Woman

What a disgusting creature is Woman!
I can hardly imagine a more ill-formed, degraded thing.

Woman is an infant who never learns to walk,
a bird of carrion that hovers over the shoulders of the predator,
a shadow puppeteer,
a king who turns tail when the battle comes to him.

She simpers and whimpers,
she fawns and she fondles,
she panders, she nags,
she snivels, she squeals.
Nothing is too far beneath her dignity.

She prides herself in her ability to lie,
to cheat, to steal,
to manipulate with her sneaking, skulking tricks--
and she laughs at her victims,
like a spider, like a cat.

She cannot see beyond the end of her own table;
she cannot wander beyond the limits of her own gate.
She feels no moral obligation to those who are not under her care;
her own children are angels, and anyone else's may die.
She trusts no one, she fears everything,
and she goes nowhere alone.

She thinks only of money and of food--
she has no concept of art, of faith, of human goodness.
She cannot be an idealist.
She makes and breaks promises. She compromises.
That is to say, she is a liar.
She is an animal who can count.
Rather, let us teach our dogs to balance checkbooks.

Why would we entrust the raising of a child
to such a monster as a Woman?
Is this how we want our sons and daughters to learn?
Do we want them to be petty and calculating,
lacking the most noble of human virtues:
selfless generosity, pure-hearted innocence,
discriminating taste, incorruptible virtue?
Can any of these be found in Woman?

I wonder how I can be one of those things
and not pass away from revulsion and shame.