Women have ... by imitating the life condition of men, surrendered a very strong position of their own. Men are afraid of virgins,... but they have a cure for their own fear and the virgin's virginity: fucking. Men are afraid of crones, so afraid that their cure for virginity fails them; they know it won't work. Faced with the fulfilled crone, all but the bravest men wilt and retreat, crestfallen and cockadroop.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
My own songs awakened from that hour, And with them the key, the word up from the waves,... The word of the sweetest song and all songs, That strong and delicious word which, creeping to my feet, (Or like some old crone rocking the cradle, swathed in sweet garments, bending aside) The sea whispered me.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"Uplift those eyes and throw Those glances unafraid:... She would as bravely show Did all the fabric fade; No withered crone I saw Before the world was made."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Certainly the effort to remain unchanged, young, when the body gives so impressive a signal of change as the menopause, is gallant...; but it is a stupid, self-sacrificial gallantry, better befitting a boy of twenty than a woman of forty-five or fifty. Let the athletes die young and laurel-crowned. Let the soldiers earn the Purple Hearts. Let women die old, white-crowned, with human hearts.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Virginity is now a mere preamble or waiting room to be got out of as soon as possible; it is without significance. Old age is simi...larly a waiting room, where you go after life's over and wait for cancer or a stroke. The years before and after the menstrual years are vestigial: the only meaningful condition left to women is that of fruitfulness.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The menopause is probably the least glamorous topic imaginable; and this is interesting, because it is one of the very few topics ...to which cling some shreds and remnants of taboo. A serious mention of menopause is usually met with uneasy silence; a sneering reference to it is usually met with relieved sniggers. Both the silence and the sniggering are pretty sure indications of taboo.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »