Thursday, November 04, 2004

Nineteenth Amendment Humor

Via my historian flatmate, an excerpt from Alice Duer Miller, Rhymes for Suffrage Times (1915):

Why We Oppose Votes for Men
1. Because man's place is in the armory.
2. Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
3. Because if men should adopt peaceful methods women will no longer look up to them.
4. Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
5. Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them peculiarly unfit for the task of government.

This list is preceded by another called "Why We Oppose Pockets for Women."

His packet of materials also includes many historical references to women's "natural modesty."
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