Without a doubt there are women who would vote intelligently. There are also men who knit socks beautifully.
Interpretation
The quote highlights that both genders possess diverse talents and abilities, regardless of traditional stereotypes.
H.L. Mencken's quote suggests that societal norms often pigeonhole individuals based on their gender, implying that men and women may be unfairly categorized. By recognizing the capacity of women to vote intelligently and men to engage in activities like knitting, Mencken advocates for a broader understanding of skills and intelligence beyond gender boundaries, emphasizing the individuality and unique capabilities of each person.
In practice
In a discussion about gender roles at a workplace seminar.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Only old Benjamin professed to remember every detail of his long life and to know that things never had been, nor ever could be much better or much worse--hunger, hardship, and disappointment being, so he said, the unalterable law of life.
The law of the Creator, which invests every human being with an inalienable title to freedom, cannot be repealed by any interior law which asserts that man is property.
Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window; Why, why, says the junk in the yard.
Six is a number perfect in itself, and not because God created the world in six days; rather the contrary is true. God created the world in six days because this number is perfect, and it would remain perfect, even if the work of the six days did not exist.
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody understands at the time--and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
Our Christian witness is authentic when it is faithful and unconditional.
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