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 also possible that such friendship-contracts might, under present
disastrous conditions, be made by those who are unsuitably mated and yet
are unable, or do not wish, to sever the bond between them, with some
other partner they could love. Such contracts would open up possibilities
of honourable partnerships to many who must otherwise suffer from
enforced sexual abstinence or be driven into shameful and secret unions.
By this means a solution might be found for conditions of dishonour in
our midst that we all know to be there—dishonour that, as far as I am
able to see, is likely to be increased, and not lessened, in the near
future by the conditions left by war. Moreover, prostitution, and also
the diseases so closely connected with prostitution, would be greatly
lessened, though I do not think that sexual sins would cease. There will
always be for a very long time men and women who will be attracted to
wild-love. This we have to recognise. Men would not, however, be driven
to buy sexual relief.[91]
We have got, I am certain, to recognise that our form of permanent
marriage—the monogamous union—cannot meet the sex-needs of all people. To
assert that it can do this is to close our eyes to the facts we all know
to exist. The extending of the opportunities of honourable love must be
faced before we can hope for more moral conditions in marriage. I must
affirm again how necessary, in my opinion, is some kind of fixed public
recognition for every form of sexual relationship between a man and a
woman, so that there may be some accepted standard of conduct for the
partners entering into them.
May not something be done now, when we are being forced to consider these
questions, to make some such recognition possible? Partnerships other
than marriage have had a place as a recognised and guarded institution in
many older and more primitive societies, and it may be, as I have tried
to show, that the conditions brought upon us after the World War may act
in forcing upon us a similar acceptance.
I believe that, in face of the many past disorders in our sexual
conduct, such a change would work for good and not for evil; that it
would not destroy marriage, but might re-establish its sanctity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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