The Woman Who Was Thursday

"The attitude of women in such cases was indeed one of the paradoxes of the place. Most of the women were of the kind vaguely called emancipated, and professed some protest against male supremacy. Yet these new women would always pay to a man the extravagant compliment which no ordinary woman ever pays to him, that of listening while he is talking."

--Chesterton, "The Man Who Was Thursday"

There is no one else that I would rather hate as a feminist than conservative men. It is a delightful game (I guess only because I come down closer to their side than any other). And partially because they can be so extraordinarily witty about it.

Oh Chesterton, in one breath you compliment the liberated woman and deny that any liberation is possible--any spiritedness, while lovely, only reinforces (or, better yet, strengthens!) "the natural order," that of women adoring men. Unbelievable.