Religion and Lust: or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual DesireWeir, James, Jr.
Religion
Religion and Lust: or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire
Weir, James, Jr.
Sex -- Religious aspects
We have seen that the pronounced advocates and chief promoters of equal
rights are probably viragints--individuals who plainly show that they
are psychically abnormal; furthermore, we have seen that the abnormality
is occasioned by degeneration, either acquired or inherent, in the
individual. Now let us see, if the right of female suffrage were
allowed, what effect it would produce on the present environment of the
woman of to-day, and, if any, what effect this changed environment would
have on the psychical habitudes of the woman of the future. This portion
of the subject will be discussed in Part III of this paper.
III. THE DECADENCE.
It is conceded that man completed his cycle of physical development many
thousands of years ago. Since his evolution from his pithecoid ancestor
the forces of nature have been at work evolving man's psychical being.
Now, man's psychical being is intimately connected with, and dependent
upon, his physical being; therefore it follows that degeneration of his
physical organism will necessarily engender psychical degeneration also.
Hence, if I can prove that woman, by leading a life in which her present
environments are changed, produces physical degeneration, it will
naturally follow that psychical degeneration will also accrue; and,
since one of the invariable results of degeneration, both physical and
psychical, is atavism, the phenomenon of a social revolution in which
the present form of government will be overthrown and a matriarchate
established in its stead, will be not a possibility of the future, but a
probability.
That the leaders of this movement in favor of equal rights look for such
a result, I have not the slightest doubt; for, not many days ago, Susan
B. Anthony stood beside the chair of a circuit judge in one of our
courthouses and, before taking her seat, remarked that there were those
in her audience who doubtless thought "that she was guilty of
presumption and usurpation" (in taking the judge's chair), but that
there would come a day when they would no longer think so!
Statistics show clearly and conclusively that there is an alarming
increase of suicide and insanity among women, and I attribute this
wholly to the already changed environment of our women. As the matter
stands they have already too much liberty. The restraining influences
which formerly made woman peculiarly a housewife have been, in a
measure, removed, and woman mixes freely with the world. Any new duty
added to woman as a member of society would modify her environment to
some extent and call for increased nervous activity. When a duty like
suffrage is added the change in her environment must necessarily be
marked and radical, with great demands for an increased activity. The
right of suffrage would, unquestionably, very materially change the
environment of woman at the present time, and would entail new and
additional desires and emotions which would be other and most exhausting
draughts on her nervous organism.
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