By F.G.J.O.
The Nigerian Provincial Guardian 17th April, 1937 pg. 11
The Love between man and woman is only-
“Sex Appeal”
The only thing men want in women is not intellect but charm, tenderness and perhaps vicacity.
Just as we are about to go and sit in a corner however , with the reflection that even a girl who is not so bright seems to be too bright for men, along comes a fair charmer who has brains- and whom men like none the less- or some engineering person will pick out some one of our own reasonably bright lady friends to marry, and we get puzzled all over again. “Youths call Love Sex Appeal”- Youth or young moderns forget unselfish love of parents and cannot realize depth and worth of middle-aged affection.
I firmly believe that what the older generation calls love is Sex Appeal. The elders try to convince me that the affection that they hold for each other as a man and wife is love, but I maintain that it is merely friendship.
I believe that the only true love which is really exists is the love a mother has for her children.
I glorified mother love as the symbol of altruistic love, but even mother love does not always stand the test for pure affection. For it is a not uncommon thing for a mother to ruin her children’s life in order to keep him or her with her.The word is full of maids and old bachelors; and of men and women with frustrated ambitions whose mothers kept them from marrying or from seizing some opportunity that was offered them because they could not bear to part with their darlings.So you have seen mother love does not always assay a 100 per cent of gold; and the love between a man and a woman is even more a combination of mixed emotion. Undoubtedly, Sex Appeal plays a large part in it. Probably the first thing that draws a man and a woman together is physical attraction.
There is some mysterious force that makes us thrill at the touch of one individual, that makes his or her caress delightful to us, while the very handclasp of another is repulsive and we shudder at the very thought of having to kill him or her.
Sometimes this physical attraction passes. Often it lasts a lifetime, but, however strong it is, it not the whole of love, nor is it a satisfying emotion, because it comes and goes in guest like a storm and in between are desert spaces in which a man and a woman can bore each other to death, or actually hate each other.
Young people who think of love only in terms of fiery passion think love of a middle-aged married couple is a dull and drab affair, not worthy of that divine appellation. They see a man and a woman growing old and stout and commonplace-looking, who perhaps call each papa and mama instead of darling and angel face, who make no outward display of their feelings toward each other and the youngsters think that the fire is out on the altar and the glory and the circling wings are gone.