A society in which conjugal infidelity is tolerated
must always be in the long run a society adverse to women. Women, whatever a
few male songs and satires may say to the contrary, are more naturally
monogamous than men; it is a biological necessity. Where promiscuity prevails,
they will therefore always be more often the victims than the culprits. Also, domestic happiness is more necessary to them than to us. And the quality by
which they most easily hold a man, their beauty, decreases every year after they
have come to maturity, but this does not happen to those qualities of
personality — women don’t really care twopence about our looks — by which we
hold women. Thus in the ruthless war of promiscuity women are at a double
disadvantage. They play for higher stakes and are also more likely to lose. I
have no sympathy with moralists who frown at the increasing crudity of female
provocativeness. These signs of desperate competition fill me with pity.
C.S.
Lewis, “We Have No ‘Right to Happiness’” in God
in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (1970).
No comments:
Post a Comment