The Rights of Women and the Sexual Relations/Part 1/16. Liberty and the Revolution the Allies of Women
LIBERTY AND THE REVOLUTION THE ALLIES OF WOMEN.
In the same degree that the true liberty of men is great and well developed the position of women naturally becomes freer and more _ favorable. Now even if her legal position is as yet nowhere equal to that of the male sex, because complete liberty has as yet nowhere become a reality, it still is important to recognize by illustrations the differences in the shaping of the destinies of women as the results of the greater or lesser liberties of a people.
Let us for this purpose contrast North America with monarchical countries. In the greater part of Europe the legal enactments which determine the legal position of women are sometimes the outcome of manifest barbarity. The Code Napoléon, for instance, surrenders women entirely to the lusts of men by prohibiting the establishment of the paternity of an illegitimate child.[1] But the man has full power over the woman, as he can compel her with the help of the police to remain in his house, while the opposite is not the case. The man is the master and guardian over the wife and her children. The Prussian government, forced by the fruits of its military system, stands by illegimate children in so far as to permit suits for alimony, etc.; but to make up for this it grants the husband the right by means of "mild chastisement" to remind his wife of the fact that she is at bottom nothing but his slave.
In North America we have at least overcome such ideas of right; and even if the rights of woman are neither completely recognized nor guarded here, the consciousness of the wrong that is being done them, and the endeavor to do them justice, find expression in social life as well as in law.
The attention which the Americans show to the women in social intercourse is known the world over. But far be it from me to take it for anything else than a sort of conventional sin-offering for rights withheld. It is for the most part mere gallantry. But there are no more dangerous "virtues" than piety and gallantry. Behind the first, rascality is wont to hide itself; behind the latter, coarseness. Gallantry is nothing more than a cheap substitute for true appreciation, the justice of which is felt more than admitted; it is a deceptive humility with which one deceives himself and others concerning the arrogance that is hidden behind it. But since it springs just as much from a vague perception as from conscious arrogance, it is at once a proof of the necessity or the inclination to grant to women what belongs to them.
The consciousness of the wrong due towards women is moreover expressed in American legislation. It is indeed much that the men have conceded to women the right to put them out of conceit with their own want of principle by allowing the women to claim a mere promise of marriage as a binding contract. But, on the other hand, this legal precaution shows that the least conception of the true essence of marriage is wanting, for a relationship which is brought about only through the intervention of the police is no marriage from the start, but an institution of force which can only breed disaster. And such regulations generally accrue only to the benefit of unworthy women who either disclaim all feeling of self-respect and honor to such a degree that they will allow a man to be bound to them by force who is not drawn to them by any inclination, or who are low enough to actually speculate on promises of marriage in order to get themselves provided for. Whether, moreover, the right to establish a promise of marriage by a mere oath is not most dangerous in a moral respect is a question which experience is not slow to answer.[2] "Liberty and equality" must not only be realized with regard to classes, but also with regard to the sexes. From this we are still far removed, even in America. Especially the marriage and divorce laws, as we have seen above, are still sufficiently barbaric here. The above-mentioned symptoms, however, coupled with isolated regulations, which partly emancipate the women from the economic control of the men, as well as isolated attempts to increase this emancipation through legislation, plainly show how great a start the liberty of American women-has already secured, as
compared with that of European women, in a legal respect.
But their chief advantage consists in the liberty to agitate, and in that freedom from prejudice which allows them to themselves take an active part in the work of emancipation, as the woman conventions have shown.
But with this liberty they have not yet accomplished enough. True liberty does not appear like an oasis in the desert of barbarity surrounding it. Liberty, wherever it appears, stands in the closest connection, in constant interchange, with all other branches of development and with all mundane conditions. There is no narrower prejudice than that which considers American development independent of European development, which is its mother. That does not-only concern politicians, but also women. I do not speak of the fact that American women can gain an infinitely greater store of conceptions from the literature of Germany and France, from the profound discussions of the social and humane questions in Europe, than from the limited literature of materialistic America. But I should especially like to make it clear to them that it is indirectly for their greatest interest to see the ideas which have been awakened through German and French literature translated to action and life by the victory of the European revolution. The victory of the European revolution over barbarity and darkness will also have an immense influence upon North America. If the air has been cleared by a thunder-shower over there, many a cloud will likewise disappear in the West from the heaven of humanity. The world has not yet been turned around, and now as be. fore the sun will rise in the East, even if the revolution of our earthly sphere begins from the West.
AsI have shown in a former article, wholesale murder, the warrior's trade, constitutes the chief advantage upon which the male sex, consciously or unconsciously, founds its chief prerogative as against the feminine sex. What now will be the chief result of the victory of the European revolution? The interest which American women have in this victory can be made clear in a short series of conclusions.
What directly establishes the predominance of men and their inhuman tyranny over women? As we have seen, war, wholesale murder.
Who causes the wars with all their consequences of bestiality, and in whose favor are they waged? In favor of monarchs!
What enables monarchs to wage these wars, and what continually dulls the judgment in regard to the outrage of the "glorious" trade of murder? The standing armies!
How can monarchs, wars, and standing; armies be abolished in Europe? By establishing republics!
What will be the universal consequence of Europe republicanized? Peaceful union of the nations and mutual disarmament!
What follows from all this? The great interest which American women have in the establishment of the European republic!
Thus the republicanization of Europe is an affair whose result must have revolutionizing influence on the conditions and the development of the whole world, especially of America. Will America have to remain prepared for war when the main portion of the world is republicanized, the nations are fraternized, and their destiny taken out of the hands of the barbarous god of war and placed in the hands of a peaceful congress of nations? Will playing soldiers, which for the men of this republic seems to have become the only poetry of national life, still have any reason for being? When this military diversion for the national mind shall have ceased, will not nobler conceptions and needs force themselves to the surface? Is not militarism the prop everything unfree, and the foil for every vulgarity? But vulgarity is the greatest evil of North America. This vulgarity also makes all true national life and national festivity impossible, whereby. women lose every opportunity of making their influence felt in public social intercourse, and of making themselves appreciated, These suggestions will suffice for far-seeing women to justify me in positively declaring that the European revolution is the most powerful ally of the women of America as well as of Europe.
- ↑ Code Napoléon, art. 340: La recherche de la paternité est interdite. — Translator.
- ↑ The following interesting case of perjury is said to have happened in Philadelphia several years ago. A handsome young man is summoned before the judge to give an explanation of himself concerning a promise of marriage. He does not remember ever having made such a promise. But the judge sets aside all doubts by the assurance on oath of a beautiful lady with whom the young man after various denials is finally confronted. He had never seen the lady. But she insists that he, on the occasion of a secret rendezvous, has promised to marry her, and claims him for a husband. The astonished candidate for marriage assures her that her beauty and amiability gave the best proof to the contrary, for force was not needed to make him the husband of a woman who was fitted to meet all his requirements, and for this reason she would certainly believe him if he insisted that he had never seen her before. The lady, however, adheres to her oath, and the marriage is concluded at once. On the way home the young wife confesses to her husband that his appearance had long ago excited her love, but as she found no opportunity to make his acquaintance, she at last struck upon the desperate expedient of seeking it by means of perjury. Now after having attained her end she gave him back his full liberty and would, in case he should want a divorce, agree to it at once. The divorce, however, was not sought.