ARTICLE

What is Femininity?

by Sheila (30-B-2) FPE

In order to throw some new light on this old and battered question, let us visualize a science-fiction situation: the Earth has been conquered by a super- race who number about the same as the surviving humans but are superior enough to crush any revolt instantly. Make them about nine feet tall, immensely strong, immune to all our weapons, and completely contemptuous of all our intellectual abilities. For personality, let them all be crude, insensitive and brutally aggressive but with a few redeeming features such as a partly developed sense of beauty, occasional flashes of playful kindness and a weakness for being worshipped.

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Now, how would you a man adapt to this situation? There seem to be only three possible courses, and all of these have been well developed by Earth's present non-dominant species. First, you could fight and die, or lapse into a fugitive existence. Probably the brown rat is the most suc- cessful example of this way of life. The second route is that of willing slavery. This comes in two grades: physical, like sheep; and mental, like the dogs. The two are not mutually exclusive dogs work, and the horse might be cited as an example of a slave who provides worship, work and sometimes food to "the most dangerous animal", Man. Don't choose yet there is a third possibility.............

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This third way is tricky and less than 100% reliable but it has been successfully practiced for thousands of years by two very large groups: women and cats. Not all of either group have chosen this route; the ARE wild cats (fewer every year) and slavish women (also on the decrease). Wild-type women are in short supply, and slavish cats extremely This delicate art of maintaining the self-

rare.

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