Woman.

Her s.e.x and Love Life.

by William J. Robinson.

Chief of the Department of Genito-Urinary Diseases and Dermatology, Bronx Hospital Dispensary Editor of the American Journal of Urology and s.e.xology; Editor of The Critic and Guide; Author of Treatment of s.e.xual Impotence and Other s.e.xual Disorders in Men and Women; Treatment of Gonorrhea in Men and Women; Limitation of Offspring by the Prevention of Conception; s.e.x Knowledge for Girls and Women; s.e.xual Problems of Today; Never-Told Tales; Eugenics and Marriage, etc. Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, of the American Medical Editors' a.s.sociation, American Medical a.s.sociation, New York State Medical Society, Internationale Gesellschaft fur s.e.xualforschung, American Genetic a.s.sociation, American a.s.sociation for the Advancement of Science, American Urological a.s.sociation, etc., etc.

Ill.u.s.trated

Twenty-First Edition

1929 Eugenics Publishing Company New York

Copyright, 1917, by Eugenics Publishing Company

Press of J.J. Little & Ives Co.

New York

THE CREATION OF WOMAN

This old Oriental legend is so exquisitely charming, so superior to the Biblical narrative of the creation of woman, that it deserves to be reproduced in WOMAN: HER s.e.x AND LOVE LIFE. There are several variants of this legend, but I reproduce it as it appeared in the first issue of THE CRITIC AND GUIDE, January, 1903.

At the beginning of time, Twashtri--the Vulcan of Hindu mythology--created the world. But when he wished to create a woman, he found that he had employed all his materials in the creation of man. There did not remain one solid element. Then Twashtri, perplexed, fell into a profound meditation from which he aroused himself and proceeded as follows:

He took the roundness of the moon, the undulations of the serpent, the entwinement of clinging plants, the trembling of the gra.s.s, the slenderness of the rose-vine and the velvet of the flower, the lightness of the leaf and the glance of the fawn, the gaiety of the sun's rays and tears of the mist, the inconstancy of the wind and the timidity of the hare, the vanity of the peac.o.c.k and the softness of the down on the throat of the swallow, the hardness of the diamond, the sweet flavor of honey and the cruelty of the tiger, the warmth of fire, the chill of snow, the chatter of the jay and the cooing of the turtle dove.

He combined all these and formed a woman. Then he made a present of her to man. Eight days later the man came to Twashtri, and said: "My Lord, the creature you gave me poisons my existence.

She chatters without rest, she takes all my time, she laments for nothing at all, and is always ill; take her back;" and Twashtri took the woman back.

But eight days later the man came again to the G.o.d and said: "My Lord, my life is very solitary since I returned this creature. I remember she danced before me, singing. I recall how she glanced at me from the corner of her eye, how she played with me, clung to me. Give her back to me," and Twashtri returned the woman to him. Three days only pa.s.sed and Twashtri saw the man coming to him again. "My Lord," said he, "I do not understand exactly how it is, but I am sure that the woman causes me more annoyance than pleasure. I beg you to relieve me of her."

But Twashtri cried: "Go your way and do the best you can." And the man cried: "I cannot live with her!" "Neither can you live without her!" replied Twashtri.

And the man went away sorrowful, murmuring: "Woe is me, I can neither live with nor without her."

PREFACE

In the first chapter of this book I have shown, I believe convincingly, why s.e.x knowledge is even more important for women than it is for men. I have examined carefully the books that have been written for girls and women, and I know that it is not bias, nor carping criticism, but strict honesty that forces me to say that I have not found one satisfactory girl's or woman's s.e.x book. There are some excellent books for girls and women on general hygiene; but on s.e.x hygiene, on the general manifestations of the s.e.x instinct, on s.e.x ethics--none. I have attempted to write such a book. Whether I have succeeded--fully, partially or not at all--is not for me to say, though I have my suspicions. But this I know: in writing this book I have been strictly honest with myself, from first page to last.

Whether everything I have written is the truth, I do not know. But at least I believe that it is--or I would not have written it. And I can solemnly say that the book is free from any cant, hypocrisy, falsehood, exaggeration or compromise, nor has any attempt been made in any chapter to conciliate the stupid, the ignorant, the pervert, or the s.e.xless.

As in all my other books I have used plain, honest English. Not any plainer than necessary, but plain enough to avoid obscurity and misconception.

Science and art are both necessary to human happiness. This is not the place to discuss the relative importance of the two. And, while I have no patience with art-for-art's-sake, I recognize that the scientist can not be put into a narrow channel and ordered to go into a certain definite direction. Scientific investigations which seemed aimless and useless have sometimes led to highly important results, and I would not disparage science for its own sake. It has its uses. Nevertheless I personally have no use for it. To me everything must have a direct human purpose, a definite human application. When the cup of human life is so overflowing with woe and pain and misery, it seems to me a narrow dilettanteism or downright charlatanism to devote one's self to petty or bizarre problems which can have no relation to human happiness, and to prate of self-satisfaction and self-expression. One can have all the self-expression one wants while doing useful work.

And working for humanity does not exclude a healthy hedonism; not the narrow Cyrenaic, but an enlightened altruistic hedonism. And in writing this book I have kept the human problem constantly before my eyes. It was not my ambition merely to impart interesting facts: my concern was the practical application of these facts, their relation to human happiness.

If this book should be instrumental, as I confidently trust it will, in destroying some medieval superst.i.tions, in dissipating some hampering and cramping errors, in instilling some hope in the hearts of the hopeless, in bringing a little joy into the homes of the joyless, in increasing in however slight a degree the sum total of human happiness, its mission shall have been gloriously fulfilled.

For this is the mission of the book: to increase the sum total of human happiness.

W.J.R.

12 Mount Morris Park W., New York City.

Jan. 1, 1917.

WOMAN: HER s.e.x AND LOVE LIFE

CHAPTER ONE

THE PARAMOUNT NEED OF s.e.x KNOWLEDGE FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN

Why s.e.x Knowledge is of Paramount Importance to Girls and Women--Reasons Why a Misstep in a Girl Has More Serious Consequences than a Misstep in a Boy--The Place Love Occupies in Woman's Life--Woman's Physical Disabilities.

All are agreed--I mean all who are capable of thinking and have given the subject some thought--that for the welfare of the race and for his own physical and mental welfare it is important that the boy be given some s.e.x instruction. All are not agreed as to the character of the instruction, its extent, the age at which it should be begun and as to who the teacher should be--the father, the family physician, the school teacher or a specially prepared book--but as to the necessity of s.e.x knowledge for the boy there is now substantial agreement--among the conservatives as well as among the radicals.

No such agreement exists concerning s.e.x knowledge for the girl. Many still are the men and women--and not among the conservatives only--who are strongly opposed to girls receiving any instruction in s.e.x matters. Some say that such instruction--except a few hygienic rules about menstruation--is unnecessary, because the s.e.x instinct awakens in girls comparatively late, and it is time enough for them to learn about such matters after they are married. Others fear that s.e.x knowledge would destroy the mystery and romance of s.e.x, and would rob our maidens of their greatest charms--modesty and innocence. Still others fear that s.e.x instruction would tend to awaken the s.e.x instinct in our girls prematurely; would direct their thoughts to matters about which they would not think otherwise; and they argue that the warnings about venereal disease, prost.i.tution, etc., which are an integral part of s.e.x instruction, tend to create a cynical, inimical att.i.tude towards the male s.e.x, which may even result in hypochondriac ideas and antagonism to marriage.

I do not deny that there is a grain of truth in all the above objections. s.e.x instruction does cause _some_ girls to think of s.e.x matters earlier than they otherwise would, and some girls have been made bitter and hypochondriac, and disgusted with the male s.e.x. But it would not be difficult to demonstrate that it was not s.e.x instruction _per se_ that was responsible for these deplorable results; it was the _wrong_ kind of instruction that was to blame--it was the wrong emphasis, the lurid exaggerations that caused the mischief, and not the truth. In other words, it is not s.e.x information, it is s.e.x misinformation, that is pernicious. And, of course, to this everybody will agree: rather than false information, better no information at all.

But if the information to be imparted be sane, honest and truthful, without exaggerating the evils and without laying undue emphasis on the dark shadows of our s.e.x life, then the results can be only beneficent. And the task I have put before myself in this book is to give our girls and women sane, square and honest information about their s.e.x organs and s.e.x nature, information absolutely free from luridness, on the one hand, and maudlin sentimentality, on the other.

The female s.e.x is in need of such information, much more so than is the male s.e.x. Yes, if boys, as is now universally agreed, are in need of s.e.x instruction, then girls are much more in need of it. Why? For several important reasons.

The first reason why s.e.x instruction is even more important for girls than it is for boys is because a misstep in a girl has much more disastrous consequences than it has in a boy. The disastrous results of a misstep in a boy are only physical in character; the results of the _same_ misstep in a girl may be physical, moral, social and economic. To speak more plainly. If a boy, through ignorance, rashly indulges in illicit s.e.xual relations, the worst consequence to him may be infection with a venereal disease. But he is not considered immoral, he is not despised, he is not ostracized, he does not lose his social standing in the slightest degree, and when he is cured of his venereal disease he has no difficulty in getting married. He does not even have to conceal his past s.e.xual history from his wife. But if a girl makes a misstep the consequences to her are terrible indeed; it may not only cost her her health and social standing, she may have to pay with her very life. She runs the risk of venereal infection the same as the boy does, but in addition she runs the risk of becoming pregnant, which in our present social system is a catastrophe indeed.

To save herself from the disgrace of an illegitimate child she may have an abortion produced; the abortion may have no bad results, but it may, if performed bunglingly, leave her an invalid for life, or it may kill her outright. If she is so unfortunate as to be unable to get anybody to produce an abortion, she gives birth to an illegitimate child, which she is forced in most cases to put away in an inst.i.tution of some sort where she hopes and prays it may die soon--and, in general, it does. If it does not die, she has for the rest of her life a Damocles' sword hanging over her head, and she is in constant terror lest her sin be found out. She does not permit herself to look for a mate, but if she does get married, the specter of her antematrimonial experience is constantly before her eyes. After years and years of married life, the husband may divorce her if he finds out that she had "sinned" before she knew him. And unless the husband is a broad-minded man and loves her truly and unless she made a clean breast of everything to him before marriage, her life is continuous torture. But even if the girl escaped pregnancy, the mere finding out that she had an illicit experience deprives her of social standing, or makes her a social outcast and entirely destroys or greatly minimizes her chances of ever marrying and establishing a home of her own. She must remain a lonely wanderer to the end of her days.

The enormous difference in the results of a misstep in a boy and a girl is clearly seen, and for this reason alone, if for no other, s.e.x instruction is of more importance to the girl than it is to the boy.

But there are other important reasons, and one of them is beautifully and truthfully expressed by Byron in his two well-known lines.