Armed & Engined

The Female of the Species, as Kipling said, is more deadly than the male. Why this is so rests on a single issue, which is something it took me ages to identify when I first read this poem at the age of seven. The relevant verse runs like this:

But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same;
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.

To those who protest, arguing sexism or other Dead White English Male bias, I have to say that it is nothing more or less than what is asserted by the kind of people who complain. But the single issue in Kipling is a matter of greater and greater doubt these days. Does it therefore mean that the female of the species is becoming less deadly than the male, now that (paradoxically), society empowers her to adopt more and more of the traditional male prerogatives and roles? From my somewhat scattershot studies of ancient religions and customs, it seems to me that woman has always been the chief and central principal (and, sometimes, principle) of the household and the community. Oddly, the present-day incarnation of Woman is more likely to have abandoned this role to surrogates. And with this abandonment, it seems to me that the deadliness mentioned in Kipling has indeed been lost.

Perhaps a modern-day Kipling might write:

But the Woman raised in power, raised to serve and win the Game
Proves her ignorance of issues, arms and engines for the same;
And her need to prove an equal who was Spinner of the Tale
Makes her less than ever deadly who was deadlier than the male.

Farewell, Pallas Athena and every lady of power who once was. Hello, modern woman, armed and engined differently, and no longer the harbinger of awe.