1 66 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



Thoughtful women often ask why it is that men are so prone to select 

 the merely pretty woman rather than the woman of proved worth; why 

 some little doll-faced snip of a girl can so often mislead or make a fool 

 of an otherwise sensible man. Why, indeed? It has been suggested that a 

 pretty woman is usually a physically healthy woman and that there is an 

 unconscious biological tendency toward choosing a healthy mate. This 

 may be a factor. 



Aesthetic sense, a feeling for the beautiful, is an important factor which 

 draws men to pretty women, although here again one can't escape the 

 factor of male rivalry. It is undeniable that each race or tribe of people 

 has its own ideas of what constitutes manly or womanly beauty, and the 

 standards of one race are often regarded by another as ridiculous or in- 

 comprehensible. For instance, an African chief of a tribe in which the 

 women perforate the lips and stretch them out for two or three inches by the 

 insertion of solid disks or rings until they resemble the beak of a duck, 

 was much surprised at the stupidity of an explorer's question as to why 

 this was done. He replied for "beauty." 



It is an undeniable fact that to the more impulsive, unthinking type of 

 man, mere prettiness is in itself a strong lure. Yet most sensible men, even 

 when under the spell of beauty, know how to discount it if it is not ac- 

 companied by character, good sense and a self-respecting spirit. And one 

 sees many a man, after playing around with the free and easy, painted- 

 beauty kind of girl, turn to the plainer, more demure, more unselfish type, 

 when it comes to taking a wife. Apparently he realizes that the happiness 

 and sanctity of a home is likely to be more secure in such hands. 



After all, physical beauty is not the only — indeed, not the main factor — 

 in that elusive quality called charm, and it is really charm that irresistibly 

 attracts a man to a woman. What is charm? Who knows? Everyone rec- 

 ognizes its existence and its power but no one can wholly analyze it. It 

 involves to a considerable degree, graciousness, tact and kindness; cheer- 

 fulness, or vivacity is an indispensable ingredient; evidence of pleasure 

 in the company of the masculine companion, tempered with appropriate 

 reserve, must not be missing; and through it all runs, unobtrusively, per- 

 haps even unconsciously, the play of sex, or better perhaps, that irradiation 

 of sex which takes the form of a mild and inoffensive coquetry — what men 

 call being feminine. To describe charm is like trying to give directions 

 after the fashion of the cook who tells one to take a cup of this, a bit of 

 that, and a pinch of something else. Charm, nevertheless, is a very real 

 quality and is the chief ingredient of the emotional complex which con- 

 stitutes the sentimental appeal of a woman to a man. 



One gathers fragments of wisdom concerning sex and marriage as he 

 journeys through this world of divorce courts and scandals — yes to a 

 minor extent — but mainly, of that great army of "good sports" who know 

 how to give and take fairly in the intimate and complex relationship of 



