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But, most likely, after the war the ladies will go back to their clattering cipherdom. Woman as an idle class, a spending class, a candy-craving class, never existed before. Some women in the category instantly set out to compete with men in their own activities. The fact that many have succeeded does not, in itself, prove any more than the undeniable fact that many men have been able to give other men sexual satisfaction—an act admittedly the prerogative of women. After the original Cinderella was enthroned in the palace, it is doubtful if she set out to instruct the national courts, train the guard, select the priests, and reorganize the peasants.

The philosophical notion behind that altogether solid story had nothing to do, really, with Cinderella’s winning of the Prince. He was, in that sense, a mere symbol, as was his wealth. The story is an allegory for the idea embodied in the mythical jewel in the toad’s head. It is a statement of the fact that out of the dross and discard of egotistical man may be plucked the real and priceless valuables of life. ” The possibility of finding a worthy Cinderella in that background is the moral. Not so in the magazine-movie-novel-radio version.

To the sex “reformer” nothing is pure; he is therefore the lewdest man of all and his gospel is his lechery in action. While we have kept hidden from ourselves the nature of our actual sexual behavior, we have made an open admission of it, subjectively. On the plane of suggestion, we have, indeed, turned it into a sort of goad, and used it for gross commercial advantage. Too many people have howled about the exploitation of libido in the movies, on the radio, and in fiction, for me to do more than cite them in this connotation.