In Defense of Women, by Henry Louis Mencken
Written in 1918, a full two years before the federal emancipation of women, H.L. Mencken, a journalist and satirist from Baltimore, penned this passionate, funny, cynical study of gender relations.
Henry Louis Mencken, a lover of all things new and modern, did not hate modern women. “In Defense of Women” is exactly that, a defense of women against their many detractors. Where Mencken differs, however, is that he doesn’t establish his argument from a place of unreality. There are no ridiculous appeals to women’s innate nature, no reference to virtues that almost always leave readers scratching their heads and wondering if the author has ever met a woman before. Instead, Mencken defends women in the most American way possible, that is to say with a mixture of pragmatism and “telling it straight”. Mencken describes women as self serving and calculating, perfect rational agents in the modern economy, men their unsuspecting dupes.
Paperback EbookTable of Contents
In Defense of Women – Henry Louis Mencken
Introduction — In Defense of Henry Louis Mencken.
Chapter I – The Feminine Mind The Maternal Instinct Woman’s Intelligence The Masculine Bag of Tricks Why Women Fail The Thing Called Intuition
Chapter II – The War Between the Sexes How Marriages are ArrangedThe Feminine Attitude The Male Beauty Men as Aesthetes The Process of Delusion Biological Considerations Honour Women and the Emotions Pseudo-Anaesthesia Mythical Anthrolophagi A Conspiracy of Silence
Chapter III – Marriage Fundamental MotivesThe Process of Courtship The Actual Husband The Unattainable Ideal The Effects on the Race Compulsory Marriage Extra-Legal Devices
Chapter III – Marriage (cont.) Intermezzo on Monogamy Late Marriages Disparate Unions The Charm of Mystery Women as Wife Marriage and the Law The Emancipated Housewife
Chapter IV – Woman’s Suffrage The Crowning VictoryThe Woman Voter A Glance into the Future The Suffragette A Mythical Dare-Devil The Origin of a Delusion Women as Martyrs Pathological Effects Women as Christians Piety as a Social Habit The Ethics of Women
Part V – The New Age The Transvaluation of ValuesThe Lady of Joy The Future of Marriage Effects of the War The Eternal Romance Apologia in Conclusion