the possibility of sexual satisfaction diminishes; at the best, also;
there lacks the sense of social equality, the feeling of possession, and
scope for the exercise of feminine affection and devotion. These the
prostitute must usually be forced to find either in a
"bully" or in
another woman.[159]
Apart from this fact it must be borne in mind that, in a very large number
of cases, prostitutes show in slight or more marked degree many of the
signs of neurotic heredity,[160] and it would not be surprising if they
present the germs of homosexuality in an unusually high degree. The life
of the prostitute may well develop such latent germs; and so we have an
undue tendency to homosexuality, just as we have it among criminals, and,
to a much less extent, among persons of genius and intellect.
Homosexuality is specially fostered by those employments which keep women
in constant association, not only by day, but often at night also, without
the company of men. This is, for instance, the case in convents, and
formerly, at all events,--however, it may be today,--
homosexuality was
held to be very prevalent in convents. This was especially so in the
eighteenth century when very many young girls, without any religious
vocation, were put into convents.[161] The same again is today the case
with the female servants in large hotels, among whom homosexual practices
nave been found very common.[162] Laycock, many years ago, noted the
prevalence of manifestations of this kind, which he regarded as
hysterical, among seamstresses, lace-makers, etc., confined for hours in
close contact with one another in heated rooms. The circumstances under
which numbers of young women are employed during the day in large shops
and factories, and sleep in the establishment, two in a room or even two
in a bed, are favorable to the development of homosexual practices.
In England it is seldom that anyone cares to investigate these
phenomena, though, they certainly exist. They have been more
thoroughly studied elsewhere. Thus, in Rome, Niceforo, who
studied various aspects of the lives of the working classes,
succeeded in obtaining much precise information concerning the
manners and customs of the young girls in dressmaking and
tailoring work-rooms. He remarks that few of those who see the
"virtuous daughters of the people," often not more than 12 years
old, walking along the streets with the dressmaker's box under
their arm, modestly bent head and virginal air, realize the
intense sexual preoccupations often underlying these appearances.
In the work-rooms the conversation perpetually revolves around
sexual subjects in the absence of the mistress or forewoman, and
even in her presence the slang that prevails in the work-rooms
leads to dialogues with a double meaning. A state of sexual
excitement is thus aroused which sometimes relieves itself
mentally by psychic onanism, sometimes by some form of
masturbation; one girl admitted to Niceforo that by allowing her
thoughts to dwell on the subject while at work she sometimes
produced physical sexual excitement as often as four times a day.
(See also vol. i of these _Studies_, "Autoerotism.") Sometimes,
however, a vague kind of homosexuality is produced, the girls,
excited by their own thoughts and their conversation, being still
further excited by contact with each other. "In summer, in one
work-room, some of the girls wear no drawers, and they unbutton
their bodices, and work with crossed legs, more or less
uncovered. In this position, the girls draw near and inspect one
another; some boast of their white legs, and, then the petticoats
are raised altogether for more careful comparison.
Many enjoy
this inspection of nudity, and experience real sexual pleasure.
From midday till 2 P.M., during the hours of greatest heat, when
all are in this condition, and the mistress, in her chemise (and
sometimes, with no shame at the workers' presence, even without
it), falls asleep on the sofa, all the girls, _without one
exception_, masturbate themselves. The heat seems to sharpen
their desires and morbidly arouse all their senses.
The
voluptuous emotions, restrained during the rest of the day, break
out with irresistible force; stimulated by the spectacle of each
other's nakedness, some place their legs together and thus
heighten the spasm by the illusion of contact with a man." In
this way they reach mutual masturbation. "It is noteworthy,
however," Niceforo points out, "that these couples for mutual
masturbation are never Lesbian couples. Tribadism is altogether
absent from the factories and work-rooms." He even believes that
it does not exist among girls of the working class.
He further
describes how, in another work-room, during the hot hours of the
day in summer, when no work is done, some of the girls retire
into the fitting-room, and, having fastened their chemises round
their legs and thighs with pins, so as to imitate trousers, play
at being men and pretend to have intercourse with the others.
(Niceforo, _Il Gergo_, cap. vi, 1897, Turin.) I have reproduced
these details from Niceforo's careful study because, although
they may seem to be trivial at some points, they clearly bring
out the very important distinction between a merely temporary
homosexuality and true inversion. The amusements of these young
girls may not be considered eminently innocent or wholesome, but,
on the other hand, they are not radically morbid or vicious. They
are strictly, and even consciously, _play_; they are dominated by
the thought that the true sexual ideal is normal relationship
with a man, and they would certainly disappear in the presence of
a man.
It must be remembered that Niceforo's observations were made
among girls who were mostly young. In the large factories, where
many adult women are employed, the phenomena tend to be rarer,
but of much less trivial and playful character. At Wolverhampton,
some forty years ago, the case was reported of a woman in a
galvanizing "store" who, after dinner, indecently assaulted a
girl who was a new hand. Two young women held the victim down,
and this seems to show that homosexual vice was here common and
recognized. No doubt, this case is exceptional in its brutality.
It throws, however, a significant light on the conditions
prevailing in factories. In Spain, in the large factories where
many adult women are employed, especially in the great tobacco
factory at Seville, Lesbian relationships seem to be not
uncommon. Here the women work in an atmosphere which in summer is
so hot that they throw off the greater part of their clothing, to
such an extent that a bell is rung whenever a visitor is
introduced into a work-room, in order to warn the workers. Such
an environment predisposes to the formation of homosexual
relationships. When I was in Spain some years ago an incident
occurred at the Seville Fábrica de Tabacos which attracted much
attention in the newspapers, and, though it was regarded as
unusual, it throws light on the life of the workers.
One morning
as the women were entering the work-room and amid the usual scene
of animation changing their Manila shawls for the light costume
worn during work, one drew out a small clasp-knife and, attacking
another, rapidly inflicted six or seven wounds on her face and
neck, threatening to kill anyone who approached.
Both these
_cigarreras_ were superior workers, engaged in the most skilled
kind of work, and had been at the factory for many years. In
appearance they were described as presenting a striking contrast:
the aggressor, who was 48 years of age, was of masculine air,
tall and thin, with an expression of firm determination on her
wrinkled face; the victim, on the other hand, whose age was 30,
was plump and good-looking and of pleasing disposition. The
reason at first assigned for the attack on the younger woman was
that her mother had insulted the elder woman's son.
It appeared,
however, that a close friendship had existed between the two
women, that latterly the younger woman had formed a friendship
with the forewoman of her work-room, and that the elder woman,
animated by jealousy, then resolved to murder both; this design
was frustrated by the accidental absence of the forewoman that
day.
In theaters the abnormal sexuality stimulated by such association in work
is complicated by the general tendency for homosexuality to be connected
with dramatic aptitude, a point to which I shall have to refer later on. I
am indebted to a friend for the following note:
"Passionate friendships
among girls, from the most innocent to the most elaborate excursions in
the direction of Lesbos, are extremely common in theaters, both among
actresses and, even more, among chorus-and ballet-girls.
Here the
pell-mell of the dressing-rooms, the wait of perhaps two hours between the
performances, during which all the girls are cooped up, in a state of
inaction and of excitement, in a few crowded dressing-rooms, afford every
opportunity for the growth of this particular kind of sentiment. In most
of the theaters there is a little circle of girls, somewhat avoided by the
others, or themselves careless of further acquaintanceship, who profess
the most unbounded devotion to one another. Most of these girls are
equally ready to flirt with the opposite sex, but I know certain ones
among them who will scarcely speak to a man, and who are never seen
without their particular 'pal' or 'chum,' who, if she gets moved to
another theater, will come around and wait for her friend at the
stage-door. But here, again, it is but seldom that the experience is
carried very far. The fact is that the English girl, especially of the
lower and middle classes, whether she has lost her virtue or not, is
extremely fettered by conventional notions. Ignorance and habit are two
restraining influences from the carrying out of this particular kind of
perversion to its logical conclusions. It is, therefore, among the upper
ranks, alike of society and of prostitution, that Lesbianism is most
definitely to be met with, for here we have much greater liberty of
action, and much greater freedom from prejudices."
With girls, as with boys, it is in the school, at the evolution of
puberty, that homosexuality usually first shows itself.
It may originate
in a way mainly peripheral or mainly central. In the first case, two
children, perhaps when close to each other in bed, more or less
unintentionally generate in each other a certain amount of sexual
irritation, which they foster by mutual touching and kissing. This is a
spurious kind of homosexuality, the often precocious play of the normal
instinct. In the girl who is congenitally predisposed to homosexuality it
will continue and develop; in the majority it will be forgotten as quickly
as possible, not without shame, in the presence of the normal object of
sexual love.
I may quote as fairly typical the following observation supplied
by a lady who cannot be called inverted: "Like so many other
children and girls, I was first taught self-indulgence by a girl
at school, and I passed on my knowledge to one or two others,
with one of whom I remember once, when we were just 16, spending
the night sensually. We were horribly ashamed after, and that was
the only time. When I was only 8 there was a girl of 13 who liked
to play with my body, and taught me to play with hers, though I
rather disliked doing so. We slept together, and this went on at
intervals for six months. These things, for the sake of getting
enjoyment, and not with any passion, are not uncommon with
children, but less common, I think, than people sometimes
imagine. I believe I could recall without much difficulty, the
number of times such things happened with me. In the case I
mentioned when I did for one night feel--or try to excite in
myself and my girl-companion of 16--sensual passion, we had as
little children slept together a few times and done these things,
and meeting after an absence, just at that age, recalled our
childish memories, and were carried away by sexual impulse. But I
never felt any peculiar affection or passion for her even at the
time, nor she for me. We only felt that our sensual nature was
strong at the time, and had betrayed us into something we were
ashamed of, and, therefore, we avoided letting ourselves sleep
too close after that day. I think we disliked each other, and
were revolted whenever we thought of that night, feeling that
each had degraded the other and herself."
The cases in which the source is mainly central, rather than peripheral,
nevertheless merge into the foregoing, with no clear line of demarcation.
In such cases a girl forms an ardent attachment for another girl, probably
somewhat older than herself, often a schoolfellow, sometimes her
schoolmistress, upon whom she will lavish an astonishing amount of
affection and devotion. There may or not be any return; usually the return
consists of a gracious acceptance of the affectionate services. The girl
who expends this wealth of devotion is surcharged with emotion, but she is
often unconscious or ignorant of the sexual impulse, and she seeks for no
form of sexual satisfaction. Kissing and the privilege of sleeping with
the friend are, however, sought, and at such times it often happens that
even the comparatively unresponsive friend feels more or less definite
sexual emotion (pudendal turgescence, with secretion of mucus and
involuntary twitching of the neighboring muscles), though little or no
attention may be paid to this phenomenon, and in the common ignorance of
girls concerning sex matters it may not be understood.
In some cases there
is an attempt, either instinctive or intentional, to develop the sexual
feeling by close embraces and kissing. This rudimentary kind of homosexual
relationship is, I believe, more common among girls than among boys, and
for this there are several reasons: (1) a boy more often has some
acquaintance with sexual phenomena, and would frequently regard such a
relationship as unmanly; (2) the girl has a stronger need of affection
and self-devotion to another person than a boy has; (3) she has not, under
our existing social conditions which compel young women to hold the
opposite sex at arm's length, the same opportunities of finding an outlet
for her sexual emotions; while (4) conventional propriety recognizes a
considerable degree of physical intimacy between girls, thus at once
encouraging and cloaking the manifestations of homosexuality.
The ardent attachments which girls in schools and colleges form to each
other and to their teachers constitute a subject which is of considerable
psychological interest and of no little practical importance.[163] These
girlish devotions, on the borderland between friendship and sexual
passion, are found in all countries where girls are segregated for
educational purposes, and their symptoms are, on the whole, singularly
uniform, though they vary in intensity and character to some extent, from
time to time and from place to place, sometimes assuming an epidemic form.
They have been most carefully studied in Italy, where Obici and
Marchesini--an alienist and a psychologist working in conjunction--have
analyzed the phenomena with remarkable insight and delicacy and much
wealth of illustrative material.[164] But exactly the same phenomena are
everywhere found in English girls' schools, even of the most modern type,
and in some of the large American women's colleges they have sometimes
become so acute as to cause much anxiety.[165] On the whole, however, it
is probable that such manifestations are regarded more indulgently in
girls' than in boys' schools, and in view of the fact that the
manifestations of affection are normally more pronounced between girls
than between boys, this seems reasonable. The head mistress of an English
training college writes:--
"My own assumption on such, matters has been that affection does naturally
belong to the body as well as the mind, and between two women is naturally
and innocently expressed by, caresses. I have never therefore felt that I
ought to warn any girl against the physical element in friendship, as
such. The test I should probably suggest to them would be the same as one
would use for any other relation--was the friendship helping life as a
whole, making them keener, kinder, more industrious, etc., or was it
hindering it?"
Passionate friendships, of a more or less unconsciously sexual character,
are common even outside and beyond school-life. It frequently happens that
a period during which a young woman falls in love at a distance with some
young man of her acquaintance alternates with periods of intimate
attachment to a friend of her own sex. No congenital inversion is usually
involved. It generally happens, in the end, either that relationship with
a man brings the normal impulse into permanent play, or the steadying of
the emotions in the stress of practical life leads to a knowledge of the
real nature of such feelings and a consequent distaste for them. In some
cases, on the other hand, such relationships, especially when formed after
school-life, are fairly permanent. An energetic emotional woman, not
usually beautiful, will perhaps be devoted to another who may have found
some rather specialized lifework, but who may be very unpractical, and who
has probably a very feeble sexual instinct; she is grateful for her
friends's devotion, but may not actively reciprocate it.
The actual
specific sexual phenomena generated in such cases vary very greatly. The
emotion may be latent or unconscious; it may be all on one side; it is
often more or less recognized and shared. Such cases are on the borderland
of true sexual inversion, but they cannot be included within its region.
Sex in these relationships is scarcely the essential and fundamental
element; it is more or less subordinate and parasitic.
There is often a
semblance of a sex-relationship from the marked divergence of the friends
in physical and psychic qualities, and the nervous development of one or
both the friends is sometimes slightly abnormal. We have to regard such
relationships as hypertrophied friendships, the hypertrophy being due to
unemployed sexual instinct.
The following narrative is written by a lady who holds a
responsible educational position: "A friend of mine, two or three
years older than myself (I am 31), and living in the same house
with me, has been passing through a very unhappy time. Long
nervous strain connected with this has made her sleep badly, and
apt to wake in terrible depression about 3 o'clock in the
morning. In the early days of our friendship, about eight months
ago, she occasionally at these times took refuge with me. After a
while I insisted on her consulting a doctor, who advised her,
amongst other things, not to sleep alone.
Thenceforth for two or
three months I induced her to share my room. After a week or two
she generally shared my bed for a time at the beginning of the
night, as it seemed to help her to sleep.
"Before this, about the second or third time that she came to me
in the early morning, I had been surprised and a little
frightened to find how pleasant it was to me to have her, and how
reluctant I was that she should go away. When we began regularly
to sleep in the same room, the physical part of our affection
grew rapidly very strong. It is natural for me generally to
caress my friends, but I soon could not be alone in a room with
this one without wanting to have my arms round her.
It would have
been intolerable to me to live with her without being able to
touch her. We did not discuss it, but it was evident that the
desire was even stronger in her than in me.
"For some time it satisfied us fully to be in bed together. One
night, however, when she had had a cruelly trying day and I
wanted to find all ways of comforting her, I bared by breast for
her to lie on. Afterward it was clear that neither of us could be
satisfied without this. She groped for it like a child, and it
excited me much more to feel that than to uncover my breast and
arms altogether at once.
"Much of this excitement was sexually localized, and I was
haunted in the daytime by images of holding this woman in my
arms. I noticed also that my inclination to caress my other women
friends was not diminished, but increased. All this disturbed me
a good deal. The homosexual practices of which I had read lately
struck me as merely nasty; I could not imagines myself tempted to
them;--at the same time the whole matter was new to me, for I had
never wanted anyone even to share my bed before; I had read that
sex instinct was mysterious and unexpected, and I felt that I did
not know what might come next.
"I knew only one elder person whom (for wide-mindedness,
gentleness, and saintliness) I could bear to consult; and to this
person, a middle-aged man, I wrote for advice. He replied by a
long letter of the most tender warning. I had better not weaken
my influence with my friend, he wrote, by going back suddenly or
without her consent, but I was to be very wary of going further;
there was fire about. I tried to put this into practice by
restraining myself constantly in our intercourse, by refraining
from caressing her, for instance, when I wanted to caress her and
knew that she wanted it. The only result seemed to be that the
desire was more tormenting and constant than ever.
"If at this point my friend had happened to die or go away, and
the incident had come to an end, I should probably have been left
nervous in these matters for years to come. I should have
faltered in the opinion I had always held, that bodily
expressions of love between women were as innocent as they were
natural; and I might have come nearer than I ever expected to the
doctrine of those convent teachers who forbid their girls to
embrace one another for fear an incalculable instinct should
carry them to the edge of an abyss.
"As it was, after a while I said a little on the subject to my
friend herself. I had been inclined to think that she might share
my anxiety, but she did not share it at all. She said to me that
she did not like these thoughts, that she cared for me more than
She had ever done for any person except one (now causing most of
her unhappiness), and wanted me in all possible ways, and that it
would make her sad to feel that I was trying not to want her in
one way because I thought it was wrong.
"On my part, I knew very well how much she did need and want me.
I knew that in relations with others she was spending the
greatest effort in following a course that I urged on her, and
was doing what I thought right in spite of the most painful
pressure on her to do wrong; and that she needed all the support
and comfort I could give her. It seemed to me, after our
conversation, that the right path for me lay not in giving way to
fears and