The Spinster and Her Enemies - Feminish

‘HENPECKING’
24 August 1922. The result of the Act was immediately to create
an anomalous situation whereby the retained clause applied to
carnal knowledge (sexual intercourse) but not to indecent assault,
so that an offender had a defence for the major charge but not
for the minor one. None the less the main aims of the
campaigners had been achieved. The age of consent was levelled
up to 16 for both offences, and the time limit was extended
from 6 to 9 months.
The debate on the Bill in the House of Commons makes it
clear that this was seen to be an issue on which men’s and
women’s interests were in opposition. There was a strong vein
of sexual antagonism, with male MPs defending their interests
against what they clearly saw as the terrifying strength of
women and hurling insults at women’s organisations and
feminists. The House of Commons and suffrage had been all
male until 1918. The frustration of male MPs at the change in
their fortunes, the fact that they might have to take notice of
women’s opinions, was evident in the debate. The pressure from
women’s organisations was described by Lieutenant Colonel
Moore-Brabazon as ‘henpecking’. He asked why there had been
a government measure: ‘Has it been done because of the great
pressure of women’s organisations in this country? If so, then it
seems to me to be a sad confession on the part of the home
secretary of henpecking.’ 24 Major Sir George Hamilton was
virulently antifeminist:
Do men, especially young men, for whom I am speaking, go
about hunting for girls to seduce? That seems to be the
argument of these various societies. Is that really the feminist
outlook on males? I have always been against feminism. I
loathe feminism and the whole of that aspect of the feminist
mind that looks on man as a corrupt creature, hunting about
to seduce someone is all wrong. I am confident of this, that
the average decent woman, especially if she is a mother, is
just as much against feminism as I am. 25
One MP was prepared to contradict himself totally in his attempt
to protect the right of men to have sexual access to young girls.
To protect men who used girls under the age of 16 he argued, in
common with many other MPs that men could not defend
themselves against the tremendous seductive powers of young
girls:
She sets to work to throw allurement after allurement over
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