on The Hairpin today: a pretty cool collection of suffragist poems from 1915. Kind of funny- and sad- that so much of this social commentary could pass as modern discourse if presented without context??  That’s almost a century ago!  My favorites below.

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Chivalry:

It’s treating a woman politely
As long as she isn’t a fright:
It’s guarding the girls who act rightly,
If you can be judge of what’s right;
It’s being—not just, but so pleasant;
It’s tipping while wages are low;
It’s making a beautiful present,
And failing to pay what you owe.

What Every Woman Must Not Say

“I don’t pretend I’m clever,” he remarked, “or very wise,”
And at this she murmured, “Really,” with the right polite surprise.

“But women,” he continued, “I must own I understand;
Women are a contradiction—honorable and underhand—

Constant as the star Polaris, yet as changeable as Fate,
Always flying what they long for, always seeking what they hate.”

“Don’t you think,” began the lady, but he cut her short: “I see
That you take it personally—women always do,” said he.

“You will pardon me for saying every woman is the same,
Always greedy for approval, always sensitive to blame;

Sweet and passionate are women; weak in mind, though strong in soul;
Even you admit, I fancy, that they have no self-control?”

No, I don’t admit they haven’t,” said the patient lady then,
“Or they could not sit and listen to the nonsense talked by men.”

[mansplaining: going strong since 1915!  haha.]

A Sex Difference

When men in Congress come to blows
at something someone said,
I always notice that it shows
their blood is quick and red;

But if two women disagree,
with very little noise,
It proves, and this seems strange to me,
that women have no poise.

-from the book Are Women People, by Alice Duer Miller