PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



CHAPTER VII 



SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND FEMINISM 



Inferiority and superiority of the female as shown in 

 animal species. Influence of feeding on the production 

 of sexes. The female would have sufficed. Feminism 

 absolute, and moderate. Pipe-dreams: elimination of 

 the male and human parthenogenesis. 



ONLY after serious study of sexual dimorphism in 

 the animal series may one venture a few reflections on 

 feminism. One has noticed, in certain species, the female 

 more beautiful, stronger, more active, more intelligent; 

 and one has noticed the opposite. One has seen the 

 male larger, or smaller; one has seen and will see him 

 parasite, or provider, permanent master of the couple 

 or the group, fugitive lover, a slave sacrificed by the 

 female after the completion of her pleasure. All attitudes, 

 and the same ones, are attributed by nature to either 

 of the sexes; there is not, apart from the specific func- 

 tions, a male or a female role. Both or either accord- 

 ing to the decalogue of their specie put on the same 

 costume, don the same mask, wield the same boar-spear, 

 tool or sabre without one's being able to discover, at 

 least not without going back to the beginning of things 

 and digesting the archives of life, which of them is dis- 

 guised and which acts "according to nature." 

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