preserve the other, and prevent a filthiness of a more heinous nature.
From whence I think I may justly conclude that chastity may be supported
by incontinence, and the best of virtues want the
assistance of the worst
of vices."[200] After Mandeville's time this view of prostitution began to
become common in Protestant as well as in other
countries, though it was
not usually so clearly expressed.
It may be of interest to gather together a few more
modern
examples of statements brought forward for the moral
justification of prostitution.
Thus in France Meusnier de Querlon, in his story of
_Psaphion_,
written in the middle of the eighteenth century,
puts into the
mouth of a Greek courtesan many interesting
reflections
concerning the life and position of the prostitute.
She defends
her profession with much skill, and argues that
while men imagine
that prostitutes are merely the despised victims of
their
pleasures, these would-be tyrants are really dupes
who are
ministering to the needs of the women they trample
beneath their
feet, and themselves equally deserve the contempt
they bestow.
"We return disgust for disgust, as they must surely perceive. We
often abandon to them merely a statue, and while
inflamed by
their own desires they consume themselves on
insensible charms,
our tranquil coldness leisurely enjoys their
sensibility. Then it
is we resume all our rights. A little hot blood has
brought
these proud creatures to our feet, and rendered us
mistresses of
their fate. On which side, I ask, is the advantage?"
But all men,
she adds, are not so unjust towards the prostitute,
and she
proceeds to pronounce a eulogy, not without a slight
touch of
irony in it, of the utility, facility, and
convenience of the
brothel.
A large number of the modern writers on prostitution
insist on
its socially beneficial character. Thus Charles
Richard concludes
his book on the subject with the words: "The conduct of society
with regard to prostitution must proceed from the
principle of
gratitude without false shame for its utility, and
compassion for
the poor creatures at whose expense this is
attained" (_La
Prostitution devant le Philosophe_, 1882, p. 171).
"To make
marriage permanent is to make it difficult," an
American medical
writer observes; "to make it difficult is to defer it; to defer
it is to maintain in the community an increasing
number of
sexually perfect individuals, with normal, or, in
cases where
repression is prolonged, excessive sexual appetites.
The social
evil is the natural outcome of the physical nature
of man, his
inherited impulses, and the artificial conditions
under which he
is compelled to live" ("The Social Evil,"
_Medicine_, August and
September, 1906). Woods Hutchinson, while speaking
with strong
disapproval of prostitution and regarding
prostitutes as "the
worst specimens of the sex," yet regards
prostitution as a social
agency of the highest value. "From a medico-economic point of
view I venture to claim it as one of the grand
selective and
eliminative agencies of nature, and of highest value
to the
community. It may be roughly characterized as a
safety valve for
the institution of marriage" (_The Gospel According to Darwin_,
p. 193; cf. the same author's article on "The
Economics of
Prostitution," summarized in _Boston Medical and
Surgical
Journal_, November 21, 1895). Adolf Gerson, in a
somewhat similar
spirit, argues ("Die Ursache der Prostitution,"
_Sexual-Probleme_, September, 1908) that
"prostitution is one of
the means used by Nature to limit the procreative
activity of
men, and especially to postpone the period of sexual
maturity."
Molinari considers that the social benefits of
prostitution have
been manifested in various ways from the first; by
sterilizing,
for instance, the more excessive manifestations of
the sexual
impulse prostitution suppressed the necessity for
the infanticide
of superfluous children, and led to the prohibition
of that
primitive method of limiting the population (G. de
Molinari, _La
Viriculture_, p. 45). In quite another way than that
mentioned by
Molinari, prostitution has even in very recent times
led to the
abandonment of infanticide. In the Chinese province
of Ping-Yang,
Matignon states, it was usual not many years ago for
poor parents
to kill forty per cent. of the girl children, or
even all of
them, at birth, for they were too expensive to rear
and brought
nothing in, since men who wished to marry could
easily obtain a
wife in the neighboring province of Wenchu, where
women were
very easy to obtain. Now, however, the line of
steamships along
the coast makes it very easy for girls to reach the
brothels of
Shang-Hai, where they can earn money for their
families; the
custom of killing them has therefore died out
(Matignon,
_Archives d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, 1896, p. 72).
"Under
present conditions," writes Dr. F. Erhard ("Auch ein Wort zur
Ehereform," _Geschlecht und Gesellschaft_, Jahrgang I, Heft 9),
"prostitution (in the broadest sense, including free relationships) is necessary in order that young men
may, in some
degree, learn to know women, for conventional
conversation cannot
suffice for this; an exact knowledge of feminine
thought and
action is, however, necessary for a proper choice,
since it is
seldom possible to rely on the certainty of
instinct. It is good
also that men should wear off their horns before
marriage, for
the polygamous tendency will break through
somewhere.
Prostitution will only spoil those men in whom there
is not much
to spoil, and if the desire for marriage is thus
lost, the man's
unbegotten children may have cause to thank him."
Neisser, Näcke,
and many others, have pleaded for prostitution, and
even for
brothels, as "necessary evils."
It is scarcely necessary to add that many, among
even the
strongest upholders of the moral advantages of
prostitution,
believe that some improvement in method is still
desirable. Thus
Bérault looks forward to a time when regulated
brothels will
become less contemptible. Various improvements may,
he thinks, in
the near future, "deprive them of the barbarous
attributes which
mark them out for the opprobrium of the skeptical or
ignorant
multitude, while their recognizable advantages will
put an end to
the contempt aroused by their cynical aspect" (_La Maison de
Tolérance_, Thèse de Paris, 1904).
4. _The Civilizational Value of Prostitution._--The
moral argument for
prostitution is based on the belief that our marriage
system is so
infinitely precious that an institution which serves as its buttress must
be kept in existence, however ugly or otherwise
objectionable it may in
itself be. There is, however, another argument in
support of prostitution
which scarcely receives the emphasis it deserves. I
refer to its influence
in adding an element, in some form or another necessary, of gaiety and
variety to the ordered complexity of modern life, a
relief from the
monotony of its mechanical routine, a distraction from its dull and
respectable monotony. This is distinct from the more
specific function of
prostitution as an outlet for superfluous sexual energy, and may even
affect those who have little or no commerce with
prostitutes. This
element may be said to constitute the civilizational
value of
prostitution.
It is not merely the general conditions of civilization, but more
specifically the conditions of urban life, which make
this factor
insistent. Urban life imposes by the stress of
competition a very severe
and exacting routine of dull work. At the same time it makes men and women
more sensitive to new impressions, more enamored of
excitement and change.
It multiplies the opportunities of social intercourse; it decreases the
chances of detection of illegitimate intercourse while at the same time it
makes marriage more difficult, for, by heightening
social ambitions and
increasing the expenses of living, it postpones the time when a home can
be created. Urban life delays marriage and yet renders the substitutes for
marriage more imperative.[201]
There cannot be the slightest doubt that it is this
motive--the effort to
supplement the imperfect opportunities for self-
development offered by our
restrained, mechanical, and laborious civilization--
which plays one of the
chief parts in inducing women to adopt, temporarily or permanently, a
prostitute's life. We have seen that the economic factor is not, as was
once supposed, by any means predominant in this choice.
Nor, again, is
there any reason to suppose that an over-mastering
sexual impulse is a
leading factor. But a large number of young women turn instinctively to a
life of prostitution because they are moved by an
obscure impulse which
they can scarcely define to themselves or express, and are often ashamed
to confess. It is, therefore, surprising that this
motive should find so
large a place even in the formal statistics of the
factors of
prostitution. Merrick, in London, found that 5000, or
nearly a third, of
the prostitutes he investigated, voluntarily gave up
home or situation
"for a life of pleasure," and he puts this at the head of the causes of
prostitution.[202] In America Sanger found that
"inclination" came almost
at the head of the causes of prostitution, while Woods Hutchinson found
"love of display, luxury and idleness" by far at the head. "Disgusted and
wearied with work" is the reason assigned by a large number of Belgian
girls when stating to the police their wish to be
enrolled as prostitutes.
In Italy a similar motive is estimated to play an
important part. In
Russia "desire for amusement" comes second among the causes of
prostitution. There can, I think, be little doubt that, as a thoughtful
student of London life has concluded, the problem of
prostitution is "at
bottom a mad and irresistible craving for excitement, a serious and wilful
revolt against the monotony of commonplace ideals, and the uninspired
drudgery of everyday life."[203] It is this factor of prostitution, we may
reasonably conclude, which is mainly responsible for the fact, pointed out
by F. Schiller,[204] that with the development of
civilization the supply
of prostitutes tends to outgrow the demand.
Charles Booth seems to be of the same opinion, and
quotes (_Life
and Labor of the People_, Third Series, vol. vii, p.
364) from a
Rescue Committee Report: "The popular idea is, that these women
are eager to leave a life of sin. The plain and
simple truth is
that, for the most part, they have no desire at all
to be
rescued. So many of these women do not, and will
not, regard
prostitution as a sin. 'I am taken out to dinner and
to some
place of amusement every night; why should I give it
up?'"
Merrick, who found that five per cent. of 14,000
prostitutes who
passed through Millbank Prison, were accustomed to
combine
religious observance with the practice of their
profession, also
remarks in regard to their feelings about morality:
"I am
convinced that there are many poor men and women who
do not in
the least understand what is implied in the term
'immorality.'
Out of courtesy to you, they may assent to what you
say, but they
do not comprehend your meaning when you talk of
virtue or purity;
you are simply talking over their heads" (Merrick, op. cit., p.
28). The same attitude may be found among
prostitutes everywhere.
In Italy Ferriani mentions a girl of fifteen who,
when accused of
indecency with a man in a public garden, denied with
tears and
much indignation. He finally induced her to confess,
and then
asked her: "Why did you try to make me believe you were a good
girl?" She hesitated, smiled, and said: "Because _they say_ girls
ought not to do what I do, but ought to work. But I
am what I am,
and it is no concern of theirs." This attitude is often more than
an instinctive feeling; in intelligent prostitutes
it frequently
becomes a reasoned conviction. "I can bear
everything, if so it
must be," wrote the author of the _Tagebuch einer Verlorenen_ (p.
291), "even serious and honorable contempt, but I cannot bear
scorn. Contempt--yes, if it is justified. If a poor
and pretty
girl with sick and bitter heart stands alone in
life, cast off,
with temptations and seductions offering on every
side, and, in
spite of that, out of inner conviction she chooses
the grey and
monotonous path of renunciation and middle-class
morality, I
recognize in that girl a personality, who has a
certain
justification in looking down with contemptuous pity
on weaker
girls. But those geese who, under the eyes of their
shepherds and
life-long owners, have always been pastured in
smooth green
fields, have certainly no right to laugh scornfully
at others who
have not been so fortunate." Nor must it be supposed that there
is necessarily any sophistry in the prostitute's
justification of
herself. Some of our best thinkers and observers
have reached a
conclusion that is not dissimilar. "The actual
conditions of
society are opposed to any high moral feeling in
women," Marro
observes (_La Pubertà_, p. 462), "for between those who sell
themselves to prostitution and those who sell
themselves to
marriage, the only difference is in price and
duration of the
contract."
We have already seen how very large a part in
prostitution is furnished by
those who have left domestic service to adopt this life (_ante_ p. 264).
It is not difficult to find in this fact evidence of the kind of impulse
which impels a woman to adopt the career of
prostitution. "The servant, in
our society of equality," wrote Goncourt, recalling somewhat earlier days
when she was often admitted to a place in the family
life, "has become
nothing but a paid pariah, a machine for doing household work, and is no
longer allowed to share the employer's human life."[205]
And in England,
even half a century ago, we already find the same
statements concerning
the servant's position: "domestic service is a complete slavery," with
early hours and late hours, and constant running up and down stairs till
her legs are swollen; "an amount of ingenuity appears too often to be
exercised, worthy of a better cause, in obtaining the
largest possible
amount of labor out of the domestic machine"; in
addition she is "a kind
of lightning conductor," to receive the ill-temper and morbid feelings of
her mistress and the young ladies; so that, as some have said, "I felt so
miserable I did not care what became of me, I wished I was dead."[206] The
servant is deprived of all human relationships; she must not betray the
existence of any simple impulse, or natural need. At the same time she
lives on the fringe of luxury; she is surrounded by the tantalizing
visions of pleasure and amusement for which her fresh
young nature
craves.[207] It is not surprising that, repelled by
unrelieved drudgery
and attracted by idle luxury, she should take the plunge which will alone
enable her to enjoy the glittering aspects of
civilization which seem so
desirable to her.[208]
It is sometimes stated that the prevalence of
prostitution among
girls who were formerly servants is due to the
immense numbers of
servants who are seduced by their masters or the
young men of the
family, and are thus forced on to the streets.
Undoubtedly in a
certain proportion of cases, perhaps sometimes a
fairly
considerable proportion, this is a decisive factor
in the matter,
but it scarcely seems to be the chief factor. The
existence of
relationships between servants and masters, it must
be
remembered, by no means necessarily implies
seduction. In a
large number of cases the servant in a household is,
in sexual
matters, the teacher rather than the pupil. (In "The Sexual
Impulse in Women," in the third volume of these
_Studies_, I have
discussed the part played by servants as sexual
initiators of the
young boys in the households in which they are
placed.) The more
precise statistics of the causes of prostitution
seldom assign
seduction as the main determining factor in more
than about
twenty per cent. of cases, though this is obviously
one of the
most easily avowable motives (see _ante_, p. 256).
Seduction by
any kind of employer constitutes only a proportion
(usually less
than half) even of these cases. The special case of
seduction of
servants by masters can thus play no very
considerable part as a
factor of prostitution.
The statistics of the parentage of illegitimate
children have
some bearing on this question. In a series of 180
unmarried
mothers assisted by the Berlin Bund für
Mutterschutz, particulars
are given of the occupations both of the mothers,
and, as far as
possible, of the fathers. The former were one-third
servant-girls, and the great majority of the
remainder assistants
in trades or girls carrying on work at home. At the
head of the
fathers (among 120 cases) came artisans (33),
followed by
tradespeople (22); only a small proportion (20 to
25) could be
described as "gentlemen," and even this proportion loses some of
its significance when it is pointed out that some of
the girls
were also of the middle-class; in nineteen cases the
fathers were
married men (_Mutterschutz_, January, 1907, p. 45).
Most authorities in most countries are of opinion
that girls who
eventually (usually between the ages of fifteen and
twenty)
become prostitutes have lost their virginity at an
early age, and
in the great majority of cases through men of their
own class.
"The girl of the people falls by the people," stated Reuss in
France (_La Prostitution_, p. 41). "It is her like, workers like
herself, who have the first fruits of her beauty and
virginity.
The man of the world who covers her with gold and
jewels only has
their leavings." Martineau, again (_De la
Prostitution
Clandestine_, 1885), showed that prostitutes are
usually
deflowered by men of their own class. And Jeannel,
in Bordeaux,
found reason for believing that it is not chiefly
their masters
who lead servants astray; they often go into service
because they
have been seduced in the country, while lazy,
greedy, and
unintelligent girls are sent from the country into
the town to
service. In Edinburgh, W. Tait (_Magdalenism_, 1842)
found that
soldiers more than any other class in the community
are the
seducers of women, the Highlanders being especially
notorious in
this respect. Soldiers have this reputation
everywhere, and in
Germany especially it is constantly found that the
presence of
the soldiery in a country district, as at the annual
manoeuvres,
is the cause of unchastity and illegitimate births;
it is so also
in Austria, where, long ago, Gross-Hoffinger stated
that
soldiers were responsible for at least a third of
all
illegitimate births, a share out of all proportion
to their
numbers. In Italy, Marro, investigating the occasion
of the loss
of virginity in twenty-two prostitutes, found that
ten gave
themselves more or less spontaneously to lovers or
masters, ten
yielded in the expectation of marriage, and two were
outraged
(_La Pubertà_, p. 461). The loss of virginity, Marro
adds, though
it may not be the direct cause of prostitution,
often leads on to
it. "When a door has once been broken in," a prostitute said to
him, "it is difficult to keep it closed." In Sardinia, as A.
Mantegazza and Ciuffo found, prostitutes are very
largely
servants from the country who have already been
deflowered by men
of their own class.
This civilizational factor of prostitution, the
influence of