Lysistrata : $b or, Woman's future and future womanLudovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario)
Philosophy
Lysistrata : $b or, Woman's future and future woman
Ludovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario)
Women; Women -- Social and moral questions
The first values to be destroyed will be the body-despising values, and
everything connected with them. We shall no longer condone ugliness or
physiological depravity either in ourselves or in others. The fact that
some bodily defect cannot be helped by the man who reveals it does not
make him any the more desirable. We shall remember that, strictly
speaking, moral depravity is no more voluntary than physiological
depravity; and, since we refuse to accept the excuse _mea non culpa_ for
moral depravity, it is only logical and right to reject that same excuse
for bodily depravity. Why is it important not to accept this excuse for
bodily depravity? Because to condone is to overlook, to condone is to
accept, and, above all, to condone is to become accustomed to. Where
physiological depravity is a matter of custom, however, it very soon
ceases, as we know, to be regarded as depravity; and mating,
love-making, and procreation quickly become possible in spite of it.
That is why it is more important to alter our values than to promote
Eugenic legislation. For, if our values are altered and physiological
depravity is no longer condoned, Eugenic legislation will become
unnecessary, and will be anticipated by the taste of the people;
whereas, if our body-despising values remain intact, Eugenic legislation
will always be fighting an up-hill fight.
The most difficult feature connected with the task of suppressing our
body-despising values is the duty it enjoins on each individual not only
of condemning his neighbour but also of condemning himself, if he is
physiologically depraved; but this each of us will learn to do. We shall
feel the shame of bodily defects once more, and strive unremittingly to
recover bodies complete anatomically beautiful, and no longer defective
functionally. Even at the risk of great immediate suffering, we shall
learn to eschew artificial aids of all kinds, and regard it as beneath
our dignity to use them. Then, since very little is beyond the wit of
man, other means will be found, and we shall recover our former bodily
splendour.
We must bear in mind, however, that we are almost at the eleventh hour;
that to-morrow may be too late; and that, if we wish to spare ourselves
the great discovery of the desolate women-workers of the previous
chapter, there is no time to lose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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