The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man Made
World, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Title: Our Androcentric Culture, or The Man Made World

Author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Posting Date: January 15, 2009 [EBook #3015]
Release Date: January, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE ***

Produced by Christopher Hapka

OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE,

OR THE MAN MADE WORLD

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

CONTENTS

I. AS TO HUMANNESS.
II. THE MAN-MADE FAMILY.
III. HEALTH AND BEAUTY.
IV. MEN AND ART.
V. MASCULINE LITERATURE.
VI. GAMES AND SPORTS
VII. ETHICS AND RELIGION.
VIII. EDUCATION.
IX. "SOCIETY" AND "FASHION"
X. LAW AND GOVERNMENT.
XI. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.
XII. POLITICS AND WARFARE. (with WOMAN AND THE STATE.)
XIII. INDUSTRY AND ECONOMICS.
XIV. A HUMAN WORLD.

OUR ANDROCENTRIC CULTURE, or THE MAN-MADE WORLD

I. AS TO HUMANNESS.

Let us begin, inoffensively, with sheep. The sheep is a beast with which
we are all familiar, being much used in religious imagery; the common
stock of painters; a staple article of diet; one of our main sources of
clothing; and an everyday symbol of bashfulness and stupidity.

In some grazing regions the sheep is an object of terror, destroying
grass, bush and forest by omnipresent nibbling; on the great plains,
sheep-keeping frequently results in insanity, owing to the loneliness of
the shepherd, and the monotonous appearance and behavior of the sheep.

By the poet, young sheep are preferred, the lamb gambolling gaily;
unless it be in hymns, where "all we like sheep" are repeatedly
described, and much stress is laid upon the straying propensities of the
animal.

To the scientific mind there is special interest in the sequacity of
sheep, their habit of following one another with automatic imitation.
This instinct, we are told, has been developed by ages of wild crowded
racing on narrow ledges, along precipices, chasms, around sudden spurs
and corners, only the leader seeing when, where and ho