So far as the problems of sex-education are concerned, there is nothing
to be gained by an extensive review of commercialized prostitution. It
is generally accepted that the social evil or prostitution is increased
by the common ignorance of young people of both sexes regarding the
physical and social relations of sex.
Of course, it is not true that all prostitution is due to ignorance,
for it often involves enlightened men and women. However, there seems
to be good reason for believing that large numbers of people of both
sexes might be kept out of prostitution by very simple sex-instruction.
Let us look for a moment at some facts concerning the relation of the
ignorance of the women to their entrance into the underworld, and later
consider certain reasons why many men patronize the social evil.
[Sidenote: Why women enter prostitution.]
With regard to the women victims of prostitution, it seems to be
generally accepted that economic pressure, feeble-mindedness, bad
social environment, and unguided instincts, independently or combined,
are the chief causes of their downfall. However, there is a deeper
reason why numerous women enter prostitution, for all of these factors
commonly operate because of inadequate sexual knowledge. In short,
ignorance is the fundamental cause of much prostitution on the part of
women. Many a girl with starvation wages, bad social surroundings,
sub-normal mentality, or even intense instincts is able to keep her
womanhood because she knows the awful dangers of sexual promiscuity.
For our present educational purposes, it is sufficient to point out the
opinion of competent social workers that knowledge might often
counteract the forces that lead women from virtue and down into
prostitution.
[Sidenote: Men also ignorant.]
A large number of men patronize prostitution because they are ignorant
in one or more of the following respects. Some of them have drifted
into abnormal sexual habits when they were boys, and later into illicit
relations. Some of them did not know the effect of alcoholic drinks in
leading many young men to their first immoral sexual acts. Some of them
have deliberately patronized prostitution because they have accepted as
truth the monstrous lie that sexual activity is necessary to preserve
the health of men.[5] Most of the men do not realize that prostitution
offers great danger to their own health, still greater danger to the
health of innocent wives and children, and a greatly shortened life for
many women who are the victims of sexual slavery. Most men do not know
that dark tragedies are often concealed beneath the apparent gay life
of the women who are victims of sexual degradation. These are some of
the things of which many young men I have known were very ignorant, and
it has been no difficult task to trace a close connection between their
ignorance and their vice.
[Sidenote: Ignorance the chief cause.]
Looking at the social evil from any point of view, it seems to me that
ignorance, dense ignorance, is largely responsible for the existence of
that darkest blot on our boasted civilization--the social-sexual evil.
No matter how we look at the established facts regarding prostitution,
they all point to the need of sexual instruction for the protection of
the youth of both sexes. The Chicago Vice Commission concluded that
"the lack of information, education and training with reference to the
function and control of the sexual instinct, and the consequences of
its abuse and perversion, appears at every point of our inquiry for
the sources of the supply of the victims of vice, either as the cause
of the perversion of children and youth or as a complication of all
other causes."[6] Of course, we dare not dream that any sex-instruction
that now seems possible will completely eradicate prostitution; but we
do know of thousands of boys and girls who have been directed to safety
by knowledge of some fundamental sexual facts.
[Sidenote: Sex plays and novels.]
Concerning presentation of the social evil by fiction and the drama,
there is much honest disagreement. My personal opinion is that little
good is done by the theater or by such publications as Reginald
Kaufmann's "House of Bondage," and Elizabeth Robin's "My Little
Sister." They all leave the unsophisticated reader with an exaggerated
and even hysterical notion that white slavery is exceedingly common and
the main cause of prostitution. Certainly the great majority of the
army of prostitutes, both public and clandestine, in America, and a
still higher percentage on the continent of Europe, did not become
novitiates of vice in prisons of prostitution.
[Sidenote: Limited reading desirable.]
It seems to me that a very limited reading regarding the social evil is
sufficient for one who is not engaged in medical or social work that
requires scientific knowledge of this darkest side of human life.
Certainly, the indiscriminate reading of vice investigations is
dangerous for many young people,--for young men because some of them
are allured into personal investigations, and for young women because
they get an exaggerated and pessimistic view of all sexual problems.
For the intelligent reader who wants the general information that every
public-spirited citizen should have, the well-known book by Jane Addams
will serve both as an outline and an encyclopedia of the social evil.
Social workers and some educators will find use for the other books
mentioned below.
Jane Addams.--"A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil."
(Macmillan).
Seligman, E.R.A. (Editor).--"The Social Evil." (Putnam.) Contains
bibliography on the subject.
Sumner, Dean W.T., and others.--"The Social Evil in Chicago."
Vice-Commission Report, 1911. Now published by the American
Social Hygiene Association. The "introduction and summary" (pp.
25-47) deserves careful reading.
Cocks, O.G.--"The Social Evil" (Association Press).
"Vigilance," a journal devoted to attacking the social evil, has
been discontinued and replaced by bulletins of the American
Social Hygiene Association, 105 West 40th Street, New York City.