Knowing how important a factor in the evolution of species is the
economic relation, and finding in the human species an economic relation
so peculiar, we may naturally look to find effects peculiar to our race.
We may expect to find phenomena in the sex-relation and in the economic
relation of humanity of a unique character,—phenomena not traceable to
human superiority, but singularly derogatory to that superiority;
phenomena so marked, so morbid, as to give rise to much speculation as
to their cause. Are these natural inferences fulfilled? Are these
peculiarities in the sex-relation and in the economic relation
manifested in human life? Indisputably these are,—so plain, so
prominent, so imperiously demanding attention, that human thought has
been occupied from its first consciousness in trying some way to account
for them. To explain and relate these phenomena, separating what is due
to normal race-development from what is due to this abnormal
sexuo-economic relation, is the purpose of the line of study here
suggested.
As the racial distinction of humanity lies in its social relation, so we
find the distinctive gains and losses of humanity to lie also in its
social relation. We are more affected by our relation to each other than
by our physical environment.
Disadvantages of climate, deficiencies in food supply, competition from
other species,—all these conditions society, in its organic strength, is
easily able to overcome or to adjust. But in our inter-human relations
we are not so successful. The serious dangers and troubles of human life
arise from difficulties of adjustment with our social environment, and
not with our physical environment. These difficulties, so far, have
acted as a continual check to social progress. The more absolutely a
nation has triumphed over physical conditions, the more successful it
has become in its conquest of physical enemies and obstacles, the more
it has given rein to the action of social forces which have ultimately
destroyed the nation, and left the long ascent to be begun again by
others.
There is the moral of all human tales:
’Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,—
First Freedom, and then Glory; when that fails,
Wealth, Vice, Corruption,—barbarism at last.
And History, with all her volumes vast,
Hath but _one_ page.[1]
Footnote 1:
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto IV., CVIII.
The path of history is strewn with fossils and faint relics of extinct
races,—races which died of what the sociologist would call internal
diseases rather than natural causes. This, too, has been clear to the
observer in all ages. It has been easily seen that there was something
in our own behavior which did us more harm than any external difficulty;
but what we have not seen is the natural cause of our unnatural conduct,
and how most easily to alter it.
Rudely classifying the principal fields of human difficulty, we find one
large proportion lies in the sex-relation, and another in the economic
relation, between the individual constituents of society. To speak
broadly, the troubles of life as we find them are mainly traceable to
the heart or the purse. The other horror of our lives—disease—comes back
often to these causes,—to something wrong either in economic relation or
in sex-relation. To be ill-fed or ill-bred, or both, is largely what
makes us the sickly race we are. In this wrong breeding, this
maladjustment of the sex-relation in humanity, what are the principal
features? We see in social evolution two main lines of action in this
department of life. One is a gradual orderly development of monogamous
marriage, as the form of sex-union best calculated to advance the
interests of the individual and of society. It should be clearly
understood that this is a natural development, inevitable in the course
of social progress; not an artificial condition, enforced by laws of our
making. Monogamy is found among birds and mammals: it is just as natural
a condition as polygamy or promiscuity or any other form of sex-union;
and its permanence and integrity are introduced and increased by the
needs of the young and the advantage to the race, just as any other form
of reproduction was introduced. Our moral concepts rest primarily on
facts. The moral quality of monogamous marriage depends on its true
advantage to the individual and to society. If it were not the best form
of marriage for our racial good, it would not be right. All the way up,
from the promiscuous horde of savages, with their miscellaneous matings,
to the lifelong devotion of romantic love, social life has been evolving
a type of sex-union best suited to develope and improve the individual
and the race. This is an orderly process, and a pleasant one, involving
only such comparative pain and difficulty as always attend the
assumption of new processes and the extinction of the old; but
accompanied by far more joy than pain.
But with the natural process of social advancement has gone an unnatural
process,—an erratic and morbid action, making the sex-relation of
humanity a frightful source of evil. So prominent have been these morbid
actions and evil results that hasty thinkers of all ages have assumed
that the whole thing was wrong, and that celibacy was the highest
virtue. Without the power of complete analysis, without knowledge of the
sociological data essential to such analysis, we have sweepingly
condemned as a whole what we could easily see was so allied with pain
and loss. But, like all natural phenomena, the phenomena of sex may be
studied, both the normal and the abnormal, the physiological and the
pathological; and we are quite capable of understanding why we are in
such evil case, and how we may attain more healthful conditions.
So far, the study of this subject has rested on the assumption that man
must be just as we find him, that man behaves just as he chooses, and
that, if he does not choose to behave as he does, he can stop.
Therefore, when we discovered that human behavior in the sex-relation
was productive of evil, we exhorted the human creature to stop so
behaving, and have continued so to exhort for many centuries. By law and
religion, by education and custom, we have sought to enforce upon the
human individual the kind of behavior which our social sense so clearly
showed was right.
But always there has remained the morbid action. Whatever the external
form of sex-union to which we have given social sanction, however Bible
and Koran and Vedas have offered instruction, some hidden cause has
operated continuously against the true course of social evolution, to
pervert the natural trend toward a higher and more advantageous
sex-relation; and to maintain lower forms, and erratic phases, of a most
disadvantageous character.
Every other animal works out the kind of sex-union best adapted to the
reproduction of his species, and peacefully practises it. We have worked
out the kind that is best for us,—best for the individuals concerned,
for the young resultant, and for society as a whole; but we do not
peacefully practise it. So palpable is this fact that we have commonly
accepted it, and taken it for granted that this relation must be a
continuous source of trouble to humanity. “Marriage is a lottery,” is a
common saying among us. “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
And we quote with unction _Punch’s_ advice to those about to
marry,—“Don’t!” That peculiar sub-relation which has dragged along with
us all the time that monogamous marriage has been growing to be the
accepted form of sex-union—prostitution—we have accepted, and called a
“social necessity.” We also call it “the social evil.” We have tacitly
admitted that this relation in the human race must be more or less
uncomfortable and wrong, that it is part of our nature to have it so.
Now let us examine the case fairly and calmly, and see whether it is as
inscrutable and immutable as hitherto believed. What are the conditions?
What are the natural and what the unnatural features of the case? To
distinguish these involves a little study of the evolution of the
processes of reproduction.
Very early in the development of species it was ascertained by nature’s
slow but sure experiments that the establishment of two sexes in
separate organisms, and their differentiation, was to the advantage of
the species. Therefore, out of the mere protoplasmic masses, the
floating cells, the amorphous early forms of life, grew into use the
distinction of the sexes,—the gradual development of masculine and
feminine organs and functions in two distinct organisms. Developed and
increased by use, the distinction of sex increased in the evolution of
species. As the distinction increased, the attraction increased, until
we have in all the higher races two markedly different sexes, strongly
drawn together by the attraction of sex, and fulfilling their use in the
reproduction of species. These are the natural features of
sex-distinction and sex-union, and they are found in the human species
as in others. The unnatural feature by which our race holds an
unenviable distinction consists mainly in this,—a morbid excess in the
exercise of this function.
It is this excess, whether in marriage or out, which makes the health
and happiness of humanity in this relation so precarious. It is this
excess, always easily seen, which law and religion have mainly striven
to check. Excessive sex-indulgence is the distinctive feature of
humanity in this relation.
To define “excess” in this connection is not difficult. All natural
functions that require our conscious co-operation for their fulfilment
are urged upon our notice by an imperative desire. We do not have to
desire to breathe or to digest or to circulate the blood, because that
is done without our volition; but we do have to desire to eat and drink,
because the stomach cannot obtain its supplies without in some way
spurring the whole organism to secure them. So hunger is given us as an
essential factor in our process of nutrition. In the same manner
sex-attraction is an essential factor in the fulfilment of our processes
of reproduction. In a normal condition the amount of hunger we feel is
exactly proportioned to the amount of food we need. It tells us when to
eat and when to stop. In some diseased conditions “an unnatural
appetite” sets in; and we are impelled to eat far beyond the capacity of
the stomach to digest, of the body to assimilate. This is an excessive
hunger.
We, as a race, manifest an excessive sex-attraction, followed by its
excessive indulgence, and the inevitable evil consequence. It urges us
to a degree of indulgence which bears no relation to the original needs
of the organism, and which is even so absurdly exaggerated as to react
unfavorably on the incidental gratification involved; an excess which
tends to pervert and exhaust desire as well as to injure reproduction.
The human animal manifests an excess in sex-attraction which not only
injures the race through its morbid action on the natural processes of
reproduction, but which injures the happiness of the individual through
its morbid reaction on his own desires.
What is the cause of this excessive sex-attraction in the human species?
The immediately acting cause of sex-attraction is sex-distinction. The
more widely the sexes are differentiated, the more forcibly they are
attracted to each other. The more highly developed becomes the
distinction of sex in either organism, the more intense is its
attraction for the other. In the human species we find sex-distinction
carried to an excessive degree. Sex-distinction in humanity is so marked
as to retard and confuse race-distinction, to check individual
distinction, seriously to injure the race. Accustomed as we are simply
to accept the facts of life as we find them, to consider people as
permanent types instead of seeing them and the whole race in continual
change according to the action of many forces, it seems strange at first
to differentiate between familiar manifestations of sex-distinction, and
to say: “This is normal, and should not be disturbed. This is abnormal,
and should be removed.” But that is precisely what must be done.
Normal sex-distinction manifests itself in all species in what are
called primary and secondary sex-characteristics. The primary are
those organs and functions essential to reproduction; the secondary,
those modifications of structure and function which subserve the uses
of reproduction ultimately, but are not directly essential,—such as
the horns of the stag, of use in sex-combat; the plumage of the
peacock, of use in sex-competition. All the minor characteristics of
beard or mane, comb, wattles, spurs, gorgeous color or superior size,
which distinguish the male from the female,—these are distinctions of
sex. These distinctions are of use to the species through reproduction
only, the processes of race-preservation. They are not of use in
self-preservation. The creature is not profited personally by his mane
or crest or tail-feathers: they do not help him get his dinner or kill
his enemies.
On the contrary, they react unfavorably upon his personal gains, if,
through too great development, they interfere with his activity or
render him a conspicuous mark for enemies. Such development would
constitute excessive sex-distinction, and this is precisely the
condition of the human race. Our distinctions of sex are carried to such
a degree as to be disadvantageous to our progress as individuals and as
a race. The sexes in our species are differentiated not only enough to
perform their primal functions; not only enough to manifest all
sufficient secondary sexual characteristics and fulfil their use in
giving rise to sufficient sex-attraction; but so much as seriously to
interfere with the processes of self-preservation on the one hand; and,
more conspicuous still, so much as to react unfavorably upon the very
processes of race-preservation which they are meant to serve. Our
excessive sex-distinction, manifesting the characteristics of sex to an
abnormal degree, has given rise to a degree of attraction which demands
a degree of indulgence that directly injures motherhood and fatherhood.
We are not better as parents, nor better as people, for our existing
degree of sex-distinction, but visibly worse. To what conditions are we
to look for the developing cause of these phenomena?
Let us first examine the balance of forces by which these two great
processes, self-preservation and race-preservation, are conducted in the
world. Self-preservation involves the expenditure of energy in those
acts, and their ensuing modifications of structure and function, which
tend to the maintenance of the individual life. Race-preservation
involves the expenditure of energy in those acts, and their ensuing
modifications of structure and function, which tend to the maintenance
of the racial life, even to the complete sacrifice of the individual.
This primal distinction should be clearly held in mind.
Self-preservation and race-preservation are in no way identical
processes, and are often directly opposed. In the line of
self-preservation, natural selection, acting on the individual,
developes those characteristics which enable it to succeed in “the
struggle for existence,” increasing by use those organs and functions by
which it directly profits. In the line of race-preservation, sexual
selection, acting on the individual, developes those characteristics
which enable it to succeed in what Drummond has called “the struggle for
the existence of others,” increasing by use those organs and functions
by which its young are to profit, directly or indirectly. The individual
has been not only modified to its environment, under natural selection,
but modified to its mate, under sexual selection, each sex developing
the qualities desired by the other by the simple process of choice,
those best sexed being first chosen, and transmitting their
sex-development as well as their racial development.
The order mammalia is the resultant of a primary sex-distinction
developed by natural selection; but the gorgeous plumage of the
peacock’s tail is a secondary sex-distinction developed by sexual
selection. If the peacock’s tail were to increase in size and splendor
till it shone like the sun and covered an acre,—if it tended so to
increase, we will say,—such excessive sex-distinction would be so
inimical to the personal prosperity of that peacock that he would die,
and his tail-tendency would perish with him. If the pea-hen, conversely,
whose sex-distinction attracts in the opposite direction, not by being
large and splendid, but small and dull,—if she should grow so small and
dull as to fail to keep herself and her young fed and defended, then she
would die; and there would be another check to excessive
sex-distinction. In herds of deer and cattle the male is larger and
stronger, the female smaller and weaker; but, unless the latter is large
and strong enough to keep up with the male in the search for food or the
flight from foes, one is taken and the other left, and there is no more
of that kind of animal. Differ as they may in sex, they must remain
alike in species, equal in race-development, else destruction overtakes
them. The force of natural selection, demanding and producing identical
race-qualities, acts as a check on sexual selection, with its production
of different sex-qualities. As sexes, they perform different functions,
and therefore tend to develope differently. As species, they perform the
same functions, and therefore tend to develope equally.
And as sex-functions are only used occasionally, and race-functions are
used all the time,—as they mate but yearly or tri-monthly, but eat daily
and hourly,—the processes of obtaining food or of opposing constant
enemies act more steadily than the processes of reproduction, and
produce greater effect.
We find the order mammalia accordingly producing and suckling its young
in the same manner through a wide variety of species which obtain their
living in a different manner. The calf and colt and cub and kitten are
produced by the same process; but the cow and horse, the bear and cat,
are produced by different processes. And, though cow and bull, mare and
stallion, differ as to sex, they are alike in species; and the likeness
in species is greater than the difference in sex. Cow, mare, and cat are
all females of the order mammalia, and so far alike; but how much more
different they are than similar!
Natural selection develops race. Sexual selection develops sex.
Sex-development is one throughout its varied forms, tending only to
reproduce what is. But race-development rises ever in higher and higher
manifestation of energy. As sexes, we share our distinction with the
animal kingdom almost to the beginning of life, and with the vegetable
world as well. As races, we differ in ascending degree; and the human
race stands highest in the scale of life so far.
When, then, it can be shown that sex-distinction in the human race is so
excessive as not only to affect injuriously its own purposes, but to
check and pervert the progress of the race, it becomes a matter for most
serious consideration. Nothing could be more inevitable, however, under
our sexuo-economic relation. By the economic dependence of the human
female upon the male, the balance of forces is altered. Natural
selection no longer checks the action of sexual selection, but
co-operates with it. Where both sexes obtain their food through the same
exertions, from the same sources, under the same conditions, both sexes
are acted upon alike, and developed alike by their environment. Where
the two sexes obtain their food under different conditions, and where
that difference consists in one of them being fed by the other, then the
feeding sex becomes the environment of the fed. Man, in supporting
woman, has become her economic environment. Under natural selection,
every creature is modified to its environment, developing perforce the
qualities needed to obtain its livelihood under that environment. Man,
as the feeder of woman, becomes the strongest modifying force in her
economic condition. Under sexual selection the human creature is of
course modified to its mate, as with all creatures. When the mate
becomes also the master, when economic necessity is added to
sex-attraction, we have the two great evolutionary forces acting
together to the same end; namely, to develope sex-distinction in the
human female. For, in her position of economic dependence in the
sex-relation, sex-distinction is with her not only a means of attracting
a mate, as with all creatures, but a means of getting her livelihood, as
is the case with no other creature under heaven. Because of the economic
dependence of the human female on her mate, she is modified to sex to an
excessive degree. This excessive modification she transmits to her
children; and so is steadily implanted in the human constitution the
morbid tendency to excess in this relation, which has acted so
universally upon us in all ages, in spite of our best efforts to
restrain it. It is not the normal sex-tendency, common to all creatures,
but an abnormal sex-tendency, produced and maintained by the abnormal
economic relation which makes one sex get its living from the other by
the exercise of sex-functions. This is the immediate effect upon
individuals of the peculiar sexuo-economic relation which obtains among
us.