Women - The Fairer Sex?
After returning from using my rollator to take a few laps up and down the outer hallway I gave Jackie a short quiz. "Choose from the following three: do you think I am handsome, very handsome, or extremely handsome?"
She clutched her heart and sighed. "Oh, extremely handsome, of course."
Instead of stopping there she added, "I've never been able to stand handsome men. They're arrogant, self-centered, uninformed and stupid."
Now I'm in a quandary. What am I to make of this?
*****
Women - who can understand them? Back in 1922, Ring Lardner was asked by the editor of The American Magazine to write a story about wives. This was because a woman had written a scurrilous attack on husbands. It was titled Say It with Bricks. Lardner, being a wise man, knew this was a hopeless task. He wrote: ". . . a man defending husbands vs. wives, or men vs. women, has got about as much chance as a traffic policeman trying to stop a mad dog by blowing 2 whistles."
He pointed out that down through the years only two writers, Francis Bacon and Rudyard Kipling, had the nerve to come right out and say that it isn't true that behind every successful man is a woman. Bacon said, "he that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief."
Kipling was more blunt. Among other things about the fairer sex he wrote, "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."
Then there was this ending to The Ladies: "So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not), an learn about women from me!"
But Rudyard was just getting warmed up. In The Vampire he wrote this:
A fool there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair (Even as you and I!)
I could be wrong, but I'll bet Mrs. Kipling didn't feel that was hubby's best piece of work.
She clutched her heart and sighed. "Oh, extremely handsome, of course."
Instead of stopping there she added, "I've never been able to stand handsome men. They're arrogant, self-centered, uninformed and stupid."
Now I'm in a quandary. What am I to make of this?
*****
Women - who can understand them? Back in 1922, Ring Lardner was asked by the editor of The American Magazine to write a story about wives. This was because a woman had written a scurrilous attack on husbands. It was titled Say It with Bricks. Lardner, being a wise man, knew this was a hopeless task. He wrote: ". . . a man defending husbands vs. wives, or men vs. women, has got about as much chance as a traffic policeman trying to stop a mad dog by blowing 2 whistles."
He pointed out that down through the years only two writers, Francis Bacon and Rudyard Kipling, had the nerve to come right out and say that it isn't true that behind every successful man is a woman. Bacon said, "he that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief."
Kipling was more blunt. Among other things about the fairer sex he wrote, "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke."
Then there was this ending to The Ladies: "So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not), an learn about women from me!"
But Rudyard was just getting warmed up. In The Vampire he wrote this:
A fool there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
(We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair (Even as you and I!)
I could be wrong, but I'll bet Mrs. Kipling didn't feel that was hubby's best piece of work.
posted by Dick Stodghill | 3/19/2009 11:31:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home