| | | | | The conventional idea of a brave, an energetic, or a | supremely criminal woman is a tall, dark-haired, | large-armed virago, who might pass as the younger brother of | her husband, and about when nature seemed to have | hesitated before determining whether to make her a man | or a woman ~~ a kind of debatable land, in fact, between | the two sexes, and almost as much one as the other. Helen | Macgregor, Lady Macbeth, Catharine de Medici, Mrs. | Manning, and the old-fashioned murderesses in novels, | are all of the muscular, black-brigand type, with more or | less of regal grace superadded according to | circumstances; and it would be thought nothing but a | puerile fancy to suppose the contrary of those whose | personal description is not already known. Crime, indeed, | especially in art and fiction, has generally been painted in | very nice proportion to the number of cubic inches | embodied, and the depth of colour employed; though we | are bound to add that the public favour runs towards | muscular heroines almost as much as towards muscular | murderesses, which to a certain extent redresses the | overweighted balance. Our later novelists, however, have | altered the whole setting of the palette. Instead of five | foot ten of black and brown, they have gone in for four | foot nothing of pink and yellow; instead of tumbled | masses of raven hair, they have shining coils of purest | gold; instead of hollow caverns whence flash | unfathomable eyes eloquent of every damnable passion, | they have limpid lakes of heavenly blue; and their worst | sinners are in all respects fashioned as much after the | outward semblance of the ideal saint as can well be | managed. The original notion was a very good one, and | the revolution did not come before it was wanted; but it | has been a little overdone of late, and we are threatened | with as great a surfeit of small-limbed yellow-headed | criminals as we have had of the man-like black. One gets | weary of the most perfect model in time, if too constantly | repeated: as now, when we have all begun to feel that the | resources of the angel's face and demon's soul have been | more heavily drawn on than is quite fair, and that, given |

"heavy braids of golden hair," "bewildering blue eyes," | "a small lithe frame,"

and special delicacy of feet and | hands, we are booked for the companionship, through | three volumes, of a young person to whom Messalina or | Lucretia Borgia was a mere novice. | And yet there is a physiological truth in this association | of energy with smallness; perhaps, also, with a certain tint | of yellow hair, which, with a dash of red through it, is | decidedly suggestive of nervous force. Suggestiveness, | indeed, does not go very far in an argument; but the | frequent connexion of energy and smallness in women is | a thing which all may verify in their own circles. In daily | life, who is the really formidable woman to encounter? | ~~ the black-browed, broad-shouldered giantess, with | arms almost as big in the girth as a man's? or the pert, | smart, trim little female with no more biceps than a | ladybird, and of just about equal strength with a sparrow? | Nine times out of ten, the giantess with the heavy | shoulders and broad black eyebrows is a timid, | feeble-minded, good-tempered person, incapable of anything | harsher than a mild remonstrance with her maid, or a | gentle chastisement of her children. Nine times out of ten | her husband has her in hand in the most perfect working | order, so that she would swear the moon shone at midday | if it were his pleasure that she should make a fool of | herself in that direction. One of the most obedient and | indolent of earth's daughters, she gives no trouble to | anyone, save the trouble of | rousing, exciting, and setting her going; while, as for the | conception or execution of any naughty piece of self-assertion, | she is as utterly incapable as if she were a child | unborn, and demands nothing better than to feel the | pressure of the leading-strings, and to know exactly by | their strain where she is desired to go and what to do. But | the little woman is irrepressible. Too fragile to come into | the fighting section of humanity, a puny creature whom | one blow from a man's huge fist could annihilate, | absolutely fearless, and insolent with the insolence which | only those are show who know that retribution cannot | follow ~~ what can be done with her? She is afraid of | nothing, and to be controlled by | no-one. Sheltered behind her weakness as behind | a triple shield of brass, the angriest man dare not touch | her, while she provokes him to a combat in which his | hands are tied. She gets her own way in everything, and | everywhere. At home and abroad she is equally dominant | and irrepressible, equally free from obedience and from | fear. Who breaks all the public orders in sights and | shows, and, in spite of King, Kaiser, or Policeman X, | goes where it is expressly forbidden that she shall go? | Not the large-boned, muscular woman, whatever her | temperament; unless, indeed, of the exceptionally | haughty type in distinctly inferior surroundings, and then | she can queen it royally enough, and set everything at | most lordly defiance. But in general the large-boned | woman obeys the orders given, because, while near | enough to man to be somewhat on a par with him, she is | still undeniably his inferior. She is too strong to shelter | herself behind her weakness, yet too weak to assert her | strength and defy her master on equal grounds. She is like | a flying fish, not one thing wholly; and while capable of | the inconveniences of two lives, is incapable of the | privileges of either. It is not she, for all her | well-developed frame and formidable looks, but the little | woman, who breaks the whole code of laws and defies all | their defenders ~~ the pert, smart, pretty little woman, | who laughs in your face, and goes straight ahead if you | try to turn her to the right hand or to the left, receiving | your remonstrances with the most sublime indifference, | as if you were talking a foreign language she could not | understand. She carries everything before her, wherever | she is. You may see her stepping over barriers, slipping | under ropes, penetrating to the green benches with a red | ticket, taking the best places on the platform over the | heads of their rightful owners, setting herself among the | reserved seats without an inch of pasteboard to float her. | You cannot turn her out by main force. British chivalry | objects to the public laying on of hands in the case of a | woman, even when | | most recalcitrant and disobedient; more particularly if a | small and fragile-looking woman. So that, if it is only a | usurpation of places specially masculine, she is allowed | to retain what she has got amid the grave looks of the | elders ~~ not really displeased though at the flutter of her | ribbons among them ~~ and the titters and nudges of the | young fellows. If the battle is between her and another | woman, they are left to fight it out as they best can, with | the odds laid heavily on the little one. All this time there | is nothing of the tumult of contest about her. Fiery and | combative as she generally is, when breaking the law in | public places she is the very soul of serene daring. She | shows no heat, no passion, no turbulence; she leaves | these as extra weapons of defence to women who are | assailable. For herself she requires no such aids. She | knows her capabilities and the line of attack that best | suits her, and she knows, too, that the fewer points of | contest she exposes the more likely she is to slip into | victory; the more she assumes, and the less she argues, | the slighter the hold she gives her opponents. She is either | perfectly good-humoured or blankly innocent; she either | smiles you into indulgence or wearies you into | compliance by the sheer hopelessness of making any | impression on her. She may, indeed, if of the very | vociferous and shrill-tongued kind, burst into such a | noisy demonstration that you are glad to escape from her, | no matter what spoils you leave on her hands; just as a | mastiff will slink away from a bantam hen all heckled | feathers and screeching cackle, and tremendous | assumption of doing something terrible if he does not | look out. Any way the little woman is unconquerable; and | a tiny fragment of humanity at a public show, setting all | rules and regulations at defiance, is only carrying out in | the matter of benches the manner of life to which nature | has dedicated her from the beginning. | As a rule, the little woman is brave. When the lymphatic | giantess falls into a faint or goes off into hysterics, she | storms, or bustles about, or holds on like a game terrier, | according to the work on hand. She will fly at any man | who annoys her, and bears herself as equal to the biggest | and strongest fellow of her acquaintance. In general she | does it all by sheer pluck, and is not notorious for subtlety | or craft. Had Deliah been a little woman she would never | have taken the trouble to shear Samson's locks. She | would have defied him with all his strength untouched on | his head, and she would have overcome him too. Judith | and Jael were probably large women. The work they went | about demanded a certain strength of muscle and | toughness of sinew; but who can say that Jezebel was not | a small, freckled, auburn-haired Lady Audley of her time, | full of the concentrated fire, the electric force, the | passionate recklessness of her type? Regan and Goneril | might have been beautiful demons of the same pattern; | we have the example of the Marchioness de Brinvilliers | as to what amount of spiritual devilry can exist with the | face and manner of an angel direct from heaven; and | perhaps Cordelia was a tall dark-haired girl, with a pair of | brown eyes, and a long nose sloping downwards. Look at | modern Jewesses, with their flashing Oriental orbs, their | night-black tresses, and the dusky shadows of their | olive-coloured complexions; as catalogued properties according | to the ideal, they would be placed in the list of the natural | criminals and lawbreakers, while in reality they are about | as meek and docile a set of women as are to be found | within the four seas. Pit a fiery little Welsh woman or a | petulant Parisienne against the most regal and Junonic | amongst them, and let them try conclusions in courage, in | energy, or in audacity; the Israelitish Juno will go down | before either of the small Philistines, and the fallacy of | weight and colour in the generation of power will be | shown without the possibility of denial. Even in those old | days of long ago, when human characteristics were | embodied and deified, we do not find that the | white-armed large-limbed Here, though queen by right of | marriage, lorded it over her sister goddesses by any | superior energy or force of nature. On the contrary, she | was rather a heavy-going person, and, unless moved to | anger by her husband's numerous infidelities, took her | Olympian life placidly enough, and once or twice got | cheated in a way that did no great credit to her sagacity. | A little Frenchwoman would have sailed round her easily; | and as it was, shrewish though she was in her speech | when provoked, her husband not only deceived but | chastised her, and reduced her to penitence and obedience | as no little woman would have suffered herself to be | reduced. | There is one celebrated race of women who were | probably the powerfully built, large-limbed creatures they | are assumed to have been, and as brave and energetic as | they were strong and big ~~ the Norse women of the | sagas, who, for good or evil, seem to have been a very | influential element in the old Northern life. Prophetesses, | physicians, dreamers of dreams and the accredited | interpreters as well, endowed with magic powers, | admitted to a share in the councils of men. Brave in war, | active in peace, these fair-haired Scandinavian women | were the fit comrades of their men, the fit wives and | mothers of the Berserkers and the Vikings. They had not | tame or easy life of it, if all we hear of them is true. To | defend the farm and the homestead during their | husband's absence, and to keep themselves intact against | all bold rovers to whom the Tenth Commandment was an | unknown law; to dazzle and bewilder by magic arts when | they could not conquer by open strength; to unite craft | and courage, deception and daring, loyalty and | independence, demanded no small amount of opposing | qualities. But the Stengerdas and Gudruns were generally | equal to any emergency of fate or fortune, and slashed | their way through the history of their time more after the | manner of men than of women; supplementing their | downright blows by side thrusts of craftier cleverness | when they had to meet power with skill, and were fain to | overthrow brutality by fraud. The Norse women were | certainly as largely framed as they were mentally | energetic, and as crafty as either; but we know of no other | women who unite the same characteristics, and are at | once cunning, strong, brave, and true. | On the whole, then, the little women have the best of it. | More petted than their bigger sisters, and infinitely more | powerful, they have their own way in part because it | really does not seem worth while to contest a point with | such little creatures. There is nothing that wounds a | man's self-respect in any victory they may get or claim. | Where there is absolute inequality of strength, there can | be no humiliation in the self-imposed defeat of the | stronger; and as big men for the most part rather like than | not to put their necks under the tread of tiny feet, the little | woman goes on her way triumphant to the end, breaking | all the laws she does not like, and throwing down all the | barriers that impede her progress, perfectly irresistible | and irrepressible in all circumstances and under any | conditions.