A Man Called Peter

Here is a speech that Cathrine Marshall gave to a youth rally, (at that time her name was Cathrine Wood,) according to the movie titled, 'A Man Called Peter.' I have always loved it.

"I never thought much about being a girl until two years ago when I learned from a man, what a wonderful thing it is to be a woman. Until that Sunday morning, I considered myself lucky to be living in the 20th century; the century of progress and emancipation; the century when supposedly, we women came into our own.

"But I'd forgotten that the emancipation of women really began with Christianity, when a girl, a very young girl, received the greatest honor in history --  she was chosen to be the mother of the Savior of the world. And when her Son grew up and began teaching His way of life, He ushered woman into a new place in human relations. He accorded her a dignity she'd never known before. And crowned her with such glory that down through the ages she was revered, protected and loved; men wanted to think of her as different from themselves, better -- made of finer, more delicate clay.

"It remained for the 20th century, the century of progress, to pull her down from her throne. She wanted equality. For 1,900 years, she had not been equal, she had been superior. To stand equal with men, naturally she had to step down. Now, being equal with men, she won all their rights and privileges -- the right to get drunk, the right to swear, the right to smoke, the right to work like a man -- to think like a man, to act like a man. We've won all this, but how can we feel so triumphant, when men no longer feel as romantic about us, as they did about our grandmothers? When we've lost something sweet and mysterious, something as hard to describe as the haunting, wistful fragrance of violets.

"Of course, these aren't my original thoughts. They're the thoughts I heard that Sunday morning. But from them some of my own thoughts were born, and the conclusion reached that somewhere along the line we women got off the track.  I've never read a poem rhapsodizing over a girl's giggles at a smutty joke or I've never heard a man brag that his sweetheart or his wife could drink just as much as he and become just as much as intoxicated. I've never heard a man say that a girl's mouth was prettier with a cigarette hanging out of it, or that her hair smelled divinely of stale tobacco.

"I'm afraid that's all I have to say. I have never made a speech before."