Feminine and Male Love

Feminine Love and Seduction Games: Regrettable ou Justified?

Some feminists consider as regrettable the attraction and seduction games promoted by women. Germain Greer has denounced it as part of the «eunuch woman»:

You can now see the Female Eunuch the world over… spreading herself wherever blue jeans and Coca-Cola may go. Wherever you see nail varnish, lipstick, brassieres, and high heels, the Eunuch has set up her camp.
Germain Greer, Australian feminist, The Female Eunuch

But we can make another reading. We shouldn’t forget that love is often a game of seduction, where both men and women lead their trumps. We human beings love games. Romantic love, as much as libertine love, is largely a game: a game of seduction, of imagination, of relationship, of dreaming, of conquering, of adventure. That’s a feature of many loves, and a natural and acceptable one in some senses.

We can also hold that in the past, when women were objects of established brutalities, the feminine games of seduction were a reaction to the woman’s situation. It was the easiest way of winning the best matches and opening possibilities for a better life...

When Epictetus, one of the most important roman philosophers, denounced in a rather biased way the woman of his time, he was probably touching this mechanism without being conscious of it:

Women from fourteen years old are flattered with the title of "mistresses" by the men. Therefore, perceiving that they are regarded only as qualified to give the men pleasure, they begin to adorn themselves, and in that to place all their hopes. We should, therefore, fix our attention on making them sensible and that they are valued for the appearance of decent, modest and discreet behaviour.
Epictetus, 50-127, Roman philosopher, The Enchiridion

Reality may indeed be double. Feminine seduction games can be part of the games of love, freely performed or induced by woman’s status. Or they may be linked to more primitive and instinctive feminine reflexes, stated by modern evolutionary biology and psychology.

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