Note 15 — BOOKS BY EDWARD CARPENTER

The Vaertings, in their book, The Dominant Sex, (George Allen & Unwin), question how far these and other secondary sexual characteristics are in reality fundamental to, and inherent in either sex. They suggest that in any society the dominant sex acquires certain traits, while the subordinate sex acquires others. But this view does not affect the present argument. Shelley lived in our modern male-dominant civilisation, and yet was born with, or else acquired, traits which, in that society, are characteristic of women, and not of men. He therefore approximated to the current feminine type.