Book: Woman and Womanhood

C >> C. W. Saleeby >> Woman and Womanhood




At this period of which we are speaking there are constructions of the
most important kind going on in the girl's body, compared with which the
construction of additional muscular tissue is of much less than no
importance. These building-up processes are, we know, characteristic of
the woman. Their right inception is a matter of the greatest importance.
They involve the actual accumulation of food material and the building
up of it into gland cells and other highly organized tissues upon which
complete womanhood depends. These all-important concerns are prejudiced
by excessive external expenditure, and thus the care necessary for the
boy at puberty is a thousandfold more necessary for the girl, though the
obvious changes in her appearance and her voice may be much less marked.
Greater and more costly constructions are afoot in her case than her
brother's, grossly though these facts are at present ignored in what we
are pleased to call education, both physical and mental.

If we are to decide what kinds of physical exercise will be most
desirable, we must come to some conclusion as to what is the object of
our labours, it being granted that muscular activity and the making of
big muscles are not ends in themselves. The answer to this question is
to be found in what I have elsewhere called the new asceticism.

In tracing the history of animal progress, we find that it coincides
with and has consisted in the emergence of the psychical and its
predominance over the physical. The history of progress is the history
of the evolving nervous system. Muscles are the servants of the nervous
system. In man progress has reached its highest phase in that the
nervous system, which at first was merely a servant of the body, has
become the essential thing, so that the brain is the man. The old
asceticism was at least right in regarding the soul as all-important,
though it was utterly wrong in considering the interests of soul and
body to be entirely antagonistic, and in teaching that for the elevation
of the soul we must outrage, mutilate, and deny the body. The new
asceticism accepts the first principle of the old, but bases its
practice on a truer conception of the relations between mind and body.
The greater part of the body is composed of muscles, and it is with
muscles that physical training is concerned. On our principles, then,
any system of physical training worth a straw must have primary
reference to the brain, since the body, including the muscles, is only
the servant of the ego or self which resides in the brain. For this
reason, if for no other, the development of muscle as an end in itself
is beneath human dignity; the value of a muscle lies not in its size or
strength, but in its capacity to be a useful and skilful agent of the
brain.

The exceptions to this rule are furnished by precisely those muscles
which the usual forms of physical training and gymnastics ignore and
subordinate to the development of the muscles of the limbs. It does
matter very much that man or woman shall have the heart, which is the
most important muscle in the body, and the muscles of respiration in
good order. These muscles are directly necessary for life, and are
therefore servants of the brain, even though they are not in any
appreciable degree the direct agents of its purposes. Any kind of
physical exercise then which, while developing the muscles of the arm,
for instance, throws undue strain upon the heart or involves the
fixation of the chest for a considerable period--as occurs in various
feats of strength, whether with weights or upon bars or the like--is
_ipso facto_ to be condemned. It is now recognized that in the training
of soldiers much harm is often done in this way to the essential
muscles, while others, more conspicuous but of relatively no importance,
are being developed.

But before we consider in detail what kinds of exercise and with what
accompaniment may be permitted for the muscles of the limbs, it is well
that we should agree upon some method of deciding as to the quantity of
such exercise. We cannot go by such measures as hours per week, for
individuals vary. We must find some criterion which will guide us for
each individual. The pendulum has swung in this regard from one extreme
to another. Both extremes were adopted and permitted because in our
guidance of girlhood we ignored facts of physiology, and, notably,
because educators had not a clear conception of what it was that they
desired to attain. By the consent of all who have given any attention to
the subject, the great educational reformer of the nineteenth century
was Herbert Spencer, and not the least of his services was his
liberation of girls from the extraordinary _regimen_ of fifty years ago.
There needs no excuse for a long quotation from the volume in which,
just short of half a century ago, Herbert Spencer discussed this matter.
Thereafter we may observe how the pendulum has swung to the other
extreme:--

"To the importance of bodily exercise most people are in some
degree awake. Perhaps less needs saying on this requisite of
physical education than on most others; at any rate, in so far as
boys are concerned. Public schools and private schools alike
furnish tolerably adequate play-grounds; and there is usually a
fair share of time for out-door games, and a recognition of them as
needful. In this, if in no other direction, it seems admitted that
the promptings of boyish instinct may advantageously be followed;
and, indeed, in the modern practice of breaking the prolonged
morning's and afternoon's lessons by a few minutes' open-air
recreation, we see an increasing tendency to conform
school-regulations to the bodily sensations of the pupils. Here,
then, little need be said in the way of expostulation or
suggestion.

"But we have been obliged to qualify this admission by inserting
the clause in so far as boys are concerned. Unfortunately, the fact
is quite otherwise with girls. It chances, somewhat strangely, that
we have daily opportunity of drawing a comparison. We have both a
boys' school and a girls' school within view; and the contrast
between them is remarkable. In the one case nearly the whole of a
large garden is turned into an open, gravelled space, affording
ample scope for games, and supplied with poles and horizontal bars
for gymnastic exercises. Every day before breakfast, again towards
eleven o'clock, again at mid-day, again in the afternoon, and once
more after school is over, the neighbourhood is awakened by a
chorus of shouts and laughter as the boys rush out to play; and for
as long as they remain, both eyes and ears give proof that they are
absorbed in that enjoyable activity which makes the pulse bound and
ensures the healthful activity of every organ. How unlike is the
picture offered by the Establishment for Young Ladies! Until the
fact was pointed out, we actually did not know that we had a girls'
school as close to us as the school for boys. The garden, equally
large with the other, affords no sign whatever of any provision for
juvenile recreation; but is entirely laid out with prim
grass-plots, gravel-walks, shrubs, and flowers, after the usual
suburban style. During five months we have not once had our
attention drawn to the premises by a shout or a laugh. Occasionally
girls may be observed sauntering along the paths with their
lesson-books in their hands, or else walking arm-in-arm. Once,
indeed, we saw one chase another round the garden; but, with this
exception, nothing like vigorous exertion has been visible.

"Why this astonishing difference? Is it that the constitution of a
girl differs so entirely from that of a boy as not to need these
active exercises? Is it that a girl has none of the promptings to
vociferous play by which boys are impelled? Or is it that, while in
boys these promptings are to be regarded as stimuli to a bodily
activity without which there cannot be adequate development, to
their sisters Nature has given them for no purpose whatever--unless
it be for the vexation of schoolmistresses? Perhaps, however, we
mistake the aim of those who train the gentler sex. We have a vague
suspicion that to produce a robust physique is thought undesirable;
that rude health and abundant vigour are considered somewhat
plebeian; that a certain delicacy, a strength not competent to more
than a mile or two's walk, an appetite fastidious and easily
satisfied, joined with that timidity which commonly accompanies
feebleness, are held more lady-like. We do not expect that any
would distinctly avow this; but we fancy the governess-mind is
haunted by an ideal young lady bearing not a little resemblance to
this type. If so, it must be admitted that the established system
is admirably calculated to realize this ideal. But to suppose that
such is the ideal of the opposite sex is a profound mistake. That
men are not commonly drawn towards masculine women is doubtless
true. That such relative weakness as asks the protection of
superior strength is an element of attraction we quite admit. But
the difference thus responded to by the feelings of men is the
natural, pre-established difference, which will assert itself
without artificial appliances. And when, by artificial appliances,
the degree of this difference is increased, it becomes an element
of repulsion rather than of attraction.

"'Then girls should be allowed to run wild--to become as rude as
boys, and grow up into romps and hoydens!' exclaims some defender
of the proprieties. This, we presume, is the ever-present dread of
schoolmistresses. It appears, on inquiry, that at Establishments
for Young Ladies noisy play like that daily indulged in by boys is
a punishable offence; and we infer that it is forbidden, lest
unladylike habits should be formed. The fear is quite groundless,
however. For if the sportive activity allowed to boys does not
prevent them from growing up into gentlemen, why should a like
sportive activity prevent girls from growing up into ladies? Rough
as may have been their play-ground frolics, youths who have left
school do not indulge in leap-frog in the street, or marbles in the
drawing-room. Abandoning their jackets, they abandon at the same
time boyish games, and display an anxiety--often a ludicrous
anxiety--to avoid whatever is not manly. If now, on arriving at the
due age, this feeling of masculine dignity puts so efficient a
restraint on the sports of boyhood, will not the feeling of
feminine modesty, gradually strengthening as maturity is
approached, put an efficient restraint on the like sports of
girlhood? Have not women even a greater regard for appearances than
men? and will there not consequently arise in them even a stronger
check to whatever is rough or boisterous? How absurd is the
supposition that the womanly instincts would not assert themselves
but for the rigorous discipline of schoolmistresses!

"In this, as in other cases, to remedy the evils of one
artificiality, another artificiality has been introduced. The
natural, spontaneous exercise having been forbidden, and the bad
consequences of no exercise having become conspicuous, there has
been adopted a system of factitious exercise--gymnastics. That this
is better than nothing we admit, but that it is an adequate
substitute for play we deny."

The pendulum has indeed swung across from those days to these of the
hockey-girl, not to mention the girl who throws a cricket-ball and bowls
very creditably overhand. There can be no doubt that this state of
things is vastly better than that was, yet, as one has endeavoured to
insist, this also has its risks. Apart from the question as to the
particular game or form of exercise, we must be guided in each case by
the first signs of anything approaching undue strain. We must look out
for lack of energy, for a lessening of joy in the exercise and of
spontaneous desire therefor. Fatigue that interferes with appetite,
digestion, or sleep is utterly to be condemned.

_The Specific Criterion._--Such criteria apply, of course, equally to
either sex, though it is more important to be on the look-out for them
in the case of the developing girl. But in her case there is another
criterion, which is of special importance, because it concerns not only
her development as an individual, but her development as a woman. That
criterion is furnished us by the menstrual function. It may safely be
said that that exercise is excessive and must be immediately curtailed
which leads to the diminution of this function, much more to its
disappearance. I would, indeed, urge this as a test of the highest
importance, always applicable to whatever circumstances. Defect in this
respect should never be looked upon lightly; it may, indeed, be a
conservative process, as in cases of anaemia, but the cause which
produces such an effect is always to be combated.

_The Kinds of Exercise._--Given, then, this most important test as to
the quantity of exercise of whatever kind--a test which indeed applies
no less to mental exercise--we may pass on to consider the kinds of
exercise best suited for the girl, it being premised that any one of
them, however good in itself and in moderation, is capable of being
pursued to excess, and that the danger of this is specially noticeable
in the case of the girl, because, as we have seen, the effects of excess
are more serious in her case, and also because girls are very apt to
take things up with immense keenness, and sometimes, in even greater
degree than their brothers, to devote themselves too much to the
competitive aspect of things. The girl should certainly be content to
play a game for the joy of it, and be scarcely less happy to lose than
to win if her side has played the game and made a good fight of it. The
competitive element is excessive in almost all sports to-day, and it is
especially to be deplored in the games of girls, who are so liable to
overstrain and so apt to take trifles to heart.

In what has been already said and in the end of our quotation from
Herbert Spencer, it will be evident that purposeful games rather than
exercises are to be commended. There is indeed no comparison for a
moment possible between Nature's method of exercise, which is obtained
through play, and the ridiculous and empty parodies of it which men
invent. The truth is that Nature is aiming at one thing, and man at
another. Man's aim, for reasons already exploded, is the acquirement of
strength; Nature's is the acquirement of skill. It is really nervous
development that Nature is interested in when she appears to be
persuading the young thing to exercise its muscles. Man notices only the
muscular contractions involved, thinks he can improve upon Nature, and
invents absurdities like dumb-bells.

It is the nervous system by which we human beings live. Our voluntary
muscles are agents of the will, agents of purpose; and while strength is
a trifle, skill is always everything. We know now that it is impossible
to carry out any human purpose by the contraction of one muscle or even
one group of muscles. Even when we merely bend the arm we are doing
things with the muscles which extend it, and when we raise it sideways
we are modifying the whole trunk in order to preserve the balance. We
have only to watch the clumsiness of an infant or a small child to
realize how much skill the nervous system has to acquire. This skill may
be mainly expressed as co-ordination, the balanced use of many muscles
for a purpose and, as a rule, their co-ordinated use with one of the
senses, more especially vision, but also touch and hearing.

This is the first of the physiological reasons why games and play of all
sorts are so incomparably superior to the use of dumb-bells and
developers, where movement and increase of muscular strength are made
ends in themselves; whereas in play we are making relations with the
outside world, responding to stimuli, educating our nerve muscular
apparatus as an instrument of human purpose.

It is in part true to suppose that the play of children expresses an
overflow of superfluous energy, but a still deeper and much more
important conception of play is that which recognizes in it Nature's
method of nervous development, the attainment of control and
co-ordination, the capacity of quick and accurate response to
circumstances and obedience to the will. Compare, for instance, the girl
who has played games, avoiding danger as she crosses the road, with
another whose youth has been made dreary by dumb-bells. It may freely be
laid down, then, that systems of physical training are good in
proportion as they approximate to play, and bad in proportion as they
depart from it; and, further, that the very best of them ever devised is
worthless in comparison with a good game. This evidently does not refer
to, say, special exercises for a curved back.

However, systems of physical training we shall still have with us for a
long time to come, and perhaps the mere difficulty of finding room for
games makes them necessary, though it may be noted in passing that the
last touch of absurdity is accorded to our frequent preference for
exercises over games when we conduct the exercises in foul air and
prefer them to games in the open air. If exercises we are to have, then
they must at least be modelled so as to come as near as possible to play
in the two essentials. The first of these has already been
mentioned--the preference of skill to strength as an object.

The second, though less obvious, is no less important. What is the most
palpable fact of the child's play? It is enjoyment. We have done for
ever with the elegant morality which grown-up people, very particular
about their own meals, used to impose upon children, and which was based
upon the idea that everything which a child enjoys is therefore bad for
it. We are learning the elements of the physiology of joy. We find that
pleasure and boredom have distinct effects upon the body and the mind,
notably in the matter of fatigue. Careful study of fatigue in school
children has shown that the hour devoted to physical exercise of the
dreary kind under a strict disciplinarian may, instead of being a
recreation, actually induce more fatigue than an hour of mathematics.
If, then, we cannot allow the girl to play, but must give her some kind
of formal exercise, we must at least make it as enjoyable as possible.
There are Continental systems of gymnastics which do not believe in the
use of music because, forsooth, they find that the music diminishes the
disciplinary effect! Such an argument dismisses those who adduce it from
the category of those entitled to have anything to do with young people.
They should devote themselves to training the rhinoceros, these
martinets; the human spirit is not for their mauling. In point of fact
one of the redeeming features of physical training is the use of music,
which goes far to supply the pleasure that accrues from the natural
exercise of games, and greatly reduces the fatigue of which the risk is
otherwise by no means inconsiderable. We leave this subject, then, for
the nonce, having arrived at the conclusion that the objects of
physical training are skill and pleasure rather than strength and
discipline; that the system is best which is nearest to play; and that
the use of music is specially to be commended.

But, as we have said, artificial physical training at its best is not to
be compared with the real thing; more especially if, as is usually the
case, the real thing has the advantage of being practised in pure air.
We must ask ourselves, then, what sort of games are suitable for girls,
and to what extent, if at all, mixed games are desirable. We must first
remind ourselves of the proviso that any game may be played to excess,
whether physical excess or mental excess, the risk of both of these
being involved when the competitive element is made too conspicuous. If
this risk be avoided there is no objection, perhaps, to even such a
vigorous game as hockey in moderation for girls. The present writer has
observed mixed hockey for many years, and finds it impossible to believe
that the game should be condemned for girls, but he has always seen it
under conditions where the game was simply played for the fun of the
thing, and that makes a great difference.

It is certainly open to argument whether, in such a game as hockey, it
is not better, on the whole, that girls shall play by themselves, but,
as has been urged elsewhere, there is a good deal to be said for the
meeting of the sexes elsewhere than in the artificial conditions of the
ball-room, since these mixed games widen the field of choice for
marriage and provide far more natural and desirable conditions under
which the choice may be made. There can be no question that an epoch has
been created by the freedom of the modern girl to play games, and to
enjoy the movements of a ball, as her brother does. The very fact of her
pleasure in games indicates, to those who do not believe that the body
is constructed on essentially vicious principles, that they must be good
for her. The mere exercise is the least of the good they do. The open
air counts for more, as does the development of skill, and the girl's
opportunity of sharing in that moral education which all good games
involve and which there is no need to insist upon here. Amongst the many
things alleged against woman as natural defects by those who have never
for a moment troubled to distinguish between nature and nurture, are an
incapacity to combine with her sisters, petty dishonour in small things,
a blindness to the meaning of "playing the game." It is similarly
alleged by such persons against the lower classes that they also do not
know how to "play the game," and do not understand the spirit of true
sportsmanship, preferring to win anyhow rather than not at all. But
those who conduct the Children's Vacation Schools in London--that
remarkable arrangement by which children are damaged in school time and
educated in holidays--are aware that in a short time children of any
class can be taught to "play the game," if only they can be made to see
it from that point of view. So also women can learn to combine, to be
unselfish, to avoid petty deceits even in games, to obey a captain and
to accept the umpire's decision, when they are taught, as we all have
to be taught, that that is playing the game.

These immense virtues of the new departure must by no means be forgotten
in the course of the reaction which is bound to occur, and is indeed
necessary, against the contemporary practice of trying to demonstrate
that boys and girls are substantially identical. He who pleads for the
golden mean is always abused by extremists of both parties, but is
always justified in the long run, and this is a case where the golden
mean is eminently desirable, being indeed vital, which is much more than
golden. Safety is to be found in our recognition of elementary
physiological principles, assuming from the first that though it is not
difficult to turn a girl into something like a boy, it is not desirable;
and especially in attending carefully, in the case of each individual,
to the indications furnished by that characteristic physiological
function, interference with which necessarily imperils womanhood.

The organism is a whole; it reacts not only to physical strain but to
mental strain. There are parts of the world, including a country no less
distinguished as a pioneer of education than Scotland, where serious
mental strain is now being imposed upon girls at this very period of the
dawn of womanhood, when strain of any kind is especially to be deplored.
Utterly ignoring the facts of physiology, the laws and approximate dates
of human development, official regulations demand that at just such ages
as thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen large numbers of girls--and picked
girls--shall devote themselves to the strain of preparing for various
examinations, upon which much depends. Worry combines to work its
effects with those of excessive mental application, excessive use of the
eyes at short distances, and defective open-air amusement. The whole
examination system is of course to be condemned, but most especially
when its details are so devised as to press thus hardly upon girlhood at
this critical and most to be protected period. Many years ago Herbert
Spencer protested that we must acquaint ourselves with the laws of life,
since these underlie all the activities of living beings. The time is
now at hand when we shall discover that education is a problem in
applied biology, and that the so-called educator, whether he works
destruction from some Board of Education or elsewhere, who knows and
cares nothing about the laws of the life of the being with whom he
deals, is simply an ignorant and dangerous quack.

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