and Edmund 15. A real wooing ensued, Edmund finally yielding to
the physical appeals of M.O. after several fits of misgiving. The
yielding was in the end complete, however. The two spent night
after night together, enjoying intercrural intercourse and
sometimes mutual masturbation. Their parents may have been
slightly uneasy at times, but the connection continued
uninterruptedly for a year and a half or more. In the meantime
M.O. occasionally had relations with other boys, but never
wavered in his real preference for Edmund. For girls he had no
sexual desire whatever, though he was much associated with them.
Then M.O. and Edmund went to college at different places, but
they met in vacations and wrote frequent and ardent love-letters.
Both had genuine attacks of love-sickness and of jealousy. As
M.O. looks back on this first love passion he can by no means
regret it. It doubtless had great formative influence.
After the first year at college, Edmund transferred to another
school farther away from M.O. and the opportunities for meeting
became rarer, but their affection was maintained and the
intercourse resumed whenever it was possible.
Gradually, however,
Edmund became interested in women and finally married. M.O. also
formed relations repeatedly with college friends and occasionally
with others.
On the whole M.O. preferred boys a year or two younger than
himself, but as he grew older the age difference increased. At 30
he regarded himself as virtually "engaged" to a youth of 17, one
unusually mature, however, and much larger than himself.
M.O. is always unhappy unless his affections have fairly free
course. Life has been very disappointing to him in other
respects. His greatest joys have come to him in this way. If he
is able to consummate his present plan of union with the youth
just referred to, he will feel that his life has been crowned by
what is for him the best possible end; otherwise, he declares, he
would not care to live at all.
He admires male beauty passionately. Feminine beauty he perceives
objectively, as he would any design of flowing curves and
delicate coloring, but it has no sexual charm for him whatever.
Women have put themselves in his way repeatedly, but he finds
himself more and more irritated by their specifically feminine
foibles. With men generally he is much more patient and
sympathetic.
The first literature that appealed to him was Plato's dialogues,
first read at 20 years of age. Until then he had not known but
what he stood alone in his peculiarity. He read what he could of
classic literature. He enjoys Pater, appreciating his attitude
toward his own sex. Four or five years, later he came across
Raffalovich's book, and ever since has felt a real debt of
gratitude to its author.
M.O. has no wish to injure society at large. As an individual he
holds that he has the same right to be himself that anyone else
has. He thinks that while boys of from 13 to 15
might possibly be
rendered inverts, those who reach 16 without it cannot be bent
that way. They may be devoted to an invert enough in other ways
to yield him what he wishes sexually, but they will remain
essentially normal themselves. His observations are based on
about 30 homosexual relationships that have lasted various
lengths of time.
M.O. feels strongly the poetic and elevated character of his
principal homosexual relationships, but he shrinks from appearing
too sentimental.
With regard to the traces of feminism in inverts he writes:--
"Up to the age of 11 I associated much with a cousin five years
older (the one referred to above) and took great delight in a
game we often played, in which I was a girl,--a never-ending
romance, a non-sexual love story.
"Somewhat later and until puberty, I took great delight in
acting, but generally took female roles, wearing skirts, shawls,
beads, wigs, head-dresses. When I was about 13 my family began to
make fun of me for it. I played secretly for a while, and then
the desire for it left, never to return.
"There still lingers, however, a minor interest, which began
before puberty, in valentines. My feeling for them is much like
my feeling for flowers.
"Before I reached puberty I was sometimes called a
'sissy' by my
father. Such taunts humiliated me more than anything else has
ever done. After puberty my father no longer applied the term,
and gradually other persons ceased to tease me that way. The
sting of it lasted, though, and led me more than once to ask
intimate friends, both men and women, if they considered me at
all feminine. Every one of them has been very emphatically of the
opinion that my rational life is distinctively masculine, being
logical, impartial, skeptical. One or two have suggested that I
have a finer discrimination than most men, and that I take care
of my rooms somewhat as a woman might, though this does not
extend to the style of decorations. One man said that I lacked
sympathy with certain 'grosser manifestations of masculine
character, such as smoking.' Some women think me unusually
observing of women's dress. My own is by no means effeminate. In
a muscular way I have average strength, but am supple far beyond
what is usual. If trained for it early, I believe I would have
made a good contortionist.
"I have never had the least inclination to use tobacco, generally
take neither tea nor coffee, and seldom any liquor, never malt
liquors. The dessert is always the best part of the meal. These
tastes I attribute largely to my sedentary life.
When out camping
I observed a marked change in the direction of heartier food and
mild stimulants.
"My physical courage has never been put to the test, but I
observe that others appear to count on it. I am very aggressive
in matters of religious, political, social opinion.
In moral
courage I am either reckless or courageous, I do not know which.
"I am, perhaps, a better whistler than most men.
"When I was quite little my grandmother taught me to do certain
kinds of fancy-work, and I continued to do a little from time to
time until I was 24. Then I became irritated over a piece that
troubled me, put it in the fire, and have not wanted to touch any
since. As a pet economy I continue to do nearly all of my own
mending.
"I have a decided aversion for much jewelry. My estheticism is
very pronounced as compared with most of the men with whom I
associate, although I have never been able to give it much scope.
It makes for cleanliness, order, and general good taste. My dress
is economical and by no means fastidious; yet it seems to be
generally approved. I have been complimented often on my ability
to select appropriate presents, clothing, and to arrange a room."
M.O. states that he practises the love-bite at times, though very
gently. He often wants to pinch one who interests him sexually.
He considers very silly the statement somewhere made, that
inverts are always liars. Very few people, he says, are perfectly
honest, and the more dangerous society makes it for a man to be
so, the less likely he is to be. While he himself has been unable
in two or three instances to keep promises made to withhold from
sexual intercourse with certain attractive individuals, he has
never otherwise been guilty of untruth about his homosexual
relations.
The foregoing narrative was received eight years ago. During this
interval M.O.'s health has very greatly improved.
There has been
a marked increase in outdoor activities and interests.
Two years since M.O. consulted a prominent specialist who
performed a thorough psychoanalysis. He informed M.O. that he
was less strongly homosexual than he himself supposed, and
recommended marriage with some young and pretty woman. He
attributed the homosexual bent to M.O.'s having had his "nose
broken" at the age of 6, by the birth of a younger brother, who
from that time on received all the attention and petting. M.O.
had continued up to that age very affectionate toward his mother
and dependent on her. He can remember friends and neighbors
commenting on it. At first M.O. was inclined to reject this
suggestion of the specialist, but on long reflection he inclines
to believe that it was indeed a very important factor, though not
the sole one. From his later observations of children and
comparisons of these with memories of his own childhood, M.O.
says he is sure he was affectionate and demonstrative much beyond
the average. His greatest craving was for affection, and his
greatest grief the fancied belief that no one cared for him. At
10 or 11 he attempted suicide for this reason.
Also as a result of the psychoanalysis, but trying to eliminate
the influence of suggestion, he recollects and emphasizes more
the attraction he felt toward girls before the age of 12. Had his
sexual experiences subsequently proved normal, he doubts if those
before 12 could be held to give evidence of homosexuality, but
only of precocious nervous and sexual irritability, greatly
heightened and directed by the secret practices of the children
with whom he associated. He does not see why these experiences
should have given him a homosexual bent any more than a
heterosexual one.
The psychoanalysis recalled to M.O. that during the period of
early flirtation he had often kissed and embraced various girls,
but likewise he recalled having observed at the same time, with
some surprise, that no definitely sexual desire arose, though the
way was probably open to gratify it. Such interest as did exist
ceased wholly or almost so as the relation with Edmund developed.
There was no aversion from the company of girls and women,
however; the intellectual friendships were mainly with them,
while the emotional ones were with boys.
Very recently M.O. spent several days with Edmund, who has been
married for several years. With absolutely no sexual interest in
each other, they nevertheless found a great bond of love still
subsisting. Neither regrets anything of the past, but feels that
the final outcome of their earlier relation has been good.
Edmund's beauty is still pronounced, and is remarked by others.
In spite of his precocious sexuality, M.O. had from the very
first an extreme disgust for obscene stories, and for any
association of sexual things with filthy words and anecdotes.
Owing in part to this and in part to his temperamental
skepticism, he disbelieved what associates told him regarding
sexual emissions, only becoming convinced when he actually
experienced them; and the facts of reproduction he denied
indignantly until he read them in a medical work.
Until he was
well over 25 the physical aversion from any thought of
reproduction was intense. He knows other, normal, young men who
have felt the same way, but he believes it would be prevented or
overcome by sex-education such as is now being introduced in
American schools.
Again, as to traces of feminism: Perhaps two years ago, all
impulse to give the love-bite disappeared suddenly.
There has
been lately a marked increase of dramatic interest, arising in
perfectly natural ways, and without any of the peculiarities
noted before. The childish pleasure in valentines has all gone;
M.O. believes that _circumstances_ have lately been more
favorable for the development of a more robust estheticism.
For some years he has heard no definite reproach for feminism,
though some persons tell his friends that he is
"very peculiar."
He forms many intimate, enduring, non-sexual friendships with
both men and women, and he doubts if the peculiarity noted by
others is due so much to his homosexuality as it is to his
estheticism, skepticism, and the unconventional opinions which he
expresses quite indiscreetly at times. With the improvement in
general health, has come the changes that would be expected in
food and other matters of daily life.
Resuming his narrative at the point where the earlier
communication left it, M.O. says that about a year after that
time, the youth of 17 to whom he had considered himself virtually
engaged withdrew from the agreement so far as it bore on his own
future, but not from the sentimental relation as it existed.
Although separated most of the time by distance, the physical
relation was resumed whenever they met.
Subsequently, however,
the young man fell in love with a young woman and became engaged
to her. His physical relation with M.O. then ceased, but the
friendship otherwise continues strong.
Shortly after the first break in this relation, M.O.
became,
through the force of quite unusual circumstances, very friendly
and intimate with a young woman of considerable charm. He
confided to her his abnormality, and was not repulsed. To others
their relation probably appeared that of lovers, and a painful
situation was created by the slander of a jealous woman. M.O.
felt that in honor he must propose marriage to her.
The young
woman was non-committal, but invited M.O. to spend several months
at her home. Shortly after his arrival a sad occurrence in his
own family compelled him to go away, and they did not meet again
for four years. They corresponded, but less and less often. His
relations with boys continued.
Before his final meeting with her he became acquainted with a
woman whom he has since married. The acquaintance began in a
wholly non-sentimental community of interests in certain
practical affairs, and very gradually widened into an
intellectual and sympathetic friendship. M.O. had no secrets from
this woman. After a full and prolonged consideration of all sides
of the matter they married. Since that event he has had no sexual
relations except with his wife. With her they are not passionate,
but they are animated by the strong desire for children. Of the
parental instinct he had become aware several years before this.
M.O. believes that no moral stigma should be attached to
homosexuality until it can be proved to result from the vicious
life of a free moral agent,--and of this he has no expectation.
He believes that much of its danger and unhappiness would be
prevented by a thorough yet discreet sex-education, such as
should be given to all children, whether normal or abnormal.
FOOTNOTES:
[124] Thus Godard described the little boys in Cairo as amusing themselves
indifferently either with boys or girls in sexual play.
(_Egypte et
Palestine_, 1867, p. 105.) The same thing may be observed in England and
elsewhere.
[125] Thus, of the Duc d'Orleans, in the seventeenth century, as described
in Bouchard's _Confessions_, one of my correspondents writes: "This prince
was of the same mind as Campanella, who, in the _Città del Sole_, laid it
down that young men ought to be freely admitted to women for the avoidance
of sexual aberrations. Aretino and Berni enable us to comprehend the
sexual immorality of males congregated together in the courts of Roman
prelates." The homosexuality of youth was also well recognized among the
Romans, but they adopted the contrary course and provided means to gratify
it, as the existence of the _concubinus_, referred to by Catullus, clearly
shows.
[126] "Our Public Schools: their Methods and Morals."
_New Review_, July,
1893.
[127] Max Dessoir, "Zür Psychologie der Vita Sexualis,"
_Allgemeine
Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie_, 1894, H. 5.
[128] F.H.A. Marshall, _The Physiology of Reproduction_, 1910, pp. 650-8.
[129] Iwan Bloch, in _The Sexual Life of Our Time_, makes this distinction
as between "homosexuality" (corresponding to inversion) and
"pseudo-homosexuality." According to the terminology I have accepted, the
term "pseudo-homosexuality" would be unnecessary and incorrect. More
recently (_Die Prostitution_, Bd. i, 1912, p. 103) Bloch has preferred, in
place of pseudo-homosexuality, the more satisfactory term, "secondary
homosexuality."
[130] See, for instance, Hirschfeld's reasonable discussion of the matter,
_Die Homosexualität_, ch. xvii.
[131] Alfred Fuchs, who edited Krafft-Ebing's _Psychopathia Sexualis_
after the latter's death, distinguishes between congenital homosexuality,
manifesting itself from the first without external stimulation, and
homosexuality on a basis of inborn disposition needing special external
influences to arouse it (_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iv,
1902, p. 181).
[132] Krafft-Ebing, "Ueber tardive Homosexualität,"
_Jahrbuch für sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iii, 1901, p. 7; Näcke, "Probleme auf den Gebiete der
Homosexualität," _Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie_, 1902, p. 805;
ib., "Ueber tardive Homosexualität," _Sexual-Probleme_, September, 1911.
Numa Praetorius (_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, January, 1913, p.
228) considers that retarded cases should not be regarded as bisexual, but
as genuine inverts who had acquired a
pseudoheterosexuality which at last
falls away; at the most, he believes such cases merely represent a
prolongation of the youthful undifferentiated period.
[133] Moll, _Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_, 1897, pp, 458-8.
[134] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualität_, ch. viii.
[135] This was the term used in the earlier editions of the present
_Study_. I willingly reject it in favor of the simpler and fairly clear
term now more generally employed. It is true that by bisexuality it is
possible to understand not only the double direction of the sexual
instinct, but also the presence of both sexes in the same individual,
which in French is more accurately distinguished as
"bisexuation."
[136] J. Van Biervliet, "L'Homme Droit et l'Homme Gauche," _Revue
Philosophique_, October, 1901. It is here shown that in the constitution
of their nervous system the ambidextrous are demonstrably left-sided
persons; their optic, acoustic, olfactory, and muscular sensitivity is
preponderant on the left side.
CHAPTER IV.
SEXUAL INVERSION IN WOMEN.
Prevalence of Sexual Inversion Among Women--Among Women of
Ability--Among the Lower Races--Temporary Homosexuality in Schools,
etc.--Histories--Physical and Psychic Characteristics of Inverted
Women--The Modern Development of Homosexuality Among Women.
Homosexuality is not less common in women than in men.
In the seriocomic
theory of sex set forth by Aristophanes in Plato's _Symposium_, males and
females are placed on a footing of complete equality, and, however
fantastic, the theory suffices to indicate that to the Greek mind, so
familiar with homosexuality, its manifestations seemed just as likely to
occur in women as in men. That is undoubtedly the case.
Like other
anomalies, indeed, in its more pronounced forms it may be less frequently
met with in women; in its less pronounced forms, almost certainly, it is
more frequently found. A Catholic confessor, a friend tells me, informed
him that for one man who acknowledges homosexual practices there are three
women. For the most part feminine homosexuality runs everywhere a parallel
course to masculine homosexuality and is found under the same conditions.
It is as common in girls as in boys; it has been found, under certain
conditions, to abound among women in colleges and convents and prisons, as
well as under the ordinary conditions of society.
Perhaps the earliest
case of homosexuality recorded in detail occurred in a woman,[137] and it
was with the investigation of such a case in a woman that Westphal may be
said to have inaugurated the scientific study of inversion.
Moreover, inversion is as likely to be accompanied by high intellectual
ability in a woman as in a man. The importance of a clear conception of
inversion is indeed in some respects, under present social conditions,
really even greater in the case of women than of men.
For if, as has
sometimes been said of our civilization, "this is a man's world," the
large proportion of able women inverts, whose masculine qualities render
it comparatively easy for them to adopt masculine avocations, becomes a
highly significant fact.[138]
It has been noted of distinguished women in all ages and in all fields of
activity that they have frequently displayed some masculine traits.[139]
Even "the first great woman in history," as she has been called by a
historian of Egypt, Queen Hatschepsu, was clearly of markedly virile
temperament, and always had herself represented on her monuments in
masculine costume, and even with a false beard.[140]
Other famous queens
have on more or less satisfactory grounds been suspected of a homosexual
temperament, such as Catherine II of Russia, who appears to have been
bisexual, and Queen Christina of Sweden, whose very marked masculine
traits and high intelligence seem to have been combined with a definitely
homosexual or bisexual temperament.[141]
Great religious and moral leaders, like Madame Blavatsky and Louise
Michel, have been either homosexual or bisexual or, at least, of
pronounced masculine temperament.[142] Great actresses from the eighteenth
century onward have frequently been more or less correctly identified with
homosexuality, as also many women distinguished in other arts.[143] Above
all, Sappho, the greatest of women poets, the peer of the greatest poets
of the other sex in the supreme power of uniting art and passion, has left
a name which is permanently associated with homosexuality.
It can scarcely be said that opinion is unanimous in regard to
Sappho, and the reliable information about her, outside the
evidence of the fragments of her poems which have reached us, is
scanty. Her fame has always been great; in classic times her name
was coupled with Homer's. But even to antiquity she was somewhat
of an enigma, and many legends grew up around her name, such as
the familiar story that she threw herself into the sea for the
love of Phaon. What remains clear is that she was regarded with
great respect and admiration by her contemporaries, that