Like most men, I’ve long been fascinated with women.

But if we look beyond the physical differences, what is it that defines “woman”? Research reveals a series of definitions so conflicted that I believe anyone who attempts to define “woman” is certain to be criticized.

But when has that ever been an impediment to a curious mind?

Our examination of the mystery and magic of the feminine begins with 7 quotes that reveal a being so perfect that she can exist only in the imagination of a man. Psychologist Carl Jung calls her the anima.

“The lace on a woman’s wrist is an entirely different thing from lace in a shop. In the shop it is a piece of workmanship, on her it is the accentuation of her gentleness of character and refinement.”
– Robert Henri, The Art Spirit
“The girls in body-form slacks wander the High Street with locked hands while small transistor radios sit on their shoulders and whine love songs in their ears. The younger boys, bleeding with sap, sit on the stools of Tanger’s Drugstore ingesting future pimples through straws. They watch the girls with level goat-eyes and make disparaging remarks to one another while their insides whimper with longing.”
– John Steinbeck
“What do we know about the goddesses, those elusive female figures, stronger than human males, more dangerous than male deities, who represent not real women but the dreams of real men?”
– Alice Bach, Women in the Hebrew Bible, p. 17
“I think the idealization of women is indigenous to men. There are various ways of idealizing women, especially sexually, based in almost every case on their inaccessibility. When a woman functions as an unobtainable love object, then she takes on a mythical quality. You can see this principle functioning as a sales device in advertising and in places like Playboy magazine. Almost every movie you see has this quality, because you can’t embrace the image on the screen. Thousands of novels use this principle, because you can’t embrace a printed image on a page.”
– James Dickey, Self Interviews, p. 153
Gypsy Maiden: One day I will go to your lands and I will dance as a European.
Marco Polo: They will love you.
Gypsy Maiden: Will I love Venice?
Marco Polo: It is magnificent, the city of bridges. Instead of roads we travel on canals in wooden boats.
Gypsy Maiden: That’s absurd.
Marco Polo: You wouldn’t think that if you saw it.
Gypsy Maiden: If it is so magnificent, why are you here and not there?
Marco Polo: You must have summoned me.
Gypsy Maiden: I did no such thing. [He tries to kiss her and she turns away.] I’m afraid.
Marco Polo: Don’t be.
Gypsy Maiden: I’m afraid you will fall in love with me. All men fall in love with me because I always leave. And there is nothing men love more than the thing they cannot have.
– Marco Polo, season two
“Her name is Dulcinea, her kingdom, Toboso, which is in La Mancha, her condition must be that of princess, at the very least, for she is my queen and lady, and her beauty is supernatural, for in it one finds the reality of all the impossible.” – Don Quixote, (1605)
“Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.”
– Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Our journey will continue in the rabbit hole of Indiana Beagle, where we will examine two additional perspectives that reflect two additional definitions of “woman,” each of which disallows the idea we have just examined.

They also disallow each other.

I call the second perspective, “Women are Mortal – Sort of.”

And third perspective is, “Women are Just Like Men. But Different.”

To enter Indiana Beagle’s rabbit hole, click the image of imaginary Freda at the top of this page. Each click of an image thereafter will take you to the next page.

It is a journey you will not soon forget.

Roy H. Williams

Shane Smith - Rodeo Time Podcast 148