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
In the story of the _Beauty and the Beast_ we have material out of which
part of the great sex difficulty can be explained. In the fairy story,
the husband before marriage looks like a beast, after marriage he becomes
a prince. In real life, the story is inverted. There is a deluding force
in the mere skin and limbs of those of the opposite sex at the time
when maturity is reached which may give princely attributes to those
who would be seen as beasts at other times. The prince seen as a beast
after marriage is a tragedy into which the romantic, ignorant girl must
beware of drifting. The man who most boldly plays up to the romantic part
expected of him—reciprocating to the perhaps unconscious encouragement
of the girl—is not the man who will be the most agreeable to live with.
I believe there is real danger in the sentimental view of love that is
common to most girls. They do not know the poverty of feeling that loudly
expressed sentiment may hide. The defect of many unfaithful lovers is not
sensuality, but sentimentality. The lower types of lovers are strangely,
almost incredibly, sentimental. Such teaching as this about the danger of
an over-romantic view of love will not safeguard from all evils, but it
will at least give knowledge that may protect in some time of peril.
The problem of the wife infected by a husband, who becomes diseased
after marriage, is one that is different and more complicated. I have
spoken already of the urgent need on the part of the wife that she should
feel pity for the husband, even if she does this as the only means of
protecting herself and her children. Without this pity, men will not dare
to tell the truth. And even against their judgment and their wish, they
will have sexual intercourse with their wives to prevent suspicion.
There is a further question that must be placed before women, and it is
necessary for me to speak plainly. There is a question which I would ask
the wife whose husband has become infected since marriage with one or
other of the two forms of venereal disease: What is it that sends the man
who is married to seek sexual satisfaction with the prostitute? It will
not do to dismiss this question with the old, unreasoning condemnation
of the male and his brute passions. In the case of the man of average
decency, it is not deliberate choice that first sends him to dissipation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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