Hermione and Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers/The Parasite Woman Must Go!
THE PARASITE WOMAN MUST GO!
THE Parasite Woman must go! Our Little Group of Serious Thinkers took up the Parasite Woman last night in quite a thorough way. One of the most interesting women you ever listened to gave us a little talk about the Parasite Woman, you know.
And we decided that the Parasite Woman has nothing to Contribute to the Next Generation.
Oh, these Parasite Women! It just simply makes my blood boil to hear about them! I don't know when I have been so indignant!
With the world so full of work to be done for the Cause—for all the Causes, you know—they just sit around selfishly at home all wrapped up in their own families, or children, if they're married, and do nothing at all for the Evolution of the Ego and the Development of the Race, and the Conscious Guidance of the Next Generation, or anything at all like that.
Thank goodness I could never be a Parasite Woman!
And, yet, I pity them, too. I'm thinking quite seriously of starting a little Mission of my own for the purpose of appealing to and reforming the Parasite Women among my acquaintances.
Of course it will take organization, and that means I will have to have money to start it and keep it going.
But Papa will give me the money all right. That is one thing about poor, dear Papa—he doesn't understand the new movements at all, but he will give me money. And he never asks what I do with it.
Now and then, of course, he scolds a little—he told me the other day I cost him nearly as much as a war. But I can always jolly him, you know, when he gets that way. Men are so easily managed and flattered.
I suppose my Mission will take quite a lot of money, too. But it is my duty, and I am willing to make any sacrifice—we modern thinkers are used to making sacrifices for our Cause!
And it is worth a lot of sacrifice to make the Parasite Woman over into an Awakened and Enlightened Member of Society, independent of the Man-Made System that has shackled her for so long.
What is nobler than Emancipation?
Of course, I'll have to have a Secretary. And to get one especially trained in organizing the Mission will cost quite a bit, probably.
But Papa will never miss it.
And I think I'll have to have a man for a Secretary. One that is quite presentable socially, you know. For the Secretary will have to attend to a lot of the details. I will give some teas and entertainments and things, just to get the Parasite Women I know interested.
And there's nothing like the right sort of a man to get women to coöperate in some Cause that aims for Woman's Liberty.
And I suppose, really, two Secretaries would be better. And they will have to be men who can dance the new dances well, too. That counts a lot nowadays in getting girls to come to places.
I feel that I have Found my Work! One's work lies at one's hand, if one could but see it, always. And mine is to Save the Parasite Women I know from Themselves and their Frivolity.
I will coax the first cheque out of Papa this very evening! It may take some management and jollying, but—well, Papa is easy!