The Pittsburgh Press (March 30, 1946)
Ferguson: Flight of romance
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Sometimes, rounding a corner quickly, you are abashed to see what looks like a nude woman standing boldly in a show window. She’s not real of course. The mannequins who are dressed and undressed in public not only serve to show off gowns but have certainly done a great deal to destroy what little was left of feminine mystery.
One editor thinks women’s clubs should start a new crusade to take out of public view the many devices used by our sex for its beautification.
Loud attention is called to all methods of increasing feminine charm – depilatories, deodorants, bras, girdles and lately the new bustles. Nothing is left to the male imagination. His Lady Fair is constantly doing a strip-tease.
One often wonders that a girl ever catches a man these days. She works so hard to take every bit of romance out of their relationship. She smears on lipstick right under his nose; she combs her hair in his gravy and takes no pains to conceal either her charms or her ugliness.
Then as the sweethearts take a stroll down any city street, they pass dozens of windows which scream the secrets of his Juliet’s dress, bath and health problems.
When you analyze it, there is something repelling in our exploiting the female form to sell goods. It’s spiritual prostitution.
The strange thing is that American women do not seem to resent it, which shows that they do not understand men. For man is a romantic creature. Even in the atomic age he’ll probably prefer some feminine mystery during his courtship days.