In defense of men

«This so-called beauty, of course, is almost always a pure illusion. The female body, even at its best is very defective in form; it has harsh curves and very clumsily distributed masses; compared to it the average milk-jug, or even cuspitor, is a thing of intelligent and gratifying design - in brief, and object of art. The fact was curiously (and humorously) display during the late war, when great numbers of women in all the belligerent countries began putting on uniforms. (...) A man, save he be fat, i.e., of womanish contours, usually looks better in uniform then in mufti; the tight lines set off his figure. But a woman is at once given away: she look like a dumbbell run over by an express train. Below the neck by the bow and below the waist astern there are two masses that simply refuse to fit into a balanced composition. Viewed from the side, she presents an exaggerated S bisected by an imperfect straight line, and so she inevitably suggests a drunken dollar-mark. Her ordinary clothing cunningly conceals this fundamental imperfection. It swathes those impossible masses in draperies soothingly uncertain of outline. But putting her into uniform is like stripping her. Instantly all her alleged beauty vanishes.»


Henry Louis Mencken - in In Defense of Women

PS: Mencken casou, tinha ele 50 anos, com uma mulher 18 anos mais nova. Parece que - vá-se lá saber porquê! - o casamento foi vivamente comentado, na altura. Terá então dito: "Like all other infidels, I am superstitious and always follow hunches: this one seemed to be a superb one.". Ironicamente, ela morre antes dele, em 1935 - estavam casados há 5 anos.