Historical story

Peak of chauvinism. A hundred years ago, a German doctor "scientifically" proved that all women are mentally retarded and stupider than men

The famous German neurologist claimed that all women were physiologically handicapped and mentally dull. He even wrote about many that they had brains that were "half animal". All of Europe believed in this pseudoscientific crap.

In 1900, a new work by the respected neurologist Paul Julius Möbius was published in Germany. The author was not a star yet, but he was already gaining popularity with the views he promoted.

He was one of those researchers who persuaded the world that women are prone to uterine distortions, leading to hysteria - a serious disease that disrupts their mental state and requires (in his opinion) treatment with electroconvulsive therapy. Now the doctor is working on the broader topic of female anatomy.

Treatment of a mentally ill girl in a photo from a 19th-century French medical textbook.

The title of the publication was: On the Physiological Mental Retardation of a Woman . On several dozen pages, a doctor practicing in Leipzig argued that women are by nature endowed with smaller brains than men, which translates into their general impairment, affecting every aspect of life and activity.

Mentally low-standing

In Möbius's view, women were actually "intermediaries between a child and a man." This was reflected in their body structure, but also in their potential and abilities. Their brains, he assessed, could be compared at best with men "mentally low-standing (eg, Negroes)". And some autopsies were supposed to reveal organs straight to the half of animals.

Paul Julius Möbius. Portrait photograph taken around 1900.

A small brain made a woman a being guided by a purely biological instinct. According to Möbius, this was reflected, for example, in the tendency to talk and quarrels typical of all ladies. "Turning the tongue gives a woman a lot of satisfaction, is a proper female sport," concluded the doctor, comparing women to stupid cats chasing a ball to train their paws. Deprived of physical strength, they instinctively practiced one of the few tools that nature gave them:the long tongue.

According to the German expert, women were also not particularly proficient in terms of motor skills. "Because of her weakness, a woman is condemned to work that requires a certain skill, and hence the belief in the dexterity of female fingers," explained Möbius. - "But if a man takes a female job as a tailor, weaver, cook, etc., he does a better job than a woman."

Even for judging the quality of tea or sorting wool, men were better suited, because women have “a reduced spiritual reaction to strong stimuli”.

Spiritual sterility

The doctor had nothing good to say about the morality of the ladies either. In this respect, they were to always turn out to be "one-sided and handicapped". However, their most cretinism manifested itself in the intellectual arena.

The doctor emphasized that all ladies are characterized by "natural disgust", even hatred of all numbers. "The only figures they remember well are those relating to their attire (length of the dress, width of the waist, etc.)," ​​he taunted. According to Möbius, women are also creatures devoid of any criticism, susceptible to any suggestion. Above all, however, a woman has no developmental abilities, she is biologically devoid of creativity.

She can mindlessly monkey, and thus make the impression of a good, even diligent pupil or student. The fact that she listens attentively to educators, fully submitting to their influence, is, however, irrelevant in view of her "spiritual sterility".

Unprofitable two-sex creatures

Möbius wrote about female artists that if there is any sign of any talent in them, it must be a proof of spiritual and expressiveness.

About the writers, he said that "they practice usury with the coin that men minted" because they only copy their ideas, pretending that they were born in their defective heads. In turn, he considered the few women active in the world of science to be an ordinary ballast, an aberration. After all, "it is understandable that knowledge in the strict sense has not been enriched by women in any way, nor can it be expected."

"Hysterical snarls." A series of photos from the end of the 19th century to illustrate the symptoms of hysteria-related disorders.

Nor was it to be expected that any attempt to elevate the female sex to a higher mental level would be beneficial. The doctor emphasized that male qualities such as "strength, long drive, fantasy and desire to know would make a woman anxious and would interfere with her profession as a mother, therefore nature endowed her with only meager limits". Trying to change things could have had dire consequences.

"If it could be done so that female qualities develop next to male ones, then the mother's organs would waste away and we would have some obnoxious, ineffective two-sex creature in front of us," scared Möbius. And, of course, he advocated that, according to tradition, the representatives of the handicapped gender should be prevented from working "male", not allowed to engage in ambitious activities, or - God forbid - to higher education.

Celebrity of the Patriarchy

One might laugh at Möbius' views were it not for the fact that in 1900 they were an expression of general consensus. The book turned out to be an instant bestseller. During the author's lifetime, only eight editions were made in German.

A patient of an English insane asylum in a photograph from the mid-nineteenth century. In the opinion of Dr. Mobius, she was no different from all other women, including those with intellectual disabilities.

"None of his numerous and valuable works has made the name of Möbius so famous among the public as this work," emphasized another German doctor. Today's historians also express a similar view. Möbius has become the true idol of traditionalists in Western Europe. An expression of views that were supported by millions of men.

In a scientific way - at least in his own opinion - he refuted the postulates of the developing feminist movement. It not only deprived women of the prospects of equal treatment, but also the status of a rightful human being. He got such a fame that even thirty years later his book was re-issued in Poland as a proof of the inferiority of women. And the latest edition in German comes from 2015.