The Manchester University Union and Athenaeum Debating Societies met last night to discuss a proposition ╥That there is a distinct tendency to Amazonian rule,╙ and on the whole treated the subject with frivolity and facetiousness. But during the discussion Mr. A. D. Seares said there was an attempt, which he described as both strange and peculiar, to falsify fact in the newspapers for the purpose of exalting women. Much that was published was partially or wholly misleading.
Mlle. Lenglen had been called ╥the world's tennis champion,╙ though she was never that, but only the woman champion. Much had been made of Channel swimming by women, though the records had not yet been accepted by the Amateur Swimming Association. Several motoring records had been reported to have been made by women lately. In one such attempt the facts were that the women entered the car for the race, but the five male drivers took turns with her to drive it. Another lady was reported to have broken this record, but in fact it was herself, her husband, and two other male drivers who drove the car in turns. A woman was reported to be attempting a flying record, and she had three men on her ╒plane, of whom scarcely a word had been said when fears were felt for its safety.
Women╒s inferiority in games of mental skill was still greater than in games of physical skill. That was to say that a woman chess player would be much inferior to a man player.
Helped on by newspapers arose this strange and peculiar cult of feminism. The newspapers fed it, he supposed, because they thought it appealed to the public. But though the newspapers must often be right, he thought, they were wrong here, and doubted whether women themselves admired the wonderful things said about them in the newspapers. It was time the cult was dissolved and that readers got accurate facts.
