Motherhood and the Relationships of the SexesHartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Philosophy
Motherhood and the Relationships of the Sexes
Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Mothers; Sex; Women -- Social and moral questions
It is, I think, very necessary to distinguish between sex-passion and
the desire for a child; they are not the same, though, of course, the
one impulse may be, and is as a rule, involved in the other. We need
more clear thinking and frank speaking on the two elements in the
reproductive act. This is a human problem, one that belongs to mankind
alone; moreover, it has greatly increased among civilised races, and
is likely to become more, and not less, difficult with the advance
of time. Animals have sex-passion, which is neither love as we feel
it nor lust; with them, as also in some degree with most primitive
peoples, this passion is seasonal, not always active, and is more or
less closely connected with the obtaining of offspring. Far different
and much more complicated are the conditions of love among us to-day.
Men and women have a continuous desire for love, with sex-passion as
its outward expression and children for its efflorescence. They also
have lust, which is a comparatively new expression,[81] at least,
that is my opinion as to what is true of the majority among us. I do
not use the word “lust” here in any sense of contempt, but to express
strong and conscious sex-passion, seeking its own satisfaction without
connection with any possible result in a child. Then at a much lower
level there is lust-desire without love, or clothed merely in a rootless
ephemeral mimicry of passion—a libertinage having no law but curiosity
in self-indulgence. And all passion is a very different thing from the
serene considerations which, according to the Prayer Book, cause men and
women to marry.
Now, it is because of what sex-passion has come to be among us—its
variety in desire and in result—that we are far more remote than
pre-human and primitive parents from having marriage and parenthood
settled so as to meet the desires and sex-needs of every one, as would
be easily possible if the reproductive act could be regarded as being
solely, or even chiefly, connected with the birth of children.
I do not know if I have made my meaning perfectly clear, but what I wish
to insist upon is this: It is necessary in all questions and judgments
connected with marriage to consider the presence or absence in the
partners of the wish to produce and possess a child. I propose to deal
briefly with this question in relation to the character of women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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