no longer suffer ourselves to be ensnared by
your high-sounding words of Justice, Liberty, and Equality, which are
only false coin so long as they are applied to but half the human
species. Do you wish to save the perishing world? Call woman to your
side. If you will not do this, let us alone, insipid phraseologists; you
are naught but ambitious hypocrites; we do not wish our husbands to
follow you, and they will not.
IV.
PROUDHON. Let us consider woman in the antithesis. I have said that
woman, considered apart from masculine influence, is _nothing_.
AUTHOR. Yes, Master, because this is a pure creation of your thought.
PROUDHON. But woman, considered under the influence of man, is half of
the human being, and _I sing litanies in her praise_.
AUTHOR. Then you make woman re-enter humanity through the door of
Androgyny, in order to restore to her her share of rights.... This is
absurd; no matter.
PROUDHON. Not so! not so! Women have rights! Never, so long as I am
Proudhon! She is indeed the complement of man, who, without her, would be
only a brute.
AUTHOR. Ah! my learned Master, how do these things harmonize in your
brain? You have said hitherto that _woman owes everything to man_, you
tell me now that, without woman, man would be only a brute. Is he not
then, _adequate to his destiny_, as you have affirmed? And if woman is
nothing without him, and he nothing without woman, I can see no longer
upon what you rest in making him the guide of this poor unfortunate.
PROUDHON. I need not explain myself, such is my idea. I am simply
comparing the respective qualities of the sexes, and, as I find, they are
_incommutable_.
AUTHOR. Ah! I catch a glimpse of your meaning; then you do not weigh them
in the balance since they are not alike, and, being unable to prejudice
the rights of woman, you leave her free.
PROUDHON. What! what! Woman free! Horrible! Are you resolved to throw me
into convulsions? Woman, however eminent may be her talents, should serve
man in silence and in all humility.
AUTHOR. Frankly, Master, all this appears to me nonsense, which, satanic
as you are, you cannot yourself understand in the least.
PROUDHON. Listen without interrupting me further, if you wish to
comprehend me.
"Without feminine grace, _man would not have emerged from the brutality
of the early ages; he would violate his female, smother his little ones,
and give chase to his fellows in order to devour them_.
"_Woman is the conscience of man personified_, the incarnation of his
youth, _his reason and his justice, of all within him that is purest,
most sacred, most sublime_.--_Justice_, _Vol._ III., etc.
"The ideality of his being, she becomes to him a _principle of
animation_, a gift of strength, of prudence, of justice, of patience, of
courage, of sanctity, of hope, of consolation, without which he would be
incapable of sustaining the burden of life, of preserving his dignity, of
enduring himself, _of fulfilling his destiny_.
"It is through her, through the grace of her divine word, that man gives
life and reality to his ideas, by bringing them back unceasingly from the
abstract to the concrete.
"_The auxiliary on the side of justice_, she is the angel of patience, of
resignation, of tolerance, the guardian of his faith, the mirror of his
conscience, the source of his devotion. Vanquished, guilty, it is still
in the bosom of woman that he finds consolation and pardon."
Man has strength, woman beauty. Through her beauty, she should be the
expression of Justice, "and the attraction that draws us to it.... _She
will be better than man_.... She will be the motor of all justice, all
knowledge, all industry, all virtue."--_Id._
Also, "beauty is the true destination of the sex; it is its natural
condition, its state."--_Id._
Woman is the soul of everything; "without her, all beauty fades; nature
is sad, precious stones lose their luster, all our arts, children of
love, become insipid, half of our labor is without value.
"If, with respect to vigor, man is to woman as 3 to 2, woman, with
respect to beauty, is to man as 3 to 2.
"If, from the body, we pass to the mind and conscience, woman, through
her beauty, will be revealed with new advantages."--_Id._
The mind of woman is _more intuitive, more concrete, finer than that of
man_; "it seems to man, and is in fact, more circumspect, more _prudent_,
more reserved, _wiser_, more equable; it was _Minerva_, the protectress
of Achilles and Ulysses, who appeased the fury of the one, _and shamed
the other of his paradoxes and profligacies_; it is the Virgin whom the
Christian litany calls _the seat of wisdom_.
"The quality of the feminine mind has the effect of serving the genius of
man as a radiator, by reflecting his thoughts at an angle which makes
them appear more beautiful if they are correct, more absurd if they are
false; consequently, of simplifying our knowledge and condensing it into
simple propositions, easy to seize upon as simple facts, and the
intuitive, aphoristic, imaged comprehension of which, _while giving woman
a share in the philosophy and the speculations of man_, makes their
memory clearer to him, their digestion more easy... _There is not a man
among the most learned, the most inventive, the most profound, who does
not feel a sort of refreshment from conversation with women_....
"Popularizers are generally minds of the feminine type; but man does not
like to be subservient to the glory of man, and provident Nature has
assigned this part to woman.
"Let her speak, then, _let her write, even, I authorize and invite her to
do so_; but let her do it according to the measure of her feminine
intelligence, since it is on this condition that she can serve us, and
_please_ us, _otherwise I withdraw the permission_.
"Man has strength; but that constancy of which he boasts overmuch, he
derives especially from woman.... Through her he endures, and learns true
heroism. _Upon occasion, she can set him the example of it_; she will be,
then, _more sublime than he_.
"Woman will render the law kind, and will convert this two-edged sword
into an olive branch.... There is no justice without tolerance; now, it
is in the exercise of tolerance that woman excels; by the sensibility of
her heart and the delicacy of her impressions, by the tenderness of her
soul, by her love, in fine, she will blunt the sharp angles of justice,
destroy its asperities, of a divinity of terror make a divinity of peace.
Justice, the mother of Peace, would be only a cause of disunion to
humanity, were it not for this tempering which she receives especially
from woman."--_Id._
And what chastity does woman possess! With what constancy she awaits her
betrothed! What continence she observes during the absence or sickness of
her husband! Ah! "woman alone knows how to be modest.... Through this
modesty, which is her most precious prerogative, she triumphs over the
transports of man, and ravishes his heart."--_Id._
And what wisdom in her choice of the companion of her life!
"She desires man to be strong, valiant, ingenious; she turns from him if
he is mincing and delicate."--_Id._
Now, my unloved, indocile, and very irreverent disciple, let us
recapitulate.
Woman, with respect to physical, intellectual and moral beauty, is to man
as 3 to 2; "thus it may be said, indeed, that between man and woman there
exists a certain equivalence, arising from their respective comparison,
in the two-fold point of view of strength and beauty; if, by labor,
genius, and justice, man is to woman as 27 to 8, in her turn, by graces
of form and mind, by amenity of character and tenderness of heart, she is
to man as 27 to 8.... But these respective qualities are incommutable,
cannot be the subject of any contract....
"Now, as every question of preponderance in the government of human life
is within the jurisdiction either of the economical order, or of the
philosophical or judicial order, it is evident that superiority of
beauty, even of that which is intellectual and moral, cannot create a
compensation for woman, whose condition is thus made fatally
subordinate."--_Id._
Do you understand me now?
AUTHOR. I understand that this is pure sophistry, a thing easily
demonstrated; that if your _thesis_ is absurd, your _antithesis_, however
complimentary it may be, is quite as much so; that you have piled
contradictions upon contradictions, and that it is a sad spectacle to me
to see so strong and fine an intellect as yours abandon itself to such
practices.
You shall judge for yourself whether my reproaches and regrets are well
founded.
In the _Thesis_ you say: man alone is in himself intelligent and just, he
alone is adequate to his destiny. Woman has no reason for existing;
without man, she _would not emerge from the bestial condition_.
In the _Antithesis_: without woman, who is the principle of animation of
man, the motive power of all science, of all art, of all industry, of all
virtue--without woman, who renders justice possible, thought
comprehensible and applicable, man, far from being in himself just,
intelligent, a worker, would be but a brute, _who would violate his
female, strangle his little ones, and pursue his fellow men in order to
devour them_.
What follows from these divergent affirmations? That if woman alone is
inadequate to her destiny, man alone is inadequate to his, and that the
adequateness of both is caused by the synthesis of their respective
qualities.
It also follows, by your own admission, that man receives as much from
woman as she receives from him, since, if he rescues her from the bestial
state, she rescues him from the state of brute ferocity.
It follows, lastly, by your own admission, that there is equivalence
between the respective qualities of the two sexes. Only you pretend that
these qualities cannot be measured by each other, and cannot therefore be
subject for contract, and that the qualities of man being more important
to the social state than those of woman, the latter should be
subordinated to the former.
Tell me, is there commutability between the qualities that distinguish
men from each other?
Between the man of genius and the humble rag-picker?
Between the philosopher who elevates the human mind and the porter who
does not even know how to read?
Between the brain that discovers a great natural law and the one that
reflects on nothing?
To answer affirmatively is impossible: for we only compare things of the
same nature.
Now, if there can be no commutability between individuals so different,
is there not, according to your system, subject for social contract
between them?
Why then do you claim that these men should be _equal socially_?
Why then do you admit that they may associate things in a private
contract which cannot be subjected to a common measure?
There is no need to be learned in philosophy or economy to know _that any
contract whatsoever is an admission of personal insufficiency_; that we
would not enter into partnership with others if we could dispense with
them; and that in general the design of the contracting parties is _to
establish commutability where it has not been established by the nature
of things_.
To a common work, one brings his idea, another his hands, a third, his
money, a fourth, custom: if each of the parties had had all these
combined, no one would have thought of forming a partnership: a happy
insufficiency brought them together, and caused them to establish
equivalence between the shares of capital which could not be subjected to
a common measure.
Were it true, therefore, that the qualities of the sexes differ as you
pretend, then, as through this same difference, they are _equally_
necessary to the collective work, they are _essentially_ subject to
contract, and _equivalent_.
But do they differ as you say? You know the answer of _science_ and
_facts_. We will not return to it. All your distinctions of beauty and
strength are only imaginary classifications. We all know that of eighteen
millions of Frenchmen, at the present time, we have a few men of genius,
absorbed in specialties, a few more men of talent, perhaps not four
philosophers, mediocrities in abundance, and an immense host of cyphers.
It is mockery, therefore, to establish the right of prepotency of a sex
from qualities which, on the one hand, do not exist in each of its
members, and, on the other, are often found in the highest degree in the
sex which it is claimed to reduce to subjection.
Besides, did your sex possess the qualities which you ascribe to it, to
the exclusion of mine; since, by your admission, there would be neither
civilization, nor science, nor art, nor justice, without the qualities
you term peculiar to woman; and since, without these qualities, man would
be only a brute and an anthropophagus, it thence follows that woman is
_at least_ the equivalent of man, if not his superior.
Let us now notice a few of your contradictions.
1st _Thesis_. Woman is a sort of mean term between man and the rest of
the animal kingdom.
_Antithesis._ No; woman is the idealisation of man, in that which is
purest and most sublime in him.
2d _Thesis_. Woman is an inert creature, devoid of understanding, that
has no reason for existing.
_Antithesis._ No; woman is the animating principle of man; without her,
he could not fulfil his destiny; she is the motive power of all justice,
all science, all industry, all civilization, all virtue.
3d _Thesis_. Woman does not know how to express an opinion in set terms,
or to assign reasons for it; she has only disconnected ideas, erroneous
reasonings; she mistakes chimeras for realities, composes nothing but
medleys, monsters.
_Antithesis._ No; the intellect of woman is finer than that of man; she
has a wiser, more prudent, more reserved mind; she is the foil of
masculine ideas. She is Minerva shaming Ulysses for his paradoxes and
profligacies; she is the seat of wisdom.
4th _Thesis_. Without the magnetic influence of man, woman would not
emerge from the bestial state.
_Antithesis._ Without the magnetic influence of woman, man would be but a
ferocious beast.
5th _Thesis_. The woman who philosophises and writes, destroys her
progeny; she had better go iron her collars; she is good for nothing but
to be concubine or courtesan.
_Antithesis._ Woman should participate in the philosophy and speculations
of man, and popularize them by her writings.
6th _Thesis_. The conversation of woman exhausts, enervates; he who
wishes to preserve intact the force of his mind and body, will flee her.
_Antithesis._ The conversation of woman refreshes the most eminent men.
7th _Thesis_. Woman has an infirm conscience; she is immoral,
anti-judicial; she is worth nothing as to moral responsibility until
forty-five years of age.
_Antithesis._ Woman is the mirror of the conscience of man, the
incarnation of this conscience; through her alone justice becomes
possible; she is the guardian of morals; she is superior to man in moral
beauty.
8th _Thesis_. Woman is without virtue.
_Antithesis._ Woman excels in tolerance; through her, man learns
constancy and true heroism.
9th _Thesis_. Woman is immodest: she takes the initiative in affairs of
love.
_Antithesis._ Woman alone knows how to be modest; in principle, there are
no impure women; woman calms the sensual passions of man.
10th _Thesis_. Woman prefers an ugly, old, and wicked man.
No; woman prefers a pretty, mincing puppet, a beau.
_Antithesis._ No; woman wishes man strong, valiant, ingenious; she turns
from him when he is but a pretty, mincing puppet, a beau.
I might go on thus to a hundred, and then make a cross to begin another
hundred. Can it be possible that you trifle in this manner with your
readers?
PROUDHON. The contradiction is not in my thought, but only in the terms.
The woman of my thesis is she who has not been subjected to masculine
magnetism, to which the woman of my antithesis, on the contrary, has been
subjected.
AUTHOR. You would have reason to laugh at us, should we take such an
answer in earnest. What! have you seen women outside of society, who
would have taken men for monkeys?
Have you proved that in this menagerie, they think falsely, they write
badly, they are worth nothing as to conscience until forty-five years of
age?
That there, in the absence of men, the women take the initiative in
affairs of love?
That the conversation of these women exhausts, enervates the men who are
not there?
That these women prefer the old, ugly and wicked men, or the pretty,
mincing puppets, who are not at their disposal?
If the woman of your thesis is the one who has not been subjected to
masculine influence, why do you take the women whom you attack from among
those who have been subjected to it?
Your contradictions, Master, are genuine and fair contradictions. For you
as for us, there is but one woman: she who lives in the society of man,
who has, like him, faults and vices, and who influences him as much as
she is influenced by him: the other has never existed except in the brain
of mystics and of victims of hallucination.
But we will leave this.
I have been told that you have spoken of love: it would seem to me
impossible, did I not know your audacity.
PROUDHON. I have spoken of it, as well as of Marriage.
AUTHOR. Well! let us make a little excursion into these two territories.
We will first speak of Love.
V.
PROUDHON. Love!... It wearies and annoys me greatly. I have never yet
been able to make my ideas agree on this subject.
I at first defined love: "the attraction of the two sexes towards each
other with a view to reproduction," adding that this attraction becomes
purified by the adjunction of the Ideal. I even made a most beautiful
discovery with respect to this, namely: that there is a sexual division
because it is impossible to idealize anything but the objective.--_Vol._
III.
AUTHOR. How you run on! Then all of the animal and vegetable species in
which the sexes are separated have an ideal in love? An ideal in the
brain of a horse or a mare may pass, since there is a brain; but where
will you lodge that of the male and female flower?
PROUDHON. On my honor, I never thought of asking myself that question. We
will return, if you please, to the definition of human love. I say, then,
that love is an attraction given with a view to reproduction;
notwithstanding, I think, also, that to love, properly called, progeny is
odious.--_Id._
AUTHOR. But this is a contradiction...
PROUDHON. Am I to blame for that! You know, that in my eyes, man and
woman form _the organ of justice, the humanitary Androgynus_. Now I
affirm that love is the moving power of justice, because it is this that
attracts towards each other the two halves of the couple. It is through
love, therefore, that the conscience of man and woman is opened to the
knowledge of justice, which does not hinder it from being "the most
powerful fatality by which nature could have found the secret of
obscuring reason within us, of afflicting the conscience, and of chaining
the free will."--_Id._
AUTHOR. The moving power of justice, the sentiment which opens the
conscience of the sexes to justice, and which forms the judicial organ,
disturbs the reason and afflicts the conscience! But this is a
contradiction.
PROUDHON. Once more, am I to blame for it? Love, sought for itself,
renders man unworthy, and woman vile; and stop! "love, even when
sanctioned by justice, I do not like."--_Id._
AUTHOR. Have you not said that without the love inspired in man by the
beauty of woman, there would be neither art, nor science, nor industry,
nor justice; that man would be only a brute?
PROUDHON. Ah! I have said much more!... This love, the motor of justice,
the father of civilization, is, notwithstanding, _the abolition of
justice_, which exacts that it should be cast aside as soon as its office
of motor is performed. The impulse, the movement given, it must be
dispensed with. In marriage, it should play the smallest part possible;
"all amorous conversation, even between betrothed lovers, even between
husband and wife, is indecorous, destructive of domestic respect, of the
love of labor and the practice of social duty." A marriage of pure
inclination is nearly allied to shame, and "the father that gives his
consent to it is deserving of censure."--_Id._
AUTHOR. A father deserving of censure because he unites those who yield
to the motive power of justice!
PROUDHON. Let young people marry without repugnance, that is right....
But "when a son, a daughter, to satisfy inclination, tramples under foot
the wishes of the father, disinheritance is his first right and most
sacred duty."--_Id._
AUTHOR. Thus love, the motor of justice, the cause of civilization, the
necessity for reproduction, is at the same time a thing of shame which
should be feared and banished from marriage, and that, in certain cases,
deserves disinheritance!... May the gods bless your contradictions, and
posterity pass lightly over them!
PROUDHON. I can say nothing more satisfactory on the subject; but, let us
talk of marriage; I am strong indeed on that point.
Every function supposes an organ; man is the organ of liberty; but
justice exacts an organ composed of two terms: the couple. It is
necessary that the two persons that compose it should be dissimilar and
unequal, "because, if they were alike, they would not be completed by
each other; they would be two beings wholly independent, without
reciprocal action, incapable, through this cause, to produce justice....
In principle, there is no difference between man and woman, except a
simple diminution of energy in their faculties.
"Man is stronger, woman is weaker, that is all.... Man is the power of
that of which woman is the ideal, and reciprocally, woman is the ideal of
that of which man is the power."--_Id._
Androgyny laid down, I define marriage to be: "the sacrament of justice,
the living mystery of universal harmony; the form given by nature itself
to the religion of the human race. In a lower sphere, marriage is the act
by which man and woman, elevating themselves above love and the senses,
declare their wish to be united according to the law, and, as far as in
them lies, to pursue the social destiny, by laboring for the Progress of
Justice.
"In this family religion, it may be said that the father is the priest,
the wife the god, the children the people.... _All are in the hands of
the father_, fed by his labor, protected by his sword, subjected to his
government, _within the jurisdiction of his court_, heirs and continuers
of his thought.... _Woman remains subordinate to man_, because she is an
object of worship, and because there is no common measure between the
force and the ideal.... Man will die for her, as he dies for his faith
and his gods, but he will keep for himself the command and the
responsibility."--_Id._
In result, the spouses are equal, since there is community of fortune,
of honor, of absolute devotion; "_in principle and practice_ ... this
equality does not exist, _cannot exist_.... The equality of rights
supposing an equilibrium between the advantages with which Nature has
endowed woman and the more powerful faculties of man, the result would be
that woman, instead of being elevated by this equilibrium, would be
denaturalized, debased. By the ideality of her being, woman is, so to
speak, beyond price.... That she may preserve this inestimable charm,
which is not a positive faculty in her, but a quality, a manner, a state,
she must accept the law of marital power: _equality would render her
odious_, would be the dissolution of marriage, the death of love, _the
destruction of the human race_.
"And the glory of man consists in reigning over this admirable creature,
in being able to say: she is myself idealized, she is more than I, and,
notwithstanding, would be nothing without me.... In spite of this or on
account of this, I am and ought to remain the head of the community; if I
yield the command to her, she becomes debased and we perish."--_Id._
Marriage should be monogamous, "because conscience is common between the
spouses, and because it cannot, without being dissolved, admit a third
participant."--_Id._
It should be indissoluble, because conscience is immutable, and the
spouses could not procure an exchange _without being guilty of
sacrilege_. If they are obliged to separate, "the deserving one needs
only to heal the wounds made in his heart and conscience, the other has
no longer the right to aspire to marriage, but must be content with
concubinage."--_Id._
What do you think of this theory?
AUTHOR. Hitherto I have refused to believe in the god Proteus; but on
contemplating you, Master, I abjure my incredulity.
You appear to us first under the garb and form of Manou, and we discuss
his physiology;
You appear to us next, successively, in the shape and vestments of Moses,
St. Thomas Aquinas, and St. Bonaventure; you are incarnated for a moment
in Paracelsus;
Lastly, you put on the Roman toga, over which you wrap the ungraceful
robe of Auguste Comte.
All this is too old, too unsightly for our age.... Have you really
nothing better to give us than the resurrection of the Roman law at the
glorious time when Cincinnatus ate his dish of lentils stark naked?
PROUDHON. What! do you dispute that marriage by _confarreation is not the
masterpiece of the human conscience_?
AUTHOR. Do I dispute it? Yes, indeed, and many other things beside. But
tell me, what meaning do you give to the words _sacrament_ and _mystery_,
that sound so hollow and false from your lips?
PROUDHON. Despite all my explanations concerning marriage, there
nevertheless remains a mystery with respect to it. This is all I can tell
you in elucidation. You must comprehend that "marriage is an institution
_sui generis_, formed at the same time at the tribunal of human justice
by contract, and at the spiritual tribunal by sacrament, and which
perishes as soon as the one or the other of these two elements
disappears."--_Id._
You must also comprehend that "marriage is a function of humanity,
outside of which love becomes a scourge, the distinction of the sexes has
no longer any meaning, the perpetuation of the species becomes a real
injury to the living, _justice is contrary to nature and the plan of the
creation is absurd_."--_Id._
AUTHOR. The plan of the creation absurd, and justice contrary to nature
without marriage! What does this mean in plain language?
PROUDHON. What! Is your intellect so feeble that it does not comprehend
that, without marriage, there is not, there cannot be justice?
AUTHOR. Then marriage is necessary to all?
PROUDHON. No; but "all participate in it and receive its influence
through filiation, consanguinity, adoption which, universal in its
essence, in order to act, has no need of cohabitation.... In the animic
or spiritual point of view, marriage is to each of us a condition of
felicity.... Every adult, healthy in mind and body, whom solitude or
abstraction has not sequestered from the rest of mankind, loves, and by
virtue of this love, contracts marriage in his heart.... Justice, which
is the end of love, and which can be obtained either by domestic
initiation, by civic communion, or, lastly, by mystical love," suffices
"for happiness in every condition of age and fortune."--_Id._
And do not confound marriage with any other union, with concubinage, for
example, "which is the mark of a feeble conscience." I do not however
condemn the concubinary, for "society is not the work of a day, virtue is
difficult to practise, without speaking of those to whom marriage is
_inaccessible_."--_Id._
In my opinion, it is for the interest of woman, of children, and of
morals, that concubinage should be regulated by legislation. Every child
should bear the name of the concubinary father, who should provide for
his subsistence and for the expenses of his education; "the forsaken
concubine should also have a right to an indemnity, unless she has been
the first to enter into another concubinage."--_Id._
But it is not from concubinage, but from marriage that all justice, all
right proceeds. This is so true, that if you "take away marriage, the
mother is left with her tenderness, but without authority, without
rights: _she can no longer do justice to her son_; there is illegitimacy,
a first step backward, a return to immorality."--_Id._
AUTHOR. All that you have just said concerning love, marriage, justice
and right, contains so many equivocations, errors, sophisms, and so much
pathos, that nothing less than a huge volume would suffice to refute,
after first explaining you. We will content ourselves, therefore, with
dwelling on the principal points.
VI.
1. The Androgynus, by definition, is a being combining the two sexes. Now
marriage does not make of man and woman _a single being_; each preserves
his individuality; your humanitary Androgynus is not therefore worth the
trouble of discussion; it is only a fantasy.
2. Every organ supposes a function, it is true, but what _facts_
authorize you to say that the married couple is the organ of justice?
Especially when you take the trouble to contradict yourself, in admitting
that justice is produced outside of marriage; that there is no need of
being married to be just?
The organ of justice, like all other organs, is in each of us; it is the
moral sense which comes into action when the point in question is the
appreciation of the moral value of an act, or to apply to our own
conduct the moral science accepted by the reason of the age.
3. According to you, equilibrium is _equality_; _equality is justice_:
there is, therefore, a contradiction on your part in exacting of two
beings, endowed each with liberty, will and intellect, that they should
acknowledge themselves _unequal_ to produce _equality_.
4. To affirm, as you have done, that progress is the realization of the
ideal through free will; that, consequently, the ideal is superior to the
reality, and that man progresses because he suffers himself to be guided
by it; then to affirm that woman is the ideal of man and that,
notwithstanding, she is _less_ and should _obey_, is a double
contradiction. If the point from which you start be admitted, logic would
exact that man should permit himself to be guided by woman. But what is
the use of discussing a thing that is devoid of meaning to the intellect?
If man, according to you, represents in reality strength, reason,
justice, woman being the idealization of man, would therefore represent
the greatest strength, the loftiest reason, the most sublime justice....
Do you pretend to say this, you who affirm the contrary?
5. To say that marriage is an institution _sui generis_, a _sacrament_, a
_mystery_, is to affirm what? And what enlightenment do you fancy that
you have given us? Are you fully sure of comprehending yourself better
than we comprehend you? I doubt it.
6. Can you demonstrate why, in an association between strong, intelligent
men, and weak, narrow-minded men, justice exacts _equality_, respect for
the dignity of all, and declares the slave _debased_ who submits; whilst
in the association of man and woman, _identical in species_ according to
you, the woman who is always, according to you, the weak and
narrow-minded being, would be _debased_ and would become _odious_ by
equality?
7. Can you explain also how, in a couple which stands for the producer of
justice or equality, this equality _would be the death of love and the
destruction of the human race_?
Grant that such a farrago of nonsense and contradictions presents as many
unfathomable _mysteries_ as your marriage.
We will say nothing of divorce: we leave it to modern reason and
conscience whether the dissolution of morals and of the family, due in a
great measure to the indissolubility of marriage, does not give cause
that it should be granted. What reasons do you give, besides, to support
your opinions? An absurdity: that the rupture of marriage is _sacrilege_;
an affirmation contradicted by facts: that conscience is immutable.
8. Between the bastard and his mother, there is no justice, say you. Your
conscience is younger by two thousand and some hundred years than the
modern conscience. In the work of reproduction, the task to be performed
with reference to the new being, is divided between the parents. On the
woman, as the more vital, more elastic, and more resisting, devolves the
more perilous part of this task. You shall risk your life to form
humanity from your own substance, says Nature to her. To the man it
belongs to pay his debt to his children by erecting the roof under which
they take shelter, by bringing the food which you elaborate or prepare
for them. To him it belongs to accomplish his duty towards his sons by
the use of his strength, as you accomplish yours by supplying them with
your blood and your milk.
Your rights over the child arise, adds conscience, from his incapacity to
take care of himself, from the duties which you fulfil towards him, from
the obligation under which you are placed to form his reason and
conscience, and to make him a useful and moral citizen.
Well, what happens most of the time, in cases of illegitimacy? That the
father having weakly, cruelly, contrary to all justice, deserted his
task, the mother performs double duty towards her children: _she is at
once father and mother_.
And it is when this mother has a _double_ right that you dare to say that
she has _none_! that between her and her son there is no justice! In
truth, I should rather live among savages than in a society that thinks
and _feels_ like you.
A mother has an incontestable right over her child, for she has risked
her own life to give it birth: the father acquires rights over it only
when ever he fulfils his duty; when he does not fulfil it, he has no
right; thus says reason. In this question, marriage signifies nothing. If
I were illegitimate, and my father had basely abandoned me, I should
despise and hate him as the executioner of my mother; as a man without
heart and conscience, a vile egotist; and I should doubly love and
respect her who had been at once my mother and my father. Such are the
dictates of my conscience, my reason, and my heart.
9. What is your marriage, _the first form given by Nature to the religion
of the human race_, in which woman is an idol who does the cooking and
mends the stockings of her priest?
What is this institution, in which man is reputed to defend his wife and
children with his sword, whom the law defends, even against him?
In which man is reputed to support by his labor those who often labor
more than he, or who bring him a dowry?
_The wife and children are under the jurisdiction of the tribunal of
man!_ May the gods preserve us from this frightful return to the manners
and customs of the patriarchs and Romans. Women and children are under
the jurisdiction of the social tribunal, and it is safer for them: the
French wife has not at least to fear that her Abraham will sacrifice her
little Isaac, nor that her domestic despot, leaving the child on the
ground, like the ancient Roman, will thus condemn it to death. Society
has a heart and generous proctors who, happily, no longer see the family
tribunal in the same light as Proudhon. It is true that our author is an
Epimenides, awaking after a sleep of more than two thousand years.
I have finished, Master; have you anything more to say?
PROUDHON. Certainly. I have to speak of the sphere of woman. This sphere
is "the care of the household, the education of childhood, the
instruction of young girls under the superintendence of the magistrates,
the service of public charity. We dare not add the national festivals and
spectacles, which might be considered as the seed-time of love.
"Man is the worker, woman the housewife.
"The household is the full manifestation of woman.
"For woman, the household is an honorable necessity.
"As all her literary productions are always reduced to a domestic novel,
the whole value of which is to serve, through love and sentiment, to the
popularization of justice, so her industrial production is brought back
in conclusion, to the labors of the household; she will never depart from
this circle."--_Id._
AUTHOR. Pardon my astonishment, Master, that woman, whose mind is
_irremediably false_, who is _immoral_, who composes nothing but
_medleys_, _monsters_, who _takes chimeras for realities, who does not
even know how to write a novel_, knows how, notwithstanding, by your own
admission, to write a novel in order to popularize justice through
sentiment and love. She therefore comprehends, feels, and loves justice?
I remark next, that the cares of the household are _labor_;
That education is _labor_;
That the service of public charity is _labor_;
That the arrangement and superintendence of festivals and spectacles
presume varied _labors_;
That to popularize justice through a domestic novel is _labor_;
Whence it follows that woman is a _worker_, that is, a useful producer;
she differs from man, therefore, merely in the kind of production; and we
have only to ascertain whether the labor of woman is as useful to society
as that of man. I charge myself, when you like, with establishing this
_equivalence_ by _facts_.
I remark, in the second place, that the education of childhood, the
instruction of young girls, the service of public charity, the
arrangement of festivals and spectacles, the popularization of justice by
literature, do not form a part of the labors of the household; and that
woman, therefore, is not _merely housewife_.
I remark, thirdly, that our female superintendents, merchants, artists,
accountants, clerks, and professors, are no more housewives than your
male superintendents, merchants, artists, book keepers, clerks, and
professors; that our female cooks and waiting-maids are no more
housewives, than your male cooks, bakers, confectioners, and footmen;
that, in all these functions, and in many others, women equal men, which
proves that they are not less fitted than you for employments that do not
pertain to the household, and that you are not less adapted than they to
those that do pertain to it. Rude facts thus stifle your affirmations,
and show us that woman may be _something else than housewife or
courtesan_.
Lastly, Master, what is the position of all women relatively to all men?
PROUDHON. Inferiority; for the entire feminine sex fills the place with
regard to the other sex, in certain respects, of the wife with regard to
the husband: this proceeds from the sum total of the respective
faculties.
AUTHOR. So there is neither liberty nor equality even for the woman who
has not a father or husband?
PROUDHON. "The truly free woman is the woman who is chaste; the chaste
woman is she who experiences no amorous emotion for any one, _not even
for her husband_."--_Vol._ III.
AUTHOR. Such a woman is not chaste: she is a statue. Chastity being a
_virtue_, supposes the dominion of the reason and the moral sense over an
instinct: the chaste woman, therefore, is she who controls a certain
instinct, not she who is destitute of it. I add that the woman who yields
herself to her husband without attraction, plays the part of a
prostitute. I knew well that you understood nothing either of love or of
woman!
Shall we, in conclusion, compare your doctrine concerning the right of
woman with that which you profess concerning right in general?
PROUDHON. Willingly ... since I cannot do otherwise.
AUTHOR. Do you admit that woman is identical in species with man?
PROUDHON. Yes, only her faculties are less energetic.
AUTHOR. I grant you this for the sake of discussion. Expound your general
theory concerning right, I will apply it to woman, and you shall draw the
conclusion.
VII.
PROUDHON. "The law regulating only human relations, _it is the same for
all_; so that, to establish exceptions, it will be necessary to prove
that the individuals excepted are of superior order, or inferior to the
human species."--_Creation of Order in Humanity._
AUTHOR. Now you admit that woman is neither superior nor inferior to the
human species, but is identical in species with man; the law is therefore
the same for her as for man.
PROUDHON. I draw the contrary conclusion, _because man is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "Neither figure, nor birth, nor _the faculties_, nor fortune,
nor rank, nor profession, nor talent, _nor anything which distinguishes
individuals apart_, establishes between them a difference of species: all
being men, and the law only regulating human relations, it is the same
for all."--_Id._
AUTHOR. Now, woman is in essence identical with man; she differs from him
only in manners and qualities which, according to you, by no means make
her differ in essence; once more, therefore, the law is the same for her
as for man.
PROUDHON. It is logical; but I conclude the contrary, _because man is the
stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "Social equilibrium is the equalization of the strong and the
weak. So long as the strong and the weak are not equal, they are
_strangers_, they cannot form an alliance, they are _enemies_."--1st
_Memoir on Property_.
AUTHOR. Now, according to you, man is the strong and woman the weak of an
identical species; social equilibrium ought therefore to _equalize_ them,
that they may be neither strangers nor enemies.
PROUDHON. It is logical; but I claim that they should be _made unequal_
in society and in marriage. Man should have the prepotence, _because he
is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "From the identity of reason in all men, and the sentiment of
respect which leads them to maintain their mutual dignity at any cost,
follows equality before justice."--(_Justice_, _Vol._ III, etc.) All are
born free: between individual liberties there is no other judge than
equilibrium, _which is equality_; the identity of essence does not permit
the creation of a hierarchy.--_Vol._ II, the whole of the 8th _Study_.
AUTHOR. Now, woman is in essence identical with man. She is born free;
between her and man there is, therefore, no other judge than equality; it
is not permissible, therefore, to establish a hierarchy between them.
PROUDHON. It is logical. But I conclude, on the contrary, that it is
necessary to create a hierarchy between the sexes, and to give the
prepotence to man, _because he is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "The dignity of the human soul consists in being unwilling to
suffer any one of its powers _to subordinate_ the others, to require all
to be at the service of the collective whole; this is morality, this is
virtue. Whoever speaks of harmony or agreement, in fact, necessarily
supposes terms in opposition. Attempt a hierarchy, a prepotence! _you
think to create order, you create nothing but absolutism._"--_Justice_,
_Vol._ II.
AUTHOR. Woman, according to you, forms with man an organism, that of
justice. Now, according to you, the two halves of the androgynus have
different qualities, which are required to harmonize with each other in
equality under pain of creating absolutism instead of order; the feminine
faculty is therefore required to form an equipoise with the masculine
faculty.
PROUDHON. It is logical; but I conclude that the dignity of the
humanitary androgynus lies in subjugating the feminine faculty and
creating despotism, _because man is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "Justice is the respect spontaneously felt for and
_reciprocally guarantied_ to human dignity, in _whatever person_ and
whatever circumstance it may be found compromised."--_Justice_, _Vol._ I.
AUTHOR. Now, woman is a human being, possessing a dignity which should be
respected and guarantied by the law of reciprocity; therefore one cannot
be wanting in respect to feminine dignity without being wanting in
justice.
PROUDHON. It is logical; but although woman is a human being, identical
in species with man, and although I believe that there is no other basis
of right than equality, I nevertheless affirm that the dignity of woman
is inferior to that of man, _because he is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "Right is to each the faculty of exacting from others respect
for human dignity in his person," duty is "the obligation of each to
respect this dignity in another."--_Justice_, _Vol._ I.
AUTHOR. Now, woman being identical in species, man possesses a dignity
_equal_ to hers; therefore she should be respected in her dignity, that
is, in her person, her liberty, her property, her affections; this is her
right as a human being, and man cannot deny it without failing in justice
and in his duty.
PROUDHON. It is logical. But I claim that woman has not the right which
my principles attribute to her; that man alone has rights, _because man
is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "Liberty is an _absolute_ right, because it is to man what
impenetrability is to matter, a condition _sine qua non_ of
existence."--1st _Memoir on Property_.
AUTHOR. Now, woman is a human being, she has therefore an _absolute_
right to liberty, which is her condition _sine qua non_ of existence.
PROUDHON. It is logical. But I conclude, on the contrary, that woman has
no need of liberty; that this condition _sine qua non_ of existence for
our species, does not regard one half of the species; that man alone
cannot exist without liberty, _because he is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. A contradiction, Master.
PROUDHON. "Equality is an absolute right, _because without equality,
there is no society_."--_Id._
AUTHOR. Now, woman is a human and social being; she has an absolute
right, therefore, to this equality, without which she would be but a
Pariah in society.
PROUDHON. It is logical. But I nevertheless conclude from this that woman
has no more right to equality than to liberty. That, although of the same
species as man, and consequently amenable to the law of equality,
nevertheless she is not amenable to it, and should be unequal and in
subjection to man, _because he is the stronger_.
AUTHOR. Fie, Master! To contradict yourself thus is disgraceful to your
reputation. It would be better to maintain that woman has not the same
rights as man, because she is of a different species.
PROUDHON. Woman is bound to feel that she does not possess a dignity
equal to that of man; in the association formed between them to produce
justice, _the notions of right and duty shall be no longer correlative_.
Man shall have all rights, and shall accept only such duties as it shall
please him to recognize.
AUTHOR. Reflect that man, after having denied the dignity and the right
of woman, will labor to stultify her more and more in the interest of his
despotism!
PROUDHON. That does not concern me: the family should be immured: the
husband is priest and king therein. If, as in the case with all liberty
oppressed, the woman grows restive, we will tell her _that she does not
know herself, that she is incapable of judging and ruling herself_; that
she is a cypher; we will outrage her in her moral worth; we will deny her
intellect and activity: and by dint of intimidating her, we will succeed
in forcing her to be silent: for man must remain master, _since he is
the stronger_!
AUTHOR. Deny and insult us, Master, this does us no harm: the lords of
the Middle Age employed this method with their serfs, your sires ... we
are now indignant at them. Slaveholders employed and still employ this
method with the blacks, and the civilized world is indignant at them,
slavery is restricted, and is on the way to disappear.
Meanwhile, I point out your contradictions to my readers; your authority
over minds will be thereby lessened, I hope.
Those who claim, in accordance with the major of the preceding
syllogisms, that you found right upon identity of species, an abstraction
of individual qualities; that you believe right and duty correlative;
that you desire equality and liberty, will be quite as nearly right as
those who claim, in accordance with the conclusion of the same
syllogisms, that you base right upon force, superiority of faculties;
that you accept inequality and despotism, deny individual liberty and
social equality, and do not believe in the correlation of right and duty.
If it is painful to you to have fallen into contradictions so monstrous,
believe that it is not less painful to me to be forced, in the interest
of my cause, to point them out to the world.
Having taken in hand the cause of my sex, I was under obligations to
parry your attacks by turning against yourself your allegations against
us.
It was necessary to do this, not by denials and declamations which prove
nothing, or by affirmations without proofs, according to your method of
proceeding; but by opposing to you science and facts; by making use only
of the rational method which you extol without employing it, by charging
you often with contradicting yourself when proofs _de facto_ would have
demanded too much detail and time.
You accuse women of _taking chimeras for realities_. I have proved to you
that you deserve this reproach, since your theory is in contradiction to
science and facts.
You accuse women of _erecting unreal analogies into principles_.... I
have proved that you have done so as well, in deducing from the
_pretended_ absence of physical germs in woman, the absence of
intellectual and moral germs.
You accuse woman of _reasoning wrongly_.... I have brought you face to
face with your own principles, that you might draw from them
contradictory conclusions.
You accuse woman of creating nothing but _medleys, monsters_.... The
anatomy of your theory proves that you know how to do so quite as well.
You accuse woman of lacking intellect, of want of justice, virtue,
chastity.... I appeal from you to yourself, and you say positively the
contrary.
Where you are fantastic, contradictory, I, _a woman_, appeal to logic.
Where you are wanting in method, I, _a woman_, employ scientific and
rational method.
Where you contradict your own principles, I appeal to these same
principles to judge and condemn you.
Which of us two is the more reasonable and more rational?
My modesty suffers, I acknowledge, at the thought that I have played the
part of _Minerva shaming Ulysses_ _of his paradoxes and his
profligacies_. At last, this tiresome part is ended!
I have addressed so many harsh things to you in so firm and resolute a
tone, that I should be sorry to quit you without a few friendly words
coming from my heart. You ought to be fully convinced of my sincerity,
for you see that you have to deal with a woman who shrinks from no one;
who is never intimidated, however great may be her opponent, or whatever
name he may bear. You may be my adversary: I shall never be your enemy,
for I regard you as an honest man, a vigorous thinker, one of the glories
of France, one of the great men of our Comté, always so dear to the heart
of her children; lastly, one of the admirations of my youth. You and I
belong to the great army that is assaulting the citadel of abuse, and
endeavoring to mine and sap it; I do not shun this solidarity. Is it so
necessary that we should fight? Let us live in peace; I can entreat it of
you without stooping, since I do not fear you. Understand one thing that
I tell you without bitterness: that you are incapable of understanding
woman, and that by continuing the struggle, you will inevitably range her
under the banner of the anti-revolutionists.
Your pride has set enmity between you and woman, and you have bruised her
heel: no one would be more sorry than I to see her crush your head.