Selected Lead Articles from The Dawn | Page 2

a father. The circle of the wedding ring
spreading and broadening for him closes in about his wife, bringing
with it so many new duties and responsibilities that time and hands are
so full, except in a rare combination of circumstances, as to leave her
without either time or strength for the cultivation of talents or the
pursuing of such a line of thought as will render her companionable to
her husband. Whether bread and babies are pursuits lower or higher
than those that fall to the lot of the husband is a question not to be
decided here. But every woman in average circumstances who cannot
with the two, satisfy every longing of her soul will certainly find
marriage a failure. She must therefore remember that marriage means
in these days the acceptance by her of a position full of work, restricted
by many grievous limitations, and implying an abandonment of
individuality, and that even love has not always achieved final
happiness for married couples. In marriage career is offered to women,
a clear defined, but limited career. They should be sure that it is their
right vocation before they allow love only to prompt them to the
acceptance of it.

Spurious Women
The Dawn Volume 2, Number 3. Sydney, July 1, 1889
WE take it that anything which is diverted by artificial means from its
natural shape and from the natural exercise of its functions is a spurious
representative of its kind, and we could not therefore select any of the

dainty women figures you may see "on the block" as a fair specimen of
a woman of the human race, because they are really spurious women.
Bound, padded, compressed and laced, the modern woman is a highly
artificial product, made, not after God's image but as near as possible to
a fashion plate; and if any inhabitant of another planet were curious to
see what a real natural woman was like, we should have to take him to
some of the few women not afraid to use dress for purposes of health
and comfort only, and beg him to overlook those who, by corsets, high
heels, and a score of other inventions, have succeeded in constructing
in themselves, a new variety of woman. It is enough to make any
reflecting creature stand aghast to think that the most beautiful creature
in the world is not content to stand, like any other living being, on her
inherent merits. As if they had no reason of their own, some women
follow like a flock of sheep, the lead of a milliner-built beauty, and
offer up their health and comfort to secure an artificial outline. It is true
that these things are done with the ultimate hope of pleasing the men,
for if there were no men, it is not to be supposed that women would
squeeze themselves into artificial shapes for pure pleasure. Yet the men
are not to be altogether charged with the crime of inciting to these
shams by their admiration. Taking men in the lump, there is sense in
them if you wake it, and surely if they don't like a natural woman let
them leave her alone. It has come to be believed that corsets are really
necessary to the due support and bracing together of a woman; is the
race then grown so limp and invertebrate? Can we not then stand
upright without collapsing at the waist? If anyone is unable to remain
perpendicular without a steel waistcoat it is clear that the muscles
responsible for her natural support have had no opportunity to develop.
Corsets are just as unnecessary as they are injurious, at any rate to the
woman of average stamina, and of average symmetry. To those who are
invalided or deformed, another rule may apply, and we would not for
the world, restrict the liberty of individual opinion. On the contrary, if
any honest reasoning woman sincerely believes that it is better to
reduce the breathing capacity of her lungs, to crowd her internal organs
into unnatural and often dangerous positions, and to crease her skin into
folds by continual pressure, let her do so; the law of the survival of the
fittest may perhaps weed out her and her offspring in time. Perhaps we
shall be giving away secrets too much, if we talk of the indented

garter-rings, about the knee, killing the flesh and cutting off the
circulation, the injuries of high, stiff collars, high-heeled boots, and
heavy skirts, a drag upon the hips; but it is well known enough, how
many carry a heavy load of hair strained up and balanced at fashion's
dictum on the top of weary heads, and it is often enough charged upon
us that when dressed for walking we cannot raise our arms above