mind that of the journey? It might quite as well suggest others. In
reality, a number of ideas, or subconscious cerebral activities, act
at the same time as that of my wife to give rise to the idea of the
journey. This journey had already been decided on before thinking of
it at the moment in question, and the resolution that I had taken to
make it had left in my brain latent impressions (engrams) which
slumbered there; such as those of the date of departure, the duration
of the journey, its termination, precautions to be taken for the house
during our absence, things to take with us, expenses, etc., etc.
During the infinitely short time when the idea of journey appears in
my consciousness, between that of my wife and that of my trunk, I have
no consciousness of all these things. They are, however, closely
associated with the idea of journey, and in connection with it by the
thousand threads of a subconscious and latent cerebral force which
takes place in my cerebral nerve-elements (neurones); and it is their
hidden action which awakens the idea of journey and directs my
attention to it, at the same time weakening by their divers
interferences the intensity of other associated engrams; in particular
that of the sentiment of traveling, and thereby preventing a series of
ideo-motor sensations relating to departure from becoming predominant.
What suddenly appears in my consciousness is the verbal representation
symbolized by the word _journey_; a general representation of
synthetic nature, and consequently nebulous. It is the words of
language only which allow me to synthetize a general idea in a short
and definite form. Thus, the cerebral flash _journey_ which follows
the idea of my wife is not caused by the latter idea alone; it has
been mainly drawn from its obscurity and brought before the mobile
conscious attention, by the action of the thousand subconscious
threads, some of which we have just mentioned, and which have at the
same time determined its quality.
Without my being aware of it, these dynamic threads, or latent
engrams, have to a great extent determined the kind of idea which will
follow that of _journey_, and which will seem to me to be caused by
this last alone, namely the idea of _trunk_. The idea of journey might
equally well have awakened other images, such as those of the
acquaintances whom I should meet, or of the town I intended to visit.
Why that of the trunk? This is simply because the care of the effects
to be taken, the place they should occupy, etc., revolved
unconsciously but strongly in my brain, and for the moment
predominated over other subconscious associations.
This simple example shows us that in reality the three successive
ideas, _wife_, _journey_, _trunk_, are more under the influence of
sentiments, representations and former volitions in a latent and
subconscious state, than dependent on each other. But these latter
activities are themselves the product of other antecedent activities
of my brain, extraordinarily diverse and complex. I will attempt to
make things a little more complete and comprehensible by the aid of a
comparison.
A man finds himself in the middle of a compact and moving crowd. He
cries out to attract the attention of the crowd. His voice is heard by
those immediately around him, but is lost on the moving mass. Against
his will he is carried away by the crowd in the direction of the
strongest movement. But if the crowd is immobile and tranquil the same
man may make himself heard, and may even force his way through the
crowd and impel it in his turn by the impression that his words have
made on it.
Something analogous to this occurs in the action of an idea according
as it is produced in a brain which is awake, active and strongly
associated, or on the contrary in a brain which rests and sleeps. The
brain which is active and strongly associated resembles the agitated
crowd which carries away everything by its activity. In this case a
single idea, like a single man, cries out in vain, _i.e._, is produced
strongly; it will not impel, but will be carried away or stifled,
unless it already possesses, by the former remembrances (engrams)
which it may revive, a particular power over the brain. It is the same
with the agitated crowd; if the man who cries out is already known and
has influence and power, he may arrest it and even bring it toward the
center of his agitation. The brain which is at rest or sleeping,
_i.e._, feebly associated and not active, resembles the immobile
crowd. Even when it is new and has not yet become fixed in the memory,
an idea may produce a deep impression, and awaken activities in its
own direction. I repeat, if this idea has already acted more or less
powerfully on the cerebral activity that it has often carried with it,
it has accustomed this to follow it (_i.e._, fortified the engrams and
facilitated their ecphoria), and then the powerful associated engrams
which it has left in the organ of thought, will often be capable of
carrying everything with them, even to the center of the agitation.
In this way I succeeded in suddenly calming by hypnotism a woman who
was mad with despair over the tragic death of half her family in a
fire, by the simple fact that I had often hypnotized her previously.
Immediately after the hypnosis she went away quietly to the place of
the disaster and was the only one to keep her presence of mind and put
things in order.
I refer the reader to what has been said concerning the mneme (Chapter
I). Semon's theory throws light on these questions.
The first thing necessary for suggestion or hypnotism is to put the
brain of the subject in a state of relative repose, so as to prepare a
soil ready to receive suggestions. These are then made so as to always
increase the cerebral repose, in order to weaken the action of the
threads of subconscious association of which we have spoken above.
Lastly, the suggestion (or idea which symbolizes the effect it is
desired to obtain) is accentuated as much as possible, and in a form
which at once excludes all contradiction. For this purpose everything
should be utilized--sentiments and associations which are easily
introduced, agreeable or repulsive sensations, volitions, etc. Nothing
paralyzes a suggestive effect so much as emotions, violent sentiments
in general, inclinations, or repulsions which act in the opposite
direction, whether they arise from fear, despair, hatred, sadness,
joy, love or any kind of affective conditions. The same brain,
accessible to all kinds of suggestions, will repress some of them as
soon as it feels a deep sympathy for their contrary. We may suggest in
vain to an amorous woman, the hatred or disgust of her lover, for the
sentiment of love is stronger than the effect of a strange suggestion,
and every suggestion which opposes the strongest aspirations of
sentiment provokes mistrust and repulsion, which in their turn destroy
all suggestive power.
As we have indicated in our comparison, every suggestion which has
succeeded leaves a strong trace, or engram, in the brain. It has
opened a way by breaking down a barrier or a chasm, and its effect,
which appeared hitherto difficult or impossible to realize, will
henceforth be much more easy to obtain. This is why considerable
cerebral repose is often necessary at first to open a way for a
suggestion, while later on its effect can often be obtained even
during the agitation of cerebral activity strongly associated with or
even led by violent momentary sentiments.
The chief characteristic of suggestive action, is that it traverses
the paths of subconscious activity, so that its effect occurs
unexpectedly in our consciousness.
For example, I suggest to a man that his forehead itches. As soon as
he feels it he is surprised, being unable to understand how my
prophecy has been transformed into real itching. He then believes in
my power over his nervous system, _i.e._, that his brain becomes more
receptive to my words, and offers less resistance after having proved
the value of my predictions. It matters little whether these are
directed toward sensations or movements, or vaso-motor actions causing
blushing and blanching, or suppression or bringing on of menstruation
(in the case of a woman), etc. My influence over him by suggestion
will increase; _i.e._, his brain will accustom itself to the
suggestions which I give it by letting them dissociate its activity.
This tendency to be influenced by suggestion is very contagious by
example. When A influences B successfully, and C, D, E, F and G are
witnesses of the fact, they will be much more easily influenced by A
in the same direction; and so on. This explains suggestion affecting
the masses.
It is quite indifferent whether the subjective sentiment of sleep
occurs more or less in the state of hypnosis or suggestion. This
sentiment depends chiefly on the presence or absence of a variable
degree of amnesia (want of memory to awaken). But amnesia only depends
on the rupture, often fortuitous and unimportant, of the chain of
remembrances in the series of super-conscious or attentional states of
cerebral activity.
In somnambulists, who are the most suggestible people, we can produce
or suppress amnesia at will by a single word, and make them forget or
remember what has passed. I must dwell on this point, because of the
current dogma which assumes an essential difference between hypnotism
and suggestion in the waking state. Such an assumption is based on
false conception of the psychology of suggestion. The only difference
consists in the suggestion of amnesia, or the subjective sentiment of
sleep; or, if one prefers it, the subjective remembrance of sleep
opposed to the remembrance of having been awakened. But these two
remembrances may be voluntarily connected with the same past state of
the brain.
By _auto-suggestion_ is meant the suggestive action of spontaneous
ideas--that is to say, ideas which are not suggested to the subject by
any other person, but the effect of which is identical to that of
external suggestions. An idea, a sentiment, dominates the mind,
overcomes all its antagonists and produces a strong suggestive effect
on the whole nervous system in the direction which it symbolizes. The
idea of being unable to sleep often produces insomnia; the idea of
sexual impotence may at once inhibit erection and render coitus
impossible. The idea of yawning makes one yawn; that of coitus
provokes erections; the idea of shame causes blushing; that of fear
blanching; that of pity weeping.
But it often happens unconsciously, in yawning for example, that one
man suggests it to another who begins to yawn; or the sight of certain
objects, the hearing of certain sounds, provokes suggestions. Thus the
sight of an object belonging to a certain woman may cause an erection;
the odor of some article of diet which has caused indigestion is
sufficient to cause nausea, etc. We thus see that there is a series of
transitions between external intentional suggestion and
auto-suggestion, in the form of suggestion of objects and unconscious
or involuntary suggestion of persons. The conception of true or
intentional suggestion infers the determined will of one man
influencing another by suggestion; there is no other criterion.
It is quite another question whether the one who suggests wishes to
benefit his subject, or wishes on the contrary to abuse him or make
him ridiculous.
=Sympathy. Love and Suggestion.=--It is of great importance for us to
know that sympathy and confidence are the fundamental elements of
success in suggestive action. Even when deceived by the one who
hypnotizes him, the subject may yield to him while he is not aware of
it. But there is here a point to be noted. A man may very well see
clearly with his reason and his logic, he may understand that harm is
done to him, he may even curse a thing or a person when he reflects,
and in spite of this be instinctively and subconsciously attracted
toward this thing or this person, like a moth to a candle, when
certain sentiments of sympathy or attraction urge him to it. The two
following examples will make this more clear:
(1). An actor fell in love with a hysterical married woman. This
woman was very polyandrous, and deceived not only her husband
but the actor and many others. The actor tried with all the
power of his reason to be delivered from the tyrannical charm of
this siren; but the power of attraction of the woman was so
strong that he could not succeed in resisting her. He came to me
in despair and begged me to rid him of his passion by hypnotism.
I realized the difficulty of the situation but did my best to
help him. Although aided by his reason, all my suggestions were
overcome by the violence of the passion that his hysterical
seducer had inspired in him, and I obtained absolutely no
result.
(2). A well-educated, unmarried woman became so enamored of a
young man, that she was consumed with passion, grew thin, and
lost her appetite and sleep. Having exchanged ideas with the
young man for some time, she became convinced that their two
characters were not suited to each other, and that
incompatibility of temper and quarrels would necessarily follow
marriage. She therefore resisted with all her power and came to
me to be cured of her passion by suggestion. My failure in the
preceding case increased my skepticism, but I did my best to
succeed; the result, however, was no better than with the actor
in the preceding case. Time and separation alone gradually
restored equilibrium in this lady's nervous system.
These two cases are very instructive. Suggestion can only successfully
combat powerful sentiments by arousing other sentiments of sympathy
which increase little by little and finally become substituted for the
preceding ones. This brings us to a very difficult question.
In order to influence other persons by suggestion, it is above all
things necessary to try and associate the ideas which we suggest to
them with sentiments of sympathy, so as to arouse in them the
impression that the object to be attained is desirable and agreeable,
or at any rate that it constitutes a necessity. The woman who
surrenders to the mercy of her conqueror often experiences a kind of
pleasure which is associated with the passiveness of her sexual
sentiments. It is the same in the male masochist.
The physician who hypnotizes is obliged to awaken sentiments of
sympathy in his subject to combat with their assistance the sentiments
associated with the morbid state which it is desired to suppress. This
is usually free from danger when there is no natural sexual attraction
between the hypnotizer and the hypnotized; when, for example, a normal
man hypnotizes another man, a normal woman another woman, or an invert
another invert. Otherwise there is a risk of exciting sexual
sympathies difficult to eliminate afterwards, when necessary
precautions have not been taken at first. These attractive sexual
sensations or sentiments may affect both the hypnotizer and the
hypnotized and provoke love scenes, which are fatal to success.
For example, a hysterical baroness, whose sexual desire had been
excited by hypnotism, fell in love with a person named Czinsky, whose
case was studied and published by Schrenck-Notzing. This baroness
experienced a kind of suggested love against which her reason resisted
to a certain extent, while her hypnotizer, himself amorous, lost his
head. One might say in such a case that suggestion only reenforced the
very human sentiments which occur in all love stories of everyday
life. Between normal love and suggested love there is such an infinite
number of gradations that it is impossible to fix exactly the limits
which separate them.
A hypnotizer may abuse his suggestive power to exploit the love of the
hypnotized. I have been consulted in a case where an old woman had
hypnotized a rich young man and had so powerfully influenced him that
he abandoned his family and married her. As in the case of Czinsky,
the abuse was obvious. The case was even more grave, for this old
woman acted only from mercenary motives; in fact, she procured young
girls for her husband, so as not to lose her suggestive influence
after marriage: Czinsky, on the contrary, was truly amorous.
As a general rule we may say that, when amorous intoxication is the
result of intentional suggestion, the subject obeys a certain
sentiment of constraint, which he may describe later on when he has
succeeded in recovering himself. He feels a kind of duplication of his
personality, and perceives that the excitation of his sexual desire,
as well as his love, have a somewhat forced nature, against which his
reason attempts to defend him. This reaction often only appears
afterwards, when the sympathetic action of suggestion begins to fade.
Here again the gradations are infinite, and no absolute rules can be
formulated, for if the hypnotizer is very skillful and does not let
his intentions appear, the subjective sentiment of constraint may be
absolutely wanting; _i.e._, never become conscious. If, however, the
hypnotizer is clumsy and the subject a hysterical woman, love is often
transformed into hatred in the latter soon afterwards, as is so often
the case in these subjects, and she may afterwards be convinced by
auto-suggestion that she was the object of artificial constraint or
even violence, and describe imaginary or unnatural events as if they
were real; while she was simply amorous after the fashion of
hysterical subjects.
It is quite otherwise with cases where a hypnotizer produces in a
hypnotized woman a state of deep somnambulism and does harm to her
without her knowledge. Here the victim is absolutely without will, and
incapable of resisting. These last cases are much more easy to decide,
especially from the legal point of view; but, as far as we are now
concerned, the first cases are the most important.
The amorous irradiations produced by the sexual appetite react on the
latter and increase it. They awaken sentiments of reciprocal sympathy,
from which results a mutual attraction similar to that of animals.
Suggestive action depends on the mastery we obtain over the associated
constellations of subconscious engrams, and we have already become
acquainted with the phylogenetic and actual relationship which exists
between sexual sensations and sensations of sympathy. The simple
juxtaposition of these facts clearly shows that powerful affinities
exist between suggestion and love. I use the word "affinity"
advisedly, for we must not go further and regard the two things as
identical. Fortunately, the majority of curable patients may be cured
by the prudent awakening of a slight degree of sympathy, and by the
common efforts made by the hypnotizer and the hypnotized to subdue the
morbid symptoms, without anything but a certain sentiment of
reciprocal friendship resulting. On the other hand two human beings
may be united by sexual love, without either being able to hypnotize
the other. This is especially the case when, for example, two
conjoints have known each other for many years, or when two persons of
higher intelligence, who are not too dependent on their sexual
intercourse, meet each other.
I am obliged to dwell on these facts, so that my ideas may not be
falsely interpreted, by premature generalization. On the other hand,
when a strongly associated brain suggests to a weak brain of the
opposite sex sentiments of sympathy and makes use of them to arouse
the sexual appetite, it may produce a suggested love which closely
resembles natural amorous intoxication. If the discovery of an
imposture or abuse of power on the part of the hypnotizer weakens or
destroys the effect of suggestion, the hypnotized subject recovers
herself. Despite and repentance may then transform her love into
hatred.
In other cases there is a struggle between sexual desire and the
disillusion of a deceived love, which often serves as the tragic
motive in romance and the drama. The following is a typical case of
suggested love without formal hypnotic proceedings:
An old _roue_ aged sixty, married and the father of a family,
persecuted a very suggestible young girl with his attentions,
and systematically seduced her by means of erotic readings. He
produced such an impression on this young girl that she became
hypnotized and fell in love with the old _roue_ She lost all
conscience, became deceitful and untruthful by suggestion, and
compromised herself and her family. Her seducer was poor, so
that it was not his fortune that attracted her. She knew very
well that this union could lead to nothing, but could not
resist, and eloped with him. Later on she came to her senses and
left him.
According to an old proverb, young girls laugh at old men and only
marry them reluctantly or for their money; but in reality this is by
no means always true.
=Amorous Intoxication.=--Let us now compare these phenomena with those
of ordinary life called _amorous intoxication_. The affinities are at
once apparent. A man and a woman meet and take a fancy for each other.
The reciprocal action of looks, speech and touch, in fact all the
apparatus of the senses and the mind, awakens in both of them
sentiments of sympathy and sexual desire which mutually strengthens
each other. Sexual desire invests every action and appearance of the
loved object with an ever-increasing halo of charm and splendor, and
this halo of sexual origin increases in its turn the sentiments of
sympathy; and the sentiments of sympathy increase the sexual desire.
In this way mutual suggestions grow like a snowball, and rapidly
attain the culminating point of amorous intoxication, or what is
called being _madly in love_.
All this depends only on reciprocal illusion. The more violent and
foolish the amorous intoxication, without preparation or reflexion,
and the less the individuals know each other, the more rapidly these
illusions collapse, like a castle of cards, as soon as some douche of
cold water sobers the two lovers. Thus indifference, disgust, and even
hatred, follow "love."
The suggestive element in love is here apparent. Just as a hypnotized
person will eagerly swallow a raw potato which he takes for an orange;
so will a person madly in love regard an ugly or wicked girl as a
goddess, or an amorous girl find her ideal of chivalry and manliness
in an egoistic Don Juan.
The affinity is still more evident when the amorous intoxication is
only on one side, while the other plays the part of seducer. When
motives of pecuniary interest are not the only cause of seduction, and
even often when they are, the seducer generally brings into play his
sexual appetite, but only as a collaborator in his work of seduction
without allowing himself to be dominated by it. In this case one is
the seducer and the other the seduced. The seducer plays the part of
the hypnotizer who suggests, while the seduced plays the part of the
hypnotized, unless the seduction is due to fear, weakness of mind or
good nature. The seducer is no doubt more or less under erotic
influence, but never completely. The seduced, on the contrary, falls
completely under the power of the seducer. The thoughts, sentiments
and will are all directed by the impulses of the seducer. The latter
acquires his ascendancy by means of a kind of suggestive power, often
assisted by the sexual appetite.
In many cases the seduced gives way by pure suggestion of love without
sexual desire. These are precisely the cases that the law does not
foresee, and jurists cannot usually understand. In ordinary life, the
man most often plays the part of seducer or hypnotizer; but this is
not always the case. Antony, who threw himself at the feet of
Cleopatra and obeyed her least gesture, was evidently hypnotized.
Antonys are not rare even at the present day; but they do not
constitute the rule, nor the normal state.
As we have just described it, suggestion plays a great role in love,
and explains to a great extent the phenomena of illusion produced by
amorous intoxication. In spite of the act which deifies it and the
ecstatic happiness that accompanies it, we must admit that amorous
intoxication, with its illusory suggestions uncontrolled by reason,
brings more poison than true happiness into human life. I will attempt
to explain the matter more clearly. When two human beings with loyal
instincts have learned to know each other sufficiently, honestly
avowing their reciprocal feelings and their past life, at the same
time subduing their sensual appetites and judging the latter with
calmness, so as to be convinced that they may reasonably hope to form
a durable and happy union, then only may they abandon themselves to
amorous intoxication, but not before. The fact that the latter makes
each lover appear to the other in the most ideal light only serves to
strengthen the feelings of sympathy and make them last for life.
On the other hand, two egoists calculating coldly, even if they have
strong sexual appetites and trouble themselves very little with
reflections on their intellect, may contract a comparatively happy
marriage, based simply on reciprocal convenience and interest; a
marriage in which amorous intoxication only plays a very small part,
or none at all.
The latter case is of great frequency. The novel which delights in the
description of admirable or ignoble sentiments, and which shows a
special preference for bizarre and sensational situations, often of a
pathological nature, makes us forget that the majority of mediocre and
normal men are little susceptible to the suggestions of amorous
intoxication, and that they give vent to their sexual desires in a
more or less reflective and calculating frame of mind, like a
_gourmand_. This is not poetical, I admit, but it is much more human.
Many women also become _gourmands_ in sexual matters.
In all this sexual commerce there are only vestiges or caricatures of
the poetry of amorous intoxication. It is no longer a question of deep
love, but of essentially commonplace sexual enjoyment, wisely and
prudently adapted to other objects of concupiscence, such as money,
social position, titles, business, etc.
If the poets and the preachers of morality apostrophize me with
indignation saying that this is the prostitution of love, I shall be
obliged to protest. So long as sexual enjoyment is not bought, there
is no prostitution. Man has as much right to a certain agreeable
satisfaction of his sexual appetite, even without exalted sentiments,
as he has to satisfy his hunger and thirst, as long as he does no harm
to anyone. But, I repeat, this question has nothing to do with amorous
intoxication. The latter is a powerful shock to the whole mind, to the
principal spheres of cerebral activity, by a suggestive effect,
usually with the aid of the sexual appetite, but sometimes without
it.
Amorous intoxication naturally differs in quality and in intensity in
different individuals. In a person with ideal tendencies it may awaken
the finest harmonies of the symphony of human sentiments, while brutal
and debased persons may wallow in the mud.
=Suggestion in Art.=--Suggestion does not act only in the sexual
sphere, but on the whole mental life. In aesthetics and in art it has
an immense and irresistible influence, which gives rise to all the
capricious exaltations of fashion. The average artist is more or less
the slave of the aesthetic suggestions which are in fashion, but the
average members of the public are absolutely dominated by them.
Originating in a correct idea of certain effects of light, the most
absurd exaggerations may become accepted as beautiful and natural by
an imitative public devoid of personal judgment, by the aid of
suggestion. These deplorable effects of suggestion may last a long
time till their nullity or their absurdity causes them gradually to
disappear. But they are usually replaced by other absurdities.
=Suggestive Action in Sexual Anomalies.=--In very suggestible persons
the sexual appetite may be easily led astray by sensory impressions
created by perverse images. In this way the erotic imagination of a
very suggestible boy, excited indirectly by another boy, may even make
the latter the object of his sexual desire. This is how homosexual
inclinations may be formed by suggestion and maintained by mutual
masturbation, pederasty, etc. The duration of a perversion of this
kind often depends on the power of the erotic image which suggested
sexual desire. This is also the case with onanism, sodomy, etc.; and
in the inverse direction with impotence.
These facts explain at the same time why and how suggestion may cure
or ameliorate the anomalies of sexual life. Just as suggestion may
excite or pervert the sexual appetite, so may it calm it and put it in
the right direction, unless there is a deeply rooted hereditary
perversion. We can nearly always considerably attenuate too-frequent
emissions, masturbation and perversions by suggestion, and often
entirely cure their acquired forms.
I must here point out that when we have succeeded in removing by
suggestion a perversion based in whole or in part on organic or
hereditary causes, this result is always more or less precarious, and
does not give the physician the right to give his sanction to
marriage. The following case shows us what prudence on the part of the
hypnotizer can do with patients of this kind:
A young girl, of good education, was troubled with intense
sexual desire. She was incapable of resisting masturbation and
dreamed at night that men and animals were in contact with her
vulva. These dreams caused intense excitement and were
accompanied by orgasms. The treatment of a patient of this kind
by suggestion was no easy matter. However, with the aid of a
local sedative, the action of which it is needless to say was
purely suggestive and was combined with appropriate verbal
suggestions, I succeeded not only in suppressing the onanism,
but also in almost completely curing the nervous exhaustion of
this young girl, so that she was afterwards able to resume work.
I may add that the patient was hypnotized in the presence of others,
which can always be done in such cases with a little tact. This is a
rule from which the physician should never depart.
I cannot enter into more details on this subject, but what I have said
will suffice to draw the attention of my readers to the action of
suggestion in the sexual appetite and in love.
CHAPTER X
THE SEXUAL QUESTION IN RELATION TO MONEY AND PROPERTY PROSTITUTION,
PROXENETISM AND VENAL CONCUBINAGE
GENERAL REMARKS
In Chapter VI we have studied the historical development of human
marriage as a continuation of the phylogeny of our species, and we
have shown that marriage by purchase and different forms of polygamy
constitute a kind of intermediate stage and at the same time an
aberration of civilization, which has resulted from the association of
men, combined with the birth of individual property.
When we consider a being of high mentality and deeply rooted
individualism such as man, in whom the instinct of love and family are
so strong, led by the inevitable force of circumstances to live in the
society of his fellows, we can easily understand that certain
individuals of a higher mentality than the others will endeavor to
dominate the weaker and less intelligent, and exploit them for their
own profit and that of their family.
Analogous tendencies are seen in certain animals. Among the bees the
old workers appropriate the produce of the work of others. Certain
ants practice a form of slavery, based, it is true on instinct, in
stealing the pupae of weaker species which, after hatching, become the
servants of the idle robbers.
In incomplete animal societies, such as those of the ruminants,
certain monkeys, etc., the old males, sometimes also the more
courageous females (cows, for example) direct the herd and become
recognized as chiefs by the others. But in these cases the personal
property of objects or even living beings takes no part, because the
animals have not yet learned its value.
Other animals living isolated show the first tendencies toward
personal property; for example, the nest where they hoard their
provisions, while others, such as the ants, bees, wasps, etc., have
the sentiment of collective property well developed. For instance, a
swarm of ants regards plants with grubs as its property, and defends
them in consequence.
As soon as he has attained a primitive degree of culture, man
comprehends that the possession, not only of land and the produce of
work, but also the persons of other men, may profit him; and this
leads to slavery. The male being the stronger soon combines the
satisfaction of his sexual appetite with the advantage of property, by
placing the woman more and more under his dependence and exploiting
her. In this way woman becomes an object for sale and exchange, which
will procure the purchaser, besides satisfaction for his sexual
appetite, a docile slave and worker and a procreator of children, a
source of other workers.
This motive, so clearly revealed by ethnography and history,
sufficiently explains the ignoble traffic that man has made of love,
or rather of sexual appetite. We have seen in Chapter VI the profit
made by polygamous barbarians by the possession of many wives and
children, which led more and more to the buying and selling of the
latter. These customs are instinctively related to the traffic of
slaves. Our modern civilization has happily abolished these taints,
but money still influences our sexual life by measures which are
hardly any better. The complication and refinement of civilized life
have made women and children objects of luxury, and not a source of
wealth as in former times. This is due to two causes. On the one hand,
a wider and more humane conception of the social position of women and
children has extended their rights. Man cannot now exploit them to the
same extent as in the time of patriarchism, while the father of the
family has, on the contrary, the duty of maintaining his wife and
family, and of giving the latter a proper education. Among the poor,
the exploitation of the wife and children still exists; but in the
case of the rich and cultured the inverse phenomenon is produced. With
the intention of making his family happy and distinguished, the father
brings it up in luxury and idleness, and this produces a very harmful
result. The increasing refinement of modern life and its pleasures
leads to effeminacy. It bears upon the whole of society and
degenerates into an artificial desire for brilliancy and show, which
makes it increasingly difficult to obtain a simple and sober education
for the family. Men and women, especially the latter, do their best to
eclipse each other in their table, their toilet, the comfort and
luxury of their apartments, their pleasures and distractions, their
banquets and _fetes_. An enormous mass of the produce of human labor
is thus dissipated in futilities, for the benefit of unbridled
frivolity and luxury. It is owing to this that a civilization which,
thanks to science and progress, far surpasses all those which have
preceded it in the richness of its means of production for the wants
of humanity, not only shows more and more rich with superfluous
wealth, but also more and more poor who vegetate from the want of it.
What is still more grave is that, for reasons of economy, the
intelligent, educated and cultured marry less often and procreate
fewer children. Again, our descendants degenerate more and more, owing
to the consumption of alcohol or other narcotics, and the unhealthy
life they lead. This degeneration is dissimulated by their
well-nourished appearance, but is revealed in their increasing
neuropathic tendency. They become accustomed to a number of artificial
wants, which make them increasingly difficult to satisfy. This results
in their exacting from society much more than they give to it by their
work; whereas each ought to give to society more than he receives from
it. As evil omens, I must mention the idleness of many women with
regard to household and manual work. What are the effects of this
state of things on the sexual life of modern society? They are of
three kinds:
(1) _Marriage for money_; (2) _prostitution_, exploited by
proxenetism, and between the two (3) _venal concubinage_.
MARRIAGE FOR MONEY
Marriage for money is the modern form or derivative of marriage by
purchase. Formerly one bought a wife and sold a daughter; to-day one
is sold to a wife and buys a son-in-law. The improvement consists in
the fact that the buyer and the bought are no longer in the positions
of proprietor and object possessed, respectively. Nevertheless,
marriage at the present day gives rise to much traffic, speculation
and exploitation of an evil nature.
These things are so well known that I need not dwell upon them. In
place of love, force of character, capacity, harmony of sentiments,
intellectual and bodily health, money is the _alpha et omega_ of
marriage. Money dazzles most men so that they are blind to everything
else. They no longer understand that the health and the physical and
moral worth of a woman constitute a capital which is far preferable to
all the title-deeds deposited in the coffers of the future
father-in-law, which are rapidly squandered by children tainted with
bad physical or mental heredity. In this way ignorance of the laws of
heredity and the rapacity of pecuniary interests perpetually tend
toward the antisocial procreation of a degenerate posterity.
Inversely, a number of capable and healthy men and women remain
celibate and sterile for want of money. Capital exploits them as
workers and prevents them from reproducing their race; or else their
own foresight induces them to avoid procreation.
A characteristic sign is observed in military circles, especially in
the German army where officers who are not well-to-do are forbidden to
marry a woman unless she has a certain income. The officer must bring
up his family in accordance with his position. This system, which it
is sought to justify by all kinds of reasons, shows how the worship of
the golden calf and class prejudices may degenerate our manners and
customs. Without fortune one cannot serve the country as an officer,
or marry, except by selling oneself to a rich woman. In other terms,
an officer cannot marry according to his own inclination unless he
possesses a certain fortune. No doubt there are officers who marry for
love; nevertheless, they are not only obliged to have a certain
fortune, but the woman they marry must have a certain social position
and have been well educated. The wife of an officer has to take part
in balls and official gatherings. She is forbidden to carry on openly
any business, and her parents must not even be shopkeepers! In a
German town, one of my relatives heard a rich mother say to her
daughter, who could not make up her mind to marry a gentleman who
proposed to her: "If you do not want him, let him go; we do not wish
to persuade you. We have plenty of money, and if you want to marry
later on we can easily buy you an officer!"
In the tyranny of class marriages, it is money which almost always
decides the question. Formerly birth and nobility were everything, and
it was these which brought power and fortune; nowadays money has
replaced them, and has monopolized universal power. If an energetic
and intelligent man revolts, by returning to modest and primitive
customs, if he dresses simply, performs manual labor, takes his meals
at the same table as his servants, etc., he is despised and is not
received into what is called good society.
It is only up to a certain point, and with the exercise of great
prudence, that any attempt can be made to react against the whirlwind
of our unbridled luxury, and it is in marriage that this becomes most
delicate and most difficult. A well-brought-up and well-educated man
with no money, who wishes to marry while he is a student, so as to
avoid prostitution or other evils; who is content to live in humble
quarters with his wife, each doing their own work, will have great
difficulty in finding a well-nurtured girl to consent to such an
arrangement. Everything has to be regulated according to the fashion,
customs and prejudices of the class in which he lives, and this
usually renders marriage impossible, as long as he has not what is
called a position. But no one will blame the same student for living
in concubinage with a grisette. Why cannot the same means of existence
which allow concubinage suffice for marriage? With this question I
only touch on a problem to which we shall return, at the same time
pointing out the canker which corrupts our modern sexual life.
By marriage for money we understand marriage which is based on
interest and not on love. It is not always a question of money; for
position, name, titles and convenience often complicate the question.
Sometimes a ruined aristocrat marries a rich tradesman's daughter, in
order to repair his fortune, while the vanity of his _fiancee_ makes a
title a desirable acquisition. Sometimes a coquette, by clever
flirtation, will simulate a love which she does not feel, to catch a
rich man in her net. But more commonly there is calculation on both
sides and both are duped.
Marriage for money is not confined to the rich but also occurs among
peasants and working people. Everywhere it constitutes one of the
principal corrupting elements of sexual intercourse and procreation.
Hard-working servants who have succeeded in saving a few hundred
dollars are often married for the sake of this small sum, and then
abandoned as soon as the husband has squandered it. I do not pretend
that a marriage for money can never be happy; it may happen that the
contract is an honest one and that love follows it more or less
haltingly, especially when the calculators have taken into account
character and health, etc., as well as money.
There is no need for me to continue this theme any further, and I
shall conclude by stating that this system opens the door to
hypocrisy, deceit and abuse of all kinds. It is not without reason
that marriage for money has been branded with the name of _fashionable
prostitution_.
PROSTITUTION AND PROXENETISM
Prostitution is a very ancient institution and a sign of degeneration
which is found more or less among all nations. When woman is an
article for sale it is not surprising that those whose moral worth is
weak take the traffic into their own hands when they can, and sell
themselves to men to satisfy their sexual appetites, instead of
allowing themselves to be passively exploited as articles of commerce.
Man being the stronger finds it advantageous in the lower and
barbarous states of civilization to monopolize this traffic for his
own profit, and deliver the women under his domination to
prostitution. We have seen that fathers give their daughters, and
husbands their wives to prostitution.
For the same reason, the woman who prostitutes herself in our modern
civilization, always runs the risk of being abused without payment;
which is not to be wondered at considering the doubtful quality of the
usual clients of the prostitute. It is therefore natural that she
should seek for a means of protection. She thus takes a male
protector, or "bully," whom she pays; or else she joins the service
of those who make a business of prostitution--or _proxenetism_.
Proxenetism and protectors are thus the parasites of prostitution.
Prostitution flourished amongst the ancients and also in the Middle
Ages, especially after the Crusades (Chapter VI). I do not propose to
write the history of prostitution; it is sufficient to be acquainted
with that of the present day. I may, however, remark that among a
number of primitive races, and in young and progressive nations, whose
sexual life is still comparatively pure, prostitution is only feebly
developed. It is especially to Napoleon I that we owe the present form
of regulation and organization of prostitutes. Like all his
legislation on marriage and sexual intercourse, this regulation is the
living expression of his sentiments toward woman; oppression of the
female sex, contempt of its rights, and degradation of its individuals
to the state of articles of pleasure for men, and machines for
reproduction.
=Organization and Regulation of Prostitution.=--We have just seen the
social conditions under which prostitution becomes quite naturally
organized, with its protectors and its proxenetism. There is another
factor to be added--that of venereal disease. The infectious germs of
syphilis and gonorrhea are usually met with in the genital organs of
man and woman; so that every coitus between a healthy and an infected
individual may infect the former. Hence the danger of the spread of
infection increases with the number of mutations in sexual
intercourse. If a woman offers herself systematically to all the men
who wish for her, the probability that she will be infected by one of
them increases in proportion to the number of clients.
In the second place, as soon as she is infected, the danger is
increased by the number of men who have connection with her, for she
will probably infect a large proportion of them.
While paying much attention to venereal diseases and their
consequences, medicine has shown itself inconceivably blind in not
comprehending the bearing of this elementary arithmetic. We must take
into account the fact that the complete cure of syphilis is very
difficult, if not impossible, to prove; that this disease is extremely
infectious, at least during the first two years of its course; and
that it extends to the blood and the whole organism, so that it may be
communicated, not only by large visible sores, but by small
excoriations hidden in the mucous membrane of the vagina or the mouth,
etc.
We must also remember that gonorrhea is less painful in woman than in
man, and that, even in the latter, it ceases to be painful when it
becomes chronic. We may add that the microbes (the gonococci) are very
difficult to reach in all the recesses of the mucous membrane of the
sexual organs in which they are hidden, and that in women they
penetrate as far as the womb, when a cure becomes almost impossible.
If we consider that the sexual organs of woman form deep and hidden
cavities which it is very difficult to examine thoroughly, in spite of
all the apparatus of modern surgery, and that the mouth in prostitutes
is also frequently contaminated by unnatural manipulations; lastly,
that no part of their body is absolutely indemnified, it is easy to
understand the great danger of infection in public prostitution.
Recognizing the danger of venereal disease, the regulation of
prostitution was instituted by medical men with the good intention of
eliminating or of diminishing its danger, since they regarded its
suppression as impossible. This system consists in the official
supervision and inscription of every woman who prostitutes herself.
She is given an official form which obliges her to submit to medical
examination once a week or once a fortnight, under the penalty of
being arrested and punished.
To facilitate medical control, regulation generally endeavors to lodge
prostitutes in brothels or _lupanars_, under the direction of a
proxenet. In theory, the brothel is not exactly considered as a State
institution of public health; the word _toleration_ being used in this
connection, signifying that it is regarded as a tolerated evil.
Nevertheless, this distinction only rests on uncertain and subtle
characters. To tolerate, to license, to organize, to recognize and
favor, to protect and recommend are notions which merge into one
another insensibly. As soon as the State tolerates prostitution and
brothels, it is obliged to enter into official contracts with
prostitutes and proxenetism; therefore, it recognizes them. Moreover,
the services which it renders must be paid for. It is therefore
necessary that prostitutes and proxenets should pay their tribute to
the State and to the doctors: but "the one who pays commands."
No doubt this proverb must not be taken to the letter, nevertheless
the one who pays always exerts a certain pressure on the one who
receives, and for this reason proxenets and inscribed prostitutes have
some idea that they form part of an official institution, which raises
their position not only in their own eyes but in those of the
irreflective masses. I will cite two examples which show how
effectively the public organization of a vicious social anomaly
confuses ideas in persons of limited intelligence.
One of my friends was engaged in combating the official regulation of
prostitution. A woman, who misunderstood his object, came to him
complaining bitterly of the loose life her daughter was leading, and
asked him if he could not help her by placing her in a brothel
licensed by the State; she would then be under the care of a paternal
government!
An old proxenet in Paris requested the authorities to transfer the
management of her brothel to her daughter, aged nineteen. Her house,
she said, was honest and managed in a loyal and religious spirit; her
daughter was capable and initiated into the business and would carry
it on in the same irreproachable manner as hitherto.
These two examples of ingenuousness are sufficiently characteristic of
the morality of the system. In _La Maison Tellier_ Guy de Maupassant
has depicted with his masterly pen the psychology of the prostitute,
the proxenet, and their clients.
For reasons previously mentioned no real confidence can be placed in
periodical medical examination of prostitutes; on the contrary it
gives the male public a false security. The object of these medical
visits is to eliminate diseased women from circulation and compel them
to submit to hospital treatment. But any one acquainted with the facts
knows that the treatment is illusory. In a short time every woman in a
brothel is infected, with very few exceptions. But, on the one hand,
the proxenets and the prostitutes have every interest in shortening
the time in hospital; and, on the other hand, the visiting doctor,
who often lives partly by their fees, is obliged to treat them with
respect. [In Paris, the doctors in charge of the inspection of
prostitutes are paid by the State, and do not depend on fees from the
women.] The treatment of venereal disease being of long duration and
very uncertain in its effects, a vicious circle is formed.
A conscientious Dutch doctor, Chanfleury van Issjelstein, who
attempted to eliminate all infected prostitutes from the brothels,
succeeded in almost emptying them, by subjecting the infected women to
prolonged treatment in hospital. This led to a revolt which endangered
his life, and he had to abandon his scheme.
In ordinary hospital practice only visible sores are treated, and
gonorrheal discharges as long as they are apparent; the prostitutes
are then allowed to return to their brothels. Moreover, inspection is
made too rapidly; for, if every woman was examined carefully from head
to foot every week, neither the brothels, the prostitutes nor the
doctors could exist.
Certain persons have made the proposition, as ridiculous as it is
radical, of submitting every man who visits a prostitute to medical
inspection! This would indeed be the only means of preventing the
infection of prostitutes. But I ask my readers to imagine such a
measure put in practice. Is it likely that the _habitues_ of brothels,
some of whom visit prostitutes nearly every day or oftener, would make
this known to a doctor in their town, and submit, before each coitus,
to a medical examination which would cost them more time and money
than their pleasure! Can one imagine doctors examining whole _queues_
of clients waiting their turn in brothels when business is brisk!
Whilst an independent prostitute still possesses some human sentiment
and a vestige of modesty which cause her to choose as far as possible
a limited number of clients, the police certificate of regulation
officially places the woman who receives it in the class of the
pariahs of society, and this leads to her losing the little that
remains of her womanly nature. In brothels, the last vestige of her
human nature is trampled under foot.
=Degrees of Prostitution. Protectors.=--Several degrees can be
recognized in private prostitution. A variety of prostitute rather
less low than others, looks for clients at public balls, certain cafes
and other doubtful localities, and hires herself to a certain number
of temporary acquaintances. The lowest and most common form of private
prostitution is that of the streets. Generally at night, but sometimes
in the daytime, these prostitutes, dressed so as to attract attention,
promenade in certain well-known and frequented streets, and solicit
passers-by. This is the common method employed in nearly all towns.
This solicitation is supervised by the police in countries where
prostitution is regulated, and is only permitted to women who possess
their certificate of inscription.
Here the "protector" (bully) intervenes, and keeps an eye on the
clients at the prostitute's house, or sometimes in the street. If they
do not pay up, or pay too little, or if they threaten or ill-treat the
woman, the protector administers a drubbing, and sometimes relieves
them of their purse or clothes.
At the same time the protector spies on the police for the benefit of
the prostitute. Sometimes he assumes the position of legitimate
husband, so as to facilitate taking rooms. A "husband" of this kind,
with a citizen's rights, is very useful to foreign prostitutes, for
without him they would risk expulsion. The protector is generally a
scamp of the worst kind, an absolutely depraved and idle vagabond who
is entirely maintained by his "wife."
Some protectors shine by their sexual power, and are at the same time
the real lovers of the prostitutes, who keep them, and are plundered
by them. While they submit to coitus with their clients without any
pleasure, and only simulate voluptuous sensations, they abandon
themselves to their protectors or lovers with ardor. It is needless to
add that the protectors are often criminals, or of the criminal type.
Those who are well acquainted with prostitution declare that it would
be impossible without the protector, who is at the same time the
friend, protector and exploiter of the prostitute, while the brothel
keeper is only concerned with her wholesale systematic exploitation.
=Brothels and Proxenets.=--Under the pretext of avoiding the dangers
of prostitution in the streets, brothels were organized. These are
generally managed by an elderly female profligate, often in
partnership with a "husband," who is only a superior kind of
protector. Officially, the prostitutes are free lodgers in the
brothel, but in reality they are often prisoners or slaves. They are
well fed and dressed in a way to attract the clients as much as
possible. Clothes, food, etc., are placed to their account and the
crafty brothel keeper generally manages to get them into debt so as to
always remain their creditor. In this way these miserable outcasts of
society, who are generally incapable of claiming their legal rights,
are more or less reduced to slavery. Apparently they are free, but in
reality they can hardly leave the house without paying their debts,
and the brothel keeper who wishes to keep them arranges so that they
cannot pay it.
It is not always easy to distinguish between the different classes of
prostitutes: the prostitute of the brothel, the street prostitute
under inscription or not, the private prostitute and lorette or
grisette. Sometimes a woman may rise from one class to another; but
more often she falls lower and lower.
We may mention here one of the dangers of brothels. Their good
organization, their medical supervision, etc., are extolled; but the
great danger of the arithmetical progression of mutations in sexual
intercourse is ignored. While a private prostitute rarely receives
more than one client in an evening, and is not absolutely obliged to
receive more, every prostitute in a brothel is forced to receive as
many as present themselves. A girl may thus have connection with men
twenty or thirty times in the same night.
Under certain circumstances, for instance at the time of conscription
for recruits at Brussels, the brothels are besieged to such a point
that one man has hardly time to finish coitus before another comes to
take his place. It is obvious that such "file firing" greatly
increases the danger of venereal infection, since a single infected
person is sufficient to contaminate innumerable clients (even without
the woman herself becoming infected).
It is often denied that the brothel is a prison, yet this fact has
been often demonstrated. When, as in France, the police can arrest a
prostitute at pleasure--often a virtuous young girl who is taken for
such--and put her on the inscription list, the thing is obvious. I
have treated a girl who became the mistress of a police agent in Paris
under the threat of being inscribed as a prostitute.
Again, besides the debts we have spoken of, the proxenets have many
other ways of keeping prostitutes under their dependence. It is very
difficult for ignorant girls, placed under the ban of society, to
return to a free and virtuous life. But if a girl shows signs of
wishing to leave a brothel, heroic measures are adopted, in the form
of international exchange. A girl who is unacquainted with the
language of the country is naturally more incapable of gaining her
freedom than one who does. This is one of the reasons why the brothels
of different countries exchange their women.
This expedient, which also satisfies clients who desire a change,
leads to the exportation of women from one country to another, under
false pretenses, such as the promise of lucrative and easy situations.
In this way young Swiss girls are exported to Hungary, Hungarians to
Switzerland, Germans to France, French to England, Europeans to
Buenos-Ayres, creoles to Europe, etc. For example, if a young French
girl has been exported to Buda-Pest or Buenos-Ayres, we may be certain
that she will lose all inclination to run away; for what can she do--a
stranger without a cent, with her ignorance and want of character,
alone in the streets, when she does not understand a word of the
language?
=White Slavery.=--The modern commerce in female slaves of civilized
Europe destined for prostitution is closely connected with the facts
we have just described. The manner in which brothels exchange their
merchandise only concerns one side of the question. The principal art
consists in obtaining young girls, of twelve to seventeen years of
age, for the brothels. This traffic is formally prohibited by most
laws; but what are laws made for, if not to be broken? There are so
many means of training children under some pretext or other, before
they are independent enough to escape this life of infamy. There are
so many depraved or hungry parents who are ready to sell their
children if, in hypocritical but transparent language, a good
situation is promised them with payment in advance.
During a railway journey, I was myself a witness of the manner in
which a young girl of twelve was sold in this way and sent to
Pressburg. I was also simple enough to try and appeal for the
intervention of a consul and an ambassador to prevent the perpetration
of the crime. They only replied by shrugging their shoulders. How
could I prove the matter before a tribunal? The child was accompanied
by a woman who admitted to me that there could hardly be any other
question than the sale of the child for prostitution. She had only
been ordered to take the child to Vienna, where they would come and
take her. This shows the impotence of any person who tries to prevent
such infamies.
During the last few years an international organization has at last
been formed to combat white slavery; but so far it has not obtained
much result. By the aid of depraved parents and all their criminal
system of seduction, the proxenets always find a way of attaining
their object. Moreover, it is difficult to see how the State can
prevent proxenetism from obtaining its merchandise, so long as it
tolerates and licenses it. We must remember that very young girls,
almost children, are the most easy to seduce and the most sought
after.
=The Training of Prostitutes.=--The most repugnant aspect of
proxenetism is the seduction and systematic training of the girls. The
desire for money and fine dresses, the promise of good situations, and
especially alcoholic intoxication, all play their part in the
diabolical art of proxenetism. Many young girls, frivolous and fond of
pleasure, but not wishing to go any further, are easily seduced under
the influence of wine. As soon as some protector has succeeded in
seducing a girl, he trades on her shame and fear of discovery, adding
threats and blackmail. When she has become sufficiently accustomed to
sexual intercourse, she is initiated into the high-school of vice, and
systematically instructed in exciting the sexual appetites of men by
all possible means, natural or otherwise. She is first of all taught
how to simulate the venereal orgasm by her movements, breathing, etc.;
to practice _coitus ab ore_, etc.; to conform to the pathological
requirements of masochists, sadists, etc., (Chapter VIII). Girls who
have been seduced and abandoned, and those who have had illegitimate
children, are the most suitable objects for exploitation by the
jackals of proxenetism. If it is objected that the majority of
prostitutes have a bad hereditary taint, and that their frivolity and
idleness incline them from the first to their trade, I reply that
frivolity and love of pleasure are not at all the same thing as the
ignoble slavery and disgusting life of a prostitute in a brothel.
The part played by alcohol in prostitution has not been estimated at
its true value. The coarser and more degraded forms of prostitution
would not be possible without it. It is by the aid of alcoholic orgies
that most girls are seduced, and by chronic drunkenness that they
sustain themselves in their degradation.
=Localized Prostitution.=--In certain towns, Hamburg for instance, an
attempt has been made to establish an organization intermediate
between the brothel and private prostitution, by compelling all
prostitutes to inhabit certain special streets which are reserved for
them, at the same time being inscribed by the police. The result has
been deplorable, and these streets have become uninhabitable. It must
be borne in mind that the owners or managers of these houses become
from this fact more or less analogous to proxenets. Whoever lets his
house for such an object must possess very little sentiment of modesty
and duty, for he lives indirectly on the produce of prostitution.
=Clandestine Brothels.=--Besides the official brothels, of which we
have spoken, there are a number of secret organizations of all kinds,
which the State is the less able to prevent as it organizes and
tolerates prostitution and proxenetism on its own account. A number of
taverns possess secret chambers which are only small brothels, in
which the servants act at the same time as prostitutes.
It is the same with many small shops (gloves, perfumes, etc.), whose
innocent appearance only serves as a blind. A number of _cafes
chantants_ are also connected with prostitution and proxenetism.
Certain tobacco shops, etc., sell obscene objects such as pornographic
pictures. All these things act especially on youth and become
disseminated in colleges.
=The Number of Prostitutes.=--The number of prostitutes has been
estimated at 30,000 in Berlin, 40,000 in Paris, and 60,000 in London.
It can hardly be assumed that all these women have a pathological
heredity. As soon as the State recognizes the right of existence of
this dung-heap, by its toleration and organization, corruption
hitherto hidden and ashamed raises its head and becomes more and more
bold, even dragging public organs into its sink. It is the public
especially, but also the authorities and the doctors who become
corrupted by contact with official proxenetism, which confuses the
ideas of morality in every one's head (vide _La Maison Tellier_, de
Maupassant). They shut their eyes to the haunts of vice. The proxenets
feel that they are important personages, and the more enterprising of
them very often enjoy secret favors and receive visits from State
officials, and even married persons of high position. It is not
difficult for any one who reflects a little to see what this state of
things leads to.
=Prostitution and the Police.=--The police know very well that in
certain brothels prostitution is not only associated with alcoholic
excess, but that certain houses become the haunts of criminals. They
even regard certain low-class brothels and taverns frequented by
prostitutes as very useful for the discovery of criminals. Spies of
all kinds are met with in these places, from the secret agent who
tracks a criminal and flirts at the same time with the prostitutes, to
the counter-spy employed by the proxenets to watch the secret agent.
It is here that the criminal world acquires its rakish manners, but
its weakness for women and alcohol cause it to fall early into the
traps of the secret police. It is here also, as well as in the salons
of high-class proxenetism, that we meet with those indefinable
individuals who are to-day secret agents of the government, to-morrow
false noblemen or criminals, and the day after proxenets, and whom a
former minister of the German Empire designated by the euphemistic
term of "non-gentleman."
=The Psychology of Prostitutes and the Cause of Prostitution.=--The
psychology of prostitutes is a difficult and complicated subject.
According to the point of view of those who judge them, they are
considered as women of evil and incorrigible instincts, or as the
victims of our bad social organizations. These two assertions are by
their exclusiveness equally false. Urged by Christian charity, many
societies for the improvement of morality have attempted to rescue
fallen women; but, as might be expected, the results have not been
satisfactory. In fact, the mind of woman is quite differently
dominated by sexual ideas and their irradiations than that of man. It
is also less plastic, and becomes more easily the slave of habit and
routine. If, therefore, a woman has been systematically trained in
sexual aberrations from her youth upward, all her ideas are
concentrated on debauch and sexual intercourse, so that it becomes
impossible later on to restore her to a life of serious social duty.
Rare exceptions confirm this rule. Moreover, sexual excitation in
women awakens sexual desire, which becomes exalted by repetition and
habit.
On the other hand, it is necessary to recognize that girls who are
idle, of weak character, hysterical, easily suggestible, coquettes or
nymphomaniacs, are subjects specially disposed to become seduced.
Lastly, poverty is one of the most powerful auxiliaries of
prostitution. I do not wish to be sentimental, nor to give too much
weight to the well-known statement that a poor woman prostitutes
herself to appease her children's hunger, or her own. No doubt this
happens among the oriental Jews and among the proletariat of large
towns, but it is, on the whole, exceptional.
Poverty acts indirectly in a much more intense and efficacious manner.
First of all it compels the proletariat to live in the most disgusting
promiscuity. Not only do the father, the mother and the children
occupy the same room, but they sleep there, often in the same bed. The
children are witnesses of their parents' coitus and become initiated
in sexual intercourse, often in its most bestial form, under the
influence of alcohol, for example. Neglected and herded together with
other children, most of them as badly brought up as themselves, from
their early youth they become acquainted not only with the most gross
and filthy things, but also with the most pathological and deformed
excrescences of the unhealthy life of towns. In the proletariat of
certain towns there are few girls of fourteen years of age who are
still virgins.
Again, poverty urges parents to exploit their children, for it is easy
to deliver them into the hands of proxenetism. But this is not
confined to the poorest classes; among small tradespeople, poverty is
also an indirect agent of prostitution. Here again the effect of
pitiless exploitation is seen; in certain occupations which leave the
girls free evenings, and also in certain shops, the proprietor only
pays his employes an absurdly small salary, because they can add to it
by prostitution. For this reason, many saleswomen, dressmakers, etc.,
are obliged to content themselves with a minimum wage. When they
complain, and especially when they are good looking, they are often
given to understand that with their attractive appearance it is very
easy for them to increase their income, for many a young man would be
glad to "befriend them," to say nothing of other insinuations of the
same kind. I have already pointed out how waitresses are utilized as
bait in certain taverns, etc. Let us cite a few figures:
About 80 per cent. of the prostitutes in Paris have some occupation
besides prostitution.
In factories, shops, etc., the average wage of men is 4 francs 20. per
day; that of women 2 francs 20.; but in domestic service it is only 2
francs 10. for men and 1 franc 10., or even 90 centimes for women,
even where the latter do the same work! Is it to be wondered that they
have recourse to prostitution?
=High-class Brothels.=--In these establishments the life of the
prostitute is much more agreeable: the goods of superior quality
demanded by rich and fastidious clients requires better treatment and
special care. I will cite a case published in the annual report of the
Societe de Pestalozzi (for cruelty to children) at Vienna:
"In October, 1904, the Tyrolean Society for Abandoned Infancy
sent us the papers of a young Tyrolean girl of eighteen, who was
found at Venice under police control. Our attention was drawn to
the youth of this girl and the incapacity of the father to
induce her to reform. We were requested to restore her, if
possible, to an honest life.
We made the usual inquiries. Having many brothers and sisters,
this girl, at the age of fourteen, obtained a situation at
Innsbruck, where she was badly treated. She went away and gave
herself gradually to prostitution, latterly at Vienna.
We had an interview with her at our office and ascertained that
she had experienced ill-treatment at Innsbruck. She had a modest
demeanor and made a good impression. She regarded her future
with equanimity, admitting that she was excluded from society,
but speaking of her trade as seriously as if it was licit and
officially recognized.
She assured us that her parents, having great difficulty in
gaining a livelihood, agreed with her in her choice of a
"business." She was on very good terms with them and sent them
money.
To obtain a certificate from the police, the consent of her
parents was necessary. Her mother had told her that if she
remained pious and honest no one could reproach her. She held
"Madame" (the proprietress of the brothel) in high esteem, on
account of her kind treatment of her "boarders." The house in
which she was located was first-class, both as regards clients
and treatment. There were about a dozen young girls there, most
of them younger than herself, all with their parents' consent;
and many of them sent home what they earned.
She said that her companions were very happy, being well fed and
clothed, and earning from 120 to 240 crowns a month. With much
ingenuousness she told us how Madame, whom she greatly
respected, had looked after two old "boarders," who no longer
had any clients. She also had a protector.
We tried to induce her to commence another life, promising her a
situation, but she refused, saying that even if she wished to do
so Madame would not let her go; besides, she would always be
reproached for her past life, and she did not wish to live with
people who would always despise her. She had already suffered
enough trouble and did not wish to launch on the unknown.
Moreover, she had lost her former habits and had never learnt
anything seriously. In short, she did not wish to give up her
pleasant and comfortable life!
This conversation led us to the conclusion that the case in
question was not of a nature to justify any action on the part
of our society for the rescue of young women.
In spite of her tender age, this girl gave us the impression of
mature judgment. It appeared already much too late to attempt to
recommence her education. She also showed signs of great anxiety
when we spoke to her of leaving her brothel.
This case requires no comment; it gives a good idea of our social
condition. The religious piety of this girl, and her profound
veneration for "Madame," are typical of the deviation of moral sense
by the suggestion of environment.
=Varieties in Prostitutes.=--We thus see that prostitutes constitute a
collection of very different individuals. Although it may be true
that, on the average, their ranks are recruited from girls who are
coarse, shameless, depraved and alcoholic, it is no less false to
conclude that all are of bad heredity. A considerable number are
pathological individuals, including hysterical subjects, nymphomaniacs
and other psychopaths. Others again are naturally amoral, stupid, idle
and deceitful, or have been accustomed to vicious surroundings from
infancy; or else they are of an absolutely indifferent and apathetic
nature, or very suggestible and yielding to every seduction and
external impulse. The latter perhaps form the largest contingent,
because they most easily become the prey of proxenetism.
Many of them have fallen by seduction. Ashamed of their first error,
and not having the courage to bear the consequences, they gradually
sink into the swamp of prostitution. Illegitimate births play a great
part here.
A certain class of prostitutes ply their trade simply from poverty and
want, being ashamed of it but profiting by it to maintain their
family. But poverty acts chiefly in combination with other causes.
There still remains a very limited group formed by individuals who
give themselves up to prostitution for love of it. These are generally
women with a morbid and violent sexual appetite, joined to want of
moral sense. Rich women, even countesses and princesses have been
known to become prostitutes.
This diversity among prostitutes explains why there are different
degrees in prostitution. Although its depravity is often more or less
masked by fine clothes and good cheer, the lowest level is represented
by the girl of the brothels, who is little more than an instrument for
coitus in the hands of proxenetism (with the exception of certain
high-class brothels). It is the prostitutes of low-class brothels for
soldiers who lead the most miserable life. Such houses only keep
refuse merchandise, _i.e._, old prostitutes who are no good for
anything else. There is no sadder sight than a soldiers' brothel.
The prostitution in _cafes_, scent shops, glove shops, etc.,
constitutes a slightly higher grade. As regards danger of venereal
infection this is as great as anywhere, but the girls are rather more
independent and lead a more natural life. It is precisely because
these places are not under legal protection, that the patrons or
protectors of prostitutes cannot employ the terrorism of licensed
proxenets.
The free prostitutes of the streets are about on the same level. They
are not dependent on proxenetism, but only on their protector and
proprietor, which is a trifle less degrading. What degrades them most
of all is police inscription, obligatory medical inspection, and the
miserable system of solicitation on the pavement. It is necessary to
have lost all feeling of modesty, and to possess a cynical audacity to
become a street prostitute.
Prostitutes who only practice occasionally and have not the courage to
solicit, nor to be inscribed by the police, belong to a higher level.
But in countries where regulation is in force they always run the risk
of being arrested by the police and put on the inscription list. These
private prostitutes constitute the intermediate stage between
prostitution properly so-called, and venal concubinage, which we shall
speak of later.
The army of prostitutes is partly composed of pathological
individuals. Alcohol and vicious habits increase their abnormal
tendencies, so that their behavior leaves nothing wanting in the way
of temper, impulsiveness, cynicism and insolence. This is seen every
day in hospitals for venereal disease. As soon as a prostitute finds
her physical condition improve after a few days in hospital, sexual
abstinence arouses her appetite to such an extent that she indulges in
lesbian love with her companions, or shows herself naked at the
windows, etc. Some prostitutes of better quality suffer at first from
the scandalous tone of the brothel, but they generally become used to
it, and end with adopting it themselves. Honest women, infected
accidentally or by their husbands, suffer martyrdom when they are sent
to the venereal divisions of hospitals.
=The Fate of Prostitutes.=--What becomes of prostitutes in the course
of time? They cannot remain very long in the brothels for they only
accept young and fine-looking girls. It would be interesting to follow
the fate of all these women. At all events nothing is more absurd than
the common saying that the suppression of brothels increases
prostitution in the streets, and that their introduction suppresses
it. It is obvious that, as the women in brothels have to be
continually renewed, they must be continually thrown onto the streets.
No doubt many prostitutes die at an early age from the results of
alcohol and syphilis. The only resource left to many, when they are
ejected from the brothels, is to solicit in the streets or to join
clandestine brothels or taverns of the same nature.
The most profligate, those who look upon their profession from the
artistic or the commercial points of view, know how to advance
themselves and become "Madames"; but these are comparatively few in
number. Some end in suicide or lunatic asylums.
As a last resource, when no man will have anything to do with them,
many of them take to the lowest occupations, such as cleaning
lavatories, etc. At Munich it used to be proverbial that the class of
"Radiweiber" and "Nussweiber" (old women selling nuts etc., at the
street corners) were mostly recruited from old prostitutes.
Occasionally a better class prostitute succeeds in getting married.
If we consider without prejudice the miserable life of a prostitute,
we cannot hear the term "_fille de joie_" without a feeling of sadness
and indignation, for it conveys such bitter and tragic irony. If we
could ourselves experience the true state of mind which is hidden
behind the smiles and songs of so many miserable singers at cafe
concerts, and behind the brazen artifices of many prostitutes; if we
could learn their past life and the cause of their fall, no man with a
spark of pity or sympathy for his fellows could relish with a light
heart a "joy" bought at such a price. For those who read German, I
recommend on this subject: _Tagebuch einer Verlornen_, by Marguerite
Boehme. (Berlin: Fontane, 1905.)
=Prostitution and Sexual Perversion.=--If it is true that many
prostitutes have a pathological heredity, it is still more sure that
they often have to submit to the fancies of pathological clients. The
numerous sexual anomalies, of which we have spoken in Chapter VIII,
are closely connected with prostitution. The refinement of modern
civilization is so complete that it supplies localities and women for
the special use of each pathological form of the sexual appetite.
So far we have only spoken of female prostitutes, and we have seen how
they conform to the customs of sadists, masochists, etc. They allow
themselves to be maltreated by the former, and maltreat the latter; or
else they play at exhibitions symbolical of cruelty or humiliation.
For male inverts, on the other hand, there exist male brothels, in
which young boys practice pederasty for money. For certain rich
_roues_, or for those affected with pederosis, children are kept. This
last class of goods is very dear, for there is always a risk of the
law intervening. Young virgins also fetch a high price; and they even
try to sew up the hymen after their defloration, so as to offer them
several times as virgins!
With what we have said in Chapter VIII, these indications will suffice
to show that modern prostitution and proxenetism constitute a public
disgrace, intended to exploit the unbridled desires of men for profit.
This system has been defended on the grounds of hygiene and the
protection of virtuous women against the assaults of men, etc. In
reality, it has resulted in corrupting and effeminating men; in
restricting the normal sexual intercourse of youth in its natural
association with an inconsiderate love; in degrading love itself; in
debarring a great number of capable and virtuous women from marriage,
from love, and from sexual intercourse in general; lastly, in causing
complete aberration of the whole sexual life of modern society.
Contemporary literature has begun to consider the psychology of
prostitution. We have already mentioned _La Maison Tellier_ by de
Maupassant; Zola's _Nana_ is the history of a high-class prostitute
related in the well-known realistic manner of the celebrated novelist,
in which he describes the sexual depravity existing in certain
Parisian circles of the Second Empire.
I will now make a few remarks concerning a social movement organized
against the regulation of prostitution, called abolitionism.
=Abolitionism and Regulation.=--An Englishwoman, Mrs. Josephine
Butler, undertook, in the name of liberty, a campaign against
proxenetism, white slavery and the State regulation of prostitution.
She also attacked the injustice of the Code Napoleon toward women,
especially the prohibition of inquiry into paternity, which throws
girls who have been seduced into the arms of prostitution. The
abolitionists contest the right of police inscription of prostitutes
under the pretext of hygiene, of submitting them against their will to
medical inspection, and of keeping them in brothels. They claim severe
laws against proxenetism and oppose toleration.
In medical circles the system of regulation has generally been
defended. It is urged that society has the right to protect itself
against dangerous infection, and that, with this object, it has as
much right to treat infected prostitutes compulsorily, as those
affected with smallpox or cholera. Owing to their shameful trade, they
maintain that these women have lost all claim to special
consideration.
This argument appears very reasonable at first sight, but it takes
quite a different aspect when the facts are examined more thoroughly.
First of all the comparison with smallpox and cholera is illogical,
for these diseases endanger the innocent public, while the man who
makes use of prostitution is quite aware of the danger he runs.
Society is under no obligation to provide healthy prostitutes for the
use of Don Juan.
Against this it is stated that innocent wives are often infected and
made to suffer for the sins of their husbands. But such an extensive
blending of the State with family life does not appear to be
admissible, and would lead to crying abuses. Society has neither the
right nor the duty to facilitate the dangerous or injurious acts of
certain individuals at the expense of others, by rendering them less
dangerous, so that certain third parties may be less liable to suffer.
This is an absurd sophism. The duty of society is to make responsible
the one who has committed the dangerous or injurious act, and to
punish him if he has done harm. Here, on the contrary, one only of
the culprits (the prostitute) is compelled to keep to her vile trade,
while the man who makes use of her, and often infects her, is free
from any responsibility. Moreover, the State has no right to act
against responsible persons under the pretext that their future
sentiments or actions would have dangerous consequences for others;
this would lead to arbitrary abuse of power. The insane, and habitual
criminals make the only exceptions, for their abnormal and
irresponsible cerebral organization is a perpetual danger to society.
There is one question, however, which arises: Can prostitution in
itself be regarded as a misdemeanor punishable by law? If this were
the case, the client would have to be punished as well as the
prostitute; or both of them be sent to reformatories. This is the only
logical consequence, for in such cases the two contractors are equally
guilty, and also equally dangerous as regards infection.
How, therefore, can the system be justified which brands and inscribes
the prostitute only; which is not content with tolerating her vile
trade instead of punishing it, but gives it official sanction, causing
her to fall lower and lower; which finally, to crown the work,
licenses the proxenetism which exploits her vice? It is difficult to
imagine more complete hypocrisy, or a more contradictory system.
In former times when slavery was allowed, men's will and pleasure were
sufficient to justify such measures, which created for their profit a
class of female pariahs; and this was frankly and openly admitted.
Nowadays, the equal rights of women which are officially recognized in
civilized countries no longer allow it, and hygienic arguments only
can give such modern barbarity the hypocritical appearance of
justification. Lunatics and criminals are only locked up as a measure
of safety, and to attempt to improve them; but their bodies are not
allowed to become an object of commerce for the pleasure of other
members of society.
But the results of honestly interpreted statistics contradict the
apparent justification of the regulation of prostitution, in the name
of hygiene. It is intended to furnish men with a means of coitus free
from danger; but the facts prove that venereal disease has not been
diminished by this means. The false security given to men officially
by regulation makes them all the more careless. The multiplication of
the sexual connections of each prostitute increases the danger of
infection at least as much as the elimination of a few diseased
persons diminishes it.
The corruption of the State and its officials, especially the police
and the medical inspectors of brothels, the general depravity which
results from official toleration, and the perversion of ideas of
morality among the public, increase habits of prostitution, and with
it the danger of infection. Assured of impunity the pimps and their
acolytes become more and more audacious and extend their business,
while the prostitutes, whose number is increased by this system, seek
to escape the police and practice their trade clandestinely. It is no
wonder that the swamp to be purified becomes more and more infectious.
Can it be conscientiously said that hygiene has benefited? This is
well seen in Geneva and in France. It is enough to compare the number
of cases of venereal disease and of prostitutes in countries where
regulation is in force, with those which do not employ it, to show the
complete fiasco of the system from the hygienic point of view. On the
average, the number of infectious cases is nearly the same with or
without regulation and depends on many other causes. I cannot enter
into the details here and must refer to the statistics and to the
works published by the Abolitionist Federation (6 Rue St. Leger,
Geneva).
Of all that has been published, nothing appears to me more conclusive
than the masterly statistics of Mounier, for Holland, in 1889. Even
among medical men, the originators of regulation, the abolitionist
point of view is steadily gaining ground. It is beginning to be
understood that the toleration of proxenetism, and even the
inscription and medical inspection of prostitutes, are vicious methods
of social sanitation against venereal infection.
But by the suppression of official toleration and regulation, the
question of prostitution is in no way settled. This has only a
negative action, important for the tactics of those who wish to upset
a scandalous abuse, but which does not respond to the higher task of
extirpating the root of the evil. The positive work will only begin
when the State is relieved of its shameful compact with proxenetism
and prostitution.
In the following chapters we shall examine the remedies which must be
applied to our sexual anarchy, the result of masculine autocracy, as
Russian anarchy is the result of Tsarism. I will first make a few
observations from the medical and hygienic point of view, to the
partisans of regulation. They exclaim that the abolitionists are
fanatics, who, from their absence of scientific spirit, will deluge
society with venereal disease. This bogy has no sound foundation. The
State regulation of prostitution applied to certain women has not
diminished the amount of venereal disease, because it does not reach
it. The State concession of an unnatural vice cannot be hygienic.
Moreover, it is impossible to completely disinfect prostitutes, this
disinfection is quite illusory, unless it is also applied to their
clients, which is impracticable.
In France, where the system of regulation has existed for a long time
in its strictest form, venereal diseases are extremely prevalent;
while in Switzerland, where it only exists at Geneva, having been
suppressed for some years in the Canton of Zurich, they are less
frequent. Geneva is not less contaminated than other towns in
Switzerland, in spite of its model brothels, and Zurich has lately, by
popular vote, confirmed abolition by a crushing majority, in
opposition to a few interested persons who wished to reestablish the
brothels under futile and fallacious pretexts. Some clandestine
brothels still exist in towns where the authorities shut their eyes.
It has also been maintained that the number of sexual misdemeanors
would increase with the suppression of brothels. This is another
illusion. The majority of sexual misdemeanors are due to psychic
anomalies (Chapter VIII) or to the effects of alcoholic intoxication.
If they have any relation to prostitution, it is rather that of being
favored by its orgies.
=Remedies for the Evil.=--What is wanted first of all are severe laws
against proxenetism. It is indisputable that commerce made with the
body of one's neighbor is illegal, even when the latter gives
consent. It is a crime or misdemeanor which should be prosecuted like
negro slavery or usury. We should not wait for a complaint to be
lodged, but prosecute proxenetism officially, for the victims are
hindered by shame from coming forward. The pimps of proxenetism are
recruited from the dregs of society. In this domain, as in the others,
penal law should not be put in force; the object should be the
protection of society and the improvement of the criminal.
As regards prostitution itself, it cannot be made a misdemeanor
without opening the door too widely to complete arbitrariness. The
State cannot prevent a responsible adult from disposing of his own
body, without introducing religion and metaphysics into legislation;
but the State can require those who practice prostitution not to
molest the public. It has, therefore, the right to punish solicitation
in the streets by fine or imprisonment, especially in often repeated
offenses. It can also give persons of both sexes, who are victims of
venereal disease, the right of claiming damages by civil law. The
legality of this right of indemnity has been much contested. In my
opinion it is legitimate when the State no longer tolerates or
regulates prostitution; but so long as it does this, and submits
prostitutes to obligatory medical treatment, the States takes the
responsibility of their health. Under the regime of regulation, an
infected person could logically claim damages from the State, or, at
any rate from the pimps of licensed proxenetism.
The question of responsibility is quite different when prostitution is
free. The sexual intercourse of a free prostitute with a man may be
regarded as a private contract in which each party has the same rights
and obligations. If one of the two contractors deceives the other by
concealing venereal disease, the latter has the right to claim
damages, if there is sufficient proof of infection from this source.
The right of indemnity does not, however, constitute the principal
point. In order to successfully combat prostitution and venereal
disease, fundamental social reforms are necessary.
(1). First of all the system of exploitation of the poor by the rich
should be put an end to, the work of the poor being remunerated at
its true value. This requires a social transformation of the relations
between capital and labor.
(2). The use of narcotics, and especially alcohol, should be
suppressed.
(3). The false modesty concerning sexual intercourse should be done
away with.
(4). The public should be instructed in the dangers of venereal
disease and in the means of preventing contamination. The only certain
means of curing them consists in not contracting them.
(5). Cleanliness should be universally encouraged, especially in
sexual intercourse.
(6). Preventive measures should be employed in every coitus, the
object of which is not procreation.
(7). The treatment of venereal diseases in hospitals should be carried
out in a decent and humane manner, so as not to shock the modesty of
either sex, especially women, and so that patients need not be ashamed
of submitting to medical treatment. Nowadays the venereal divisions of
hospitals often more resemble brothels. This state of things makes it
impossible for any woman with a particle of modesty to stay in these
places. It is evident that women who are more or less virtuous, and
even the better class of prostitutes, will avoid such hospital
treatment as much as possible, and will thereby become the worst
sources of infection.
By treating venereal disease in hospital with more regard for decency
and modesty, by abolishing the brand of shame, and by separating
patients according to their behavior, we might succeed in improving a
state of things which is often unbearable. Patients with venereal
diseases would then more willingly submit to hospital treatment and
would be more easily cured. In Italy much progress has already been
made in this direction.
In conclusion, I am convinced that if we should be contented for the
present with damming up prostitution and suppressing the causes which
render prostitutes more and more abject, without yet being able to
abolish the whole evil, a transformation of our social life, and
especially the suppression of the reign of capital as a means of
exploitation of the work of others, and suppression of the use of
alcoholic drinks, would eventually succeed in the gradual extinction
of prostitution and the substitution of concubinage, which has much
less evil results.
VENAL CONCUBINAGE
Venal concubinage occupies an intermediate position between
prostitution and concubinage. It is distinguished from the latter by
the fact that it is remunerated; but the distinction is very fine.
=Lorettes.=--This is an old term which may be applied to paid women
who are not regular prostitutes. It is hardly possible to distinguish
them from clandestine prostitutes (not on the police inscription).
They are women who do not practice solicitation or sell themselves to
the first comer, but generally keep to one man for a time.
=Grisettes.=--The Parisian grisette, whose type has become classic, is
a higher class of woman who, at any rate in her primitive simplicity,
was not wanting in romance. Relations with a grisette may be compared
to limited and free marriage, in which there is comparative fidelity.
Like some of the free prostitutes, the grisette does not live only on
the support of her lover. She is often a dressmaker or a shop-girl,
and makes arrangements with a lover so as to live more comfortably.
When the grisette acts as her lover's housekeeper and lives with him
on terms of the closest intimacy, the _liaison_ takes a more serious
character and there is a certain degree of affection or even love.
However, all these concubinages are generally limited to a few weeks
or months, so that the natural love of the woman becomes blunted by
successive polyandry. It is always more or less a question of "an
accessory business."
There are all kinds of lorettes and grisettes, but as a rule they are
generally attached to small tradesmen, students, workingmen, etc.,
rather than to rich men. It is a kind of contract for a limited
period. This system is very widespread in large towns, where the
inhabitants do not interfere with each other's affairs; but is
difficult to manage in small towns, where every one knows everybody.
=Mistresses.=--These may be called the aristocrats of the species.
Here we see more distinctly the transition from venal love to free
concubinage based on mutual love. The _hetaira_ of the ancient Greeks
(vide Chapter VI) corresponded more or less to the modern mistresses,
especially to the intelligent mistresses of men in high positions. In
certain respects we may say that George Sand, for example, was a
_hetaira_ from pure love, while among the Greek _hetaira_ money played
a great part. Some mistresses are paid; others live on terms of
equality with their lovers; others again maintain their lovers. We
must also distinguish between mistresses who live with married men,
and those who live with bachelors.
The most typical case is that where a bachelor who wishes to remain
free takes a mistress, whom he also makes mistress of his house, and
who thus becomes an illegitimate wife who may separate from him when
it pleases her. Some women contract this kind of union without being
actually paid, simply for their maintenance, in return for which they
do the housework. Here there is no actual sale of the body. The
contract may be indefinite or limited. In such cases the effect of
money on the attitude of the man toward his mistress is evident; his
tone is generally less respectful toward paid mistresses than toward
those who are not paid. The love of the paid mistress is little more
durable or more intense than that of the grisette, the situation being
almost the same.
Zola's _Nana_ prostituted herself regularly with rich men: secondly,
she was the mistress of Fontan, who plays the part of a high-class
protector; thirdly, she fell in love with Georges in quite an idyllic
fashion. Bordenave, the manager, had good reason in wishing his
theater to be called a brothel, as he was more of a pimp than a
theatrical manager. This example, a little far-fetched, shows how
ideas pass from one to another in this elastic domain.
There are also married mistresses. The position of mistress to a
married man is, on the whole, more delicate than that of mistress to a
bachelor. We are only concerned here with paid mistresses. They seldom
give themselves to married men except when the home life of the latter
is more or less disorganized; when the husband is separated from the
wife, or when he lives in open warfare with her. A married man, on the
contrary, may secretly visit brothels or private prostitutes, often
even with his wife's knowledge, because the prostitute can have no
influence in family affairs. This reason has even been used for the
defense of prostitution. It is true that married men often have
connection with other women, and the term mistress has been applied to
the women who take part in this intercourse, whether they or their
lover, or both of them, are already married. But in this case money is
usually only a secondary consideration, when the households concerned
are not broken up. It is often only the maneuver of an intriguer who
tries to separate a husband from his wife to marry him herself and
monopolize his fortune. It is sufficient to show how difficult it
often is to distinguish the paid mistress from the woman who does not
give herself from interest but from passion, or from the intriguing
adventuress who tries to make a good catch.
Lorettes, grisettes and paid mistresses seldom have children. These
women are more rarely infected with venereal diseases than
prostitutes, but they are better acquainted with the methods of
preventing conception.
The fate of the children of venal concubines is generally very sad.
They are not the fruits of love but of a sexual union based on
idleness and lewdness. If conception occurs in spite of all
precautions, artificial abortion is attempted, or if this fails the
child is sent to the "baby farmer," who gets rid of it. The women who
dispose of their children in this way are often of the better class;
common prostitutes often love and take care of their children, while
the young ladies of society generally try and get rid of their
illegitimate children, because they are much more compromised. Some
married women even do not hesitate to perform abortion when a child
inconveniences them.
We have only mentioned the fourth group of women with which we are
concerned, because of its mercantile nature. Every union in which a
human being gives love for money is unnatural. Venal love is not true
love, but an improper contract between man and woman, with the object
of satisfying the sexual appetite, without any regard to the higher
object intended by nature. It sometimes happens that similar
contracts are made in the inverse direction, when a nymphomaniacal
woman purchases a fine young man, under some pretext or other. Inverts
also pay boys to satisfy their perverted appetites.
However unsavory may be the contents of the present chapter, it was
necessary to write it in order to give a clear idea of the subject.
Under the pretense of virtue venal love has too long been covered with
a veil of hypocrisy. Prostitution, marriage for money and venal
concubinage are, each in its way, elements of corruption and decadence
which, combined with alcohol, gambling, speculation, the greed for
money and pleasure in general, threaten our modern culture with ruin.
Among these anomalies, the State organization of prostitution being
the most monstrous, it is necessary to begin with its suppression.
Among the ancients, the goddess Venus or Aphrodite was the symbol of
beauty and love. Although somewhat sly, she was fecund, full of desire
and charm, and embodied not only the natural aspirations of man, but
also his artistic ideal. Nowadays, she is dragged in the mire by two
false gods--Bacchus, who makes a gross and vulgar brute of her, and
Mammon, who transforms her into a venal prostitute--while a
hypocritical religious asceticism, endeavors in vain to confine her in
a strait-waistcoat. May the progress of science and culture find the
power to deliver her from the tyranny of her two infamous companions,
deified by human ignorance and bestiality. Then only will the goddess
of love appear in all her glory!
CHAPTER XI
THE INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENT ON SEXUAL LIFE
However strong may be the hereditary sexual instincts which an
individual has inherited by phylogeny from his ancestors, and however
violent their internal outbreaks in his ontogeny, it is necessary to
recognize that an organism so complicated as that of man is capable of
adapting itself to its environment to a remarkable and varied degree,
and that consequently external influences react strongly on the sexual
appetite. We will now examine these influences, so far as they are not
dealt with in other chapters.
=Influence of Climate.=--Warm climates appear to excite the intensity
of sexual life; man matures more quickly and is more disposed to
sexual excess. I am not aware of other influences that can be
attributed to climate. It is, moreover, possible that the direct
influence of heat has been confounded with the indirect action it
exerts in the conditions of human existence. In cold countries life is
more laborious, and this diminishes the intensity of the sexual
appetite. In warm countries man has not so much concern with
dwellings, clothes and heating; life is greatly simplified, and this
freedom from anxiety inclines him to greater sexual activity.
=Town and Country. Isolation. Sociability. Life in Factories.=--The
social relations of man exert a great influence on sexual life.
Hermits and those who live on isolated farms are interesting in this
respect. Solitude generally leads man to chronic melancholia and to
abnormal peculiarities, unless he has a library in his hermitage, when
he may live in the spirit of the intellectual sociability derived from
the study of books.
It is quite otherwise with one who has no intellectual occupation, or
one who has lived in solitude from infancy. In this case the hermit
becomes a kind of savage, without any intellectual development, and
reverts more or less to the state of primitive man.
An adult who establishes himself in solitude without providing himself
with intellectual capital becomes strongly inclined to depressing
psychoses. This is observed among the isolated farmers, according to
Professor Seguin, of New York. The man who lives alone, or surrounded
only by the members of his family becomes disposed to certain sexual
anomalies, such as incest, sodomy and masturbation.
It is among the agricultural population that we meet with the most
normal sexual relations and the best hygiene. The French Canadians
form a good example, and it is the same generally where agriculture is
practiced by independent peasants, not alcoholized, and having divided
property. Agricultural families generally procreate more children and
healthier ones than urban families. No doubt modern medical hygiene,
both public and private, has made so much progress in towns that there
may be, at a certain age, proportionally more living children than in
the country; but the country children are of stronger constitution and
more healthy in every way.
I had the opportunity of confirming this opinion while I was
superintendent of a lunatic asylum for many years. I found it was
impossible to recruit from the town a good staff of nurses of either
sex.
The inhabitant of towns, it is true, learns his work more quickly, but
he lacks patience, perseverance and character, and soon shows himself
wanting in the accomplishment of his physical and moral duties. The
countryman, on the contrary, is at first slow and clumsy, but soon
becomes more capable and careful, and more amenable to education. This
shows that, on the average, the hereditary dispositions of the
country-bred child are better than those of the town-bred child. The
latter develops more rapidly and more completely his natural
dispositions, owing to social intercourse, while the country-bred
child, although he appears at first sight less intelligent, is really
better endowed on the average than the town child. The superficial
observer is easily deceived, but country life accumulates more reserve
force in the organism than urban life.
Sexual excesses in the country are more conformable to nature. Apart
from marriage, we meet with concubinage, infidelity, and sometimes
prostitution, but these excesses are never widely spread in small
places where every one knows each other. An extensive study of the
alcohol question has shown me that hereditary degenerations and sexual
evils in the country are principally due to alcoholism and its
blastophthoria (vide Chapter I). But when factories, mining
industries, etc., create unhealthy conditions in the country, the evil
influences of urban life are implanted there, often in a still higher
degree.
The society of large towns is made up of many different circles, who
have little or no relations with each other, do not know each other,
and seldom concern themselves about each other. The individual is only
known in his own circle. This circumstance favors the increase of vice
and depravity. In addition to this, the insanitary dwellings, the life
of excitement and innumerable pleasures, all tend to produce a
restless and unnatural existence. The best conditions of existence for
man are contact with nature, air and light, sufficient physical
exercise combined with steady work for the brain, which requires
exercise as much as the other organs; this is just what is wanting
among the poor, in the town and in the factory. Instead of this they
are offered unhealthy nocturnal pleasures and a prostitution which
spreads itself everywhere with all the dangerous effects we have
described. The result is that they become incapable of nourishing and
raising their children properly, often even of procreating them in
healthy and natural love.
Such are the conditions of the lower classes in large towns. Along
with prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol, the wretched
dwellings in many places lead to infamous promiscuity. In factories
and mines things are still worse. In these places there is a swarm of
people continually engaged in most unhealthy occupations, and only
leaving their work to indulge in the most repugnant sexual excesses.
The rapacity, frivolity and luxury of society lead to alcoholism,
poverty, promiscuity and prostitution among the lower classes and
cause complete degeneration of entire industrial populations.
In the Canton of Zurich I have had the opportunity of closely
observing the physical and moral effects of this degeneration. The
individuals most incapable as hospital attendants were always factory
hands. These wretched beings were generally so atrophied in body and
mind that they were no use for anything except the weaving of silk and
cotton. In the large English towns, such as Liverpool, and among the
population of certain mining districts in Belgium, I have met with
even worse degeneration of the human species. Modesty, morality and
health are destroyed in this swarming human mass--dirty, anaemic,
tuberculous, rickety, imbecile, or hysterical--and there is no
distinction between the factory girl and the prostitute. In certain
Belgian districts which are a prey to alcoholism, one sometimes sees
human beings copulating in the streets like animals, or like the
drunken Kaffirs in South Africa. What can we expect from the
descendants of a population so completely degenerate? Marriage and
even concubinage among peasants is golden in comparison!
I will now draw attention to a contemporary phenomenon of the greatest
interest. The immense development of means of transport, combined with
progress in the sanitation of dwellings, favors the transportation of
town to country and country to town. This brings together the two
modes of human life, and in this I see the dawn of salvation in the
future. The modern towns of North America, thanks to the great
extension of their territory, already resemble the country to a great
extent, each house being surrounded by a garden. The electric tramways
shorten distances and facilitate this manner of building towns. As
means of communication become still more simplified and cheapened, the
advantages of country life will be joined to those of the town without
suffering from the promiscuity of the latter. The disadvantages of
country life consist in atrophy of the intellectual dispositions from
want of contact; improvement in means of transport will bring this
contact to the country. The result of such distribution of the
territory of a civilized state, such as I have in view, might be
called an _Agropolis_--an urbanized country or a countrified town. It
would then be possible to live a life more ideal in human sentiments,
and healthier as regards material and sexual matters.
The state of the countryman or peasant is advantageous for marriage,
not only because it does not offer such a suitable soil for
prostitution, but because the danger of venereal disease is
diminished, and the procreation of healthy offspring favors conjugal
happiness and constancy in sexual union. From the religious point of
view, the freedom in sexual intercourse which prevails among country
people before marriage is looked upon as immoral; but this is a
natural phenomenon similar to the "marriage by trial" of certain
savage races, or the "hand-fasting" of the Scotch people, of which we
have spoken in Chapter VI. People who tolerate and defend prostitution
should be ashamed of their hypocrisy and of the manner in which they
distort morality, when in the same breath they reproach peasants with
their natural but illegitimate unions.
It is needless to say that other causes of degeneration may exist in
the country as well as in towns; for instance, certain endemic
diseases, such as myxoedema and malaria, the brutish life of certain
tribes, perpetuation of degeneracy by consanguineous unions, etc.
The worst state is certainly that of the proletariat of large towns,
which is generally associated with crime. In the community of pimps,
criminals and decadents in general, is constituted a special social
outlook, which regards the greatest scamp in the light of a hero. When
a child shows a precocious criminal disposition it is looked upon in
these circles as a child of much promise. Honest and virtuous children
are considered in this society as imbeciles, or even as traitors and
spies, and are consequently despised, hated and ill-treated. The
deleterious influences we have mentioned do not act alone, but are
often associated with other factors in causing degeneration of the
sexual life. When other influences preponderate, we may sometimes
observe depravity in the country, and on the contrary, healthy and
normal conditions in certain towns. We must always avoid exaggerating
the importance of a single factor in making generalizations. Certain
country villages, the inhabitants of which have become alcoholized and
degraded, may present a much more unhealthy sexual life than certain
sober and well-governed towns.
=Vagabondage.=--In the _Archiv fuer Rassen und Gesellschafts biologie_
of 1905 (Archives of the biology of races and of society), Doctor
Joerger relates the history of the descendants of a couple of
vagabonds, which he carefully studied for several generations. Nearly
all the members of this family became vagabonds, thieves, prostitutes,
and other society pests. Vain attempts were made to give a good
education to some of them, but they ran away from school to lead the
lives of vagabonds or criminals. In a few of them only, education gave
some results, but not at all brilliant. In this family, alcoholism and
its blastophthoria played a considerable part.
We can hardly admit that the mnemic phenomena explained in Chapter I
could have acted appreciably in two or three hundred years, a period
much too short for the human species. No doubt the common ancestor of
the above family of vagabonds descended from a family of vagabonds. I
do not, however, think I am wrong in attributing to blastophthoria,
superposed on the disastrous combinations of germs which is inevitable
in the life of vagabonds, the principal cause of this typical
degeneration of the family, a degeneration in which sexual degradation
strongly predominates. I recommend Doctor Joerger's work to any one
interested in this question. It would be useful to draw up
genealogical tables, with the medical and psychological descriptions
of the whole population of a small town.
=Americanism.=--By this term I designate an unhealthy feature of
sexual life, common among the educated classes of the United States,
and apparently originating in the greed for dollars, which is more
prevalent in North America than anywhere else. I refer to the
unnatural life which Americans lead, and more especially to its sexual
aspect.
The true American citizen despises agricultural work and manual labor
in general, especially for women. His aim is to centralize labor by
means of machinery and commerce, so as to concern himself only with
business, intellectual occupations and sport. American women consider
muscular work and labor in the country as degrading to their sex. This
is a relic of the days of slavery, when all manual labor was left to
negroes, and is so to a great extent at the present day.
Desirous of remaining young and fresh as long as possible, fearing the
dangers and troubles of childbirth and the bringing-up of children,
the American woman has an increasing aversion to pregnancy,
childbirth, suckling and the rearing of large families.
Since the emancipation of negroes has caused domestic servants in the
United States to become expensive luxuries, family life has been to a
great extent replaced by life in hotels and boarding-houses, and this
has furnished another reason for avoiding conception and large
families.
It is evident that this form of emancipation of women is absolutely
deleterious and that it leads to degeneration, if not to extinction of
the race. The mixed Aryan (European) race of North America will
diminish and become gradually extinguished, even without emigration,
and will soon be replaced by Chinese or negroes. It is necessary for
woman to labor as well as man, and she ought not to avoid the
fulfillment of her natural position. Every race which does not
understand this necessity ends in extinction. A woman's ideal ought
not to consist in reading novels and lolling in rocking chairs, nor in
working only in offices and shops, so as to preserve her delicate skin
and graceful figure. She ought to develop herself strongly and
healthily by working along with man in body and mind, and by
procreating numerous children, when she is strong, robust and
intelligent. But this does not nullify the advantage that may accrue
from limiting the number of conceptions, when the bodily and mental
qualities are wanting in the procreators.
=Saloons and Alcohol.=--I desire to draw attention once more to the
evil influence of saloons and bars. The drink habit corrupts the whole
of sexual life. It is the origin of the most hideous forms of
prostitution and proxenetism, and leads to the seduction of girls. I
must mention again the barmaids whose business it is to attract
customers by exciting their sexual desire, at the same time exploiting
themselves by prostitution. These saloons are dens of iniquity in
which alcohol and prostitution are inextricably confounded. In Germany
they have become a veritable social plague.
Drink makes men and women not only gross and sensual, but also
negligent, imprudent and irreflective. The saloon takes men from their
homes, and drink directly diminishes the population. This is seen in
Russia by comparing the abstainers with the drinkers, the former being
much more fecund. The statistics of Doctor Bezzola show that a single
drinking bout may have a blastophthoric effect. From this and from
other causes result the deplorable consequences of coitus which takes
place during drunkenness.[7]
=Wealth and Poverty.=--While in former civilizations the rich man
regarded a multiplicity of wives and children as a condition or cause
of his wealth and also as its result, in our modern civilization the
number of children diminishes with the increase of prosperity.
Children have ceased to be as formerly a source of wealth; on the
contrary, they occasion much expense for their education. Again, the
higher the social position of woman the more she fears pregnancy. Her
life of ease makes her weaker and more delicate, so that she becomes
less fit for the procreation of children. This phenomenon is an
unhealthy product of culture and reaches a truly pathological degree
in America.
We have mentioned marriage for money, which is the prostitution of the
rich, and poverty, which is one of the causes of common prostitution,
and we have seen how money influences sexual intercourse. We may now
state the general principle that a mediocrity living in comfortable
circumstances without immediate daily wants, under good hygienic
conditions, but requiring a man to work for his living, constitutes
the best condition both for a healthy sexual life and for health and
happiness in general. This is the _aurea mediocritas_, or modest
competence, the excellence of which was recognized by the ancients.
The sexuality of the rich man degenerates by luxury, comfort, excess
and idleness, and by the fact that he is already satiated in his
youth. That of the poor man is no less degenerate, owing to bad food,
unhealthy dwellings, neglected education, and by vicious example which
at the opposite extreme, resembles in many points that of the rich
man; the exploiter and the exploited meeting in the dens of vice. Such
is the case with gambling hells, with dens for prostitution and
sexual anomalies, where the poor blackmail the rich, while the latter
in their capacity as social exploiters help to maintain poverty and
prostitution.
Money makes sexual intercourse unnatural; in place of letting coitus
take its natural course, it makes it an object of amusement and
pleasure, and also of speculation, and it debases the bodies of
wretched girls by making them objects of commerce.