“There may, of course,” she said, “be different sorts of human beings. That is an interesting possibility. But if that is true, then it would seem irrational to require all, or the whole, to subscribe to the values of some, or a part.”
“If it pleases you,” said Brenner, angrily, “the values of the home world are not accepted, even by members of our own species, in many places in the galaxy.” This would be particularly true, of course, on the sorts of worlds Rodriguez had characterized as “strong worlds.”
“I know,” she said.
“You seem highly intelligent,” said Brenner.
“I am intelligent,” she said. “Do you think we become less intelligent if we are put under contract, or if a brand is put in our flesh, or our throat is encircled with a locked collar?”
“Of course not!” he said.
“I am not stupid,” she said.
“I know,” said Brenner.
“Does that dismay you?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
“I sense that I am not as intelligent as you,” she said, “but I am not stupid.”
“Come now,” he said. “It is well known that women are much more intelligent than men.”
“That is ridiculous,” she said.
“The tests prove it,” he said.
“As they once purported to prove that the intelligence of men and women was identical, by balancing masculine and feminine items in the test, and summating statistically. One begins with the proposition to be proved, and then designs the test in such a way as to confirm it. Very scientific! Some types of items are such that women tend to be better at them than men, but there are also types of items, though this is not much publicized, at which men tend to be better than women. All that is done now is to define intelligence in terms of tests constructed largely in terms of feminine items, on which sort of items, as might be expected, women tend statistically to do better than men, particularly masculine men. The facts seem to be that there is a feminine sort of intelligence and a masculine sort of intelligence, and that they are not identical. It is difficult then to crosscorrelate the tests without summations which blur the interesting differences. Too, intelligence seems well understood as being much richer than a set of responses to a particular test. Surely it has something to do with judgmental assessments in actual situations, sensitivity to numerous factors in a real world, organizational capacity, ability to plan, to look ahead, with creativity, with imagination, and such things.”
“Perhaps,” said Brenner.
“The fact that I am intelligent, and have feelings, and such,” she said, “would, I hope, make me more, and not less, attractive to you.”
Brenner was silent.
“I have heard that such things tend to raise the price of slaves,” she said.
“I have heard that, too,” said Brenner.
“All this talk of objects, and such,” she said, “is stupid. It assumes a man would be as content with a mindless machine, or an inflated dummy, as a live female.”
Brenner nodded. He had never really understood the value of such propaganda, even to those who devised it. On the other hand, he granted that he might be naive. Perhaps it did have an appeal to certain sorts of minds, perhaps to those incapable of reason.
“To be sure,” she said, “it is not unusual for a woman, upon occasion, wearying of the platitudes of personness, the complexities of banal, tortuous interrelationships, and such, to wish to be handled and treated as an object, not a mindless object, or an inflated object, perhaps one filled with air, one without feelings, or such, of course, but rather as an intelligent, fully sentient, fully emotional object, who understands that she is now to be put, whether she wishes it or not, to the purposes of another. In this way, she rejoices to be reduced upon occasion to her feminine essentials.”
“I shall not listen to this sort of thing,” Brenner informed her.
“It disturbs you?” she asked.
“Yes!” he said.
“But you will still stay the night?” she asked, anxiously.
“Yes,” he said.
“You would prefer the blonde?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
“You do find me attractive?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Even though you suspect it may be immoral to do so?”
“Yes,” he said, angrily.
“It is not immoral to do so,” she said.
Brenner shrugged. He supposed that was true.
“It is even natural to do so,” she said, “I would think, assuming that I am attractive, and that you are sensitive to such things.”