“The idle wife ranked with the ornamentally wrought weapon and with the splendid offering to the gods as a measure of the man's power to waste, and therefore his superiority over other men. ... As is the case with any other object of art, her uselessness is her use.” MenArtUseCasesWifeObjectsWasteWeaponsOfferingIdleSuperioritySplendidUselessness Author:Emily James Smith Putnam
“the lady is almost the only picturesque survival in a social order which tends less and less to tolerate the exceptional. ... In the age-long war between men and women, she is a hostage in the enemy's camp. Her fortunes do not rise and fall with those of women but with those of men.” MenLongWarAgeOrderFallSocialEnemySurvivalMen And WomenFortuneCampsTolerateExceptionalHostageSocial OrderRise And FallPicturesque Author:Emily James Smith Putnam