The War of the Sexes

Odette Dulac’s The War of the Sexes (1926) describes a strangely fanciful sexual biology, combined with insectile analogies and an astrological theory of evolution. It incorporates an idiosyncratic mysticism based on Buddhist and Hindu ideas, filtered through the reinterpretations of theosophist feminism. The result of that triple layering of fantastic notions produced a unique literary construct that has no parallel in literary history. It foreshadows, in many ways, such endeavors as Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Odette Dulac was one of the most popular cabaret singers in Paris during the first few years of the 20th century. She quit the stage in 1904, launching an entirely new career as a sculptor and a writer, active in the cause of women’s rights.