Studies in the psychology of sex, volume 2 by Havelock Ellis. - HTML preview

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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