Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German EditionWeininger, Otto
Philosophy
Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
Weininger, Otto
Character; Sex; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics
Very deep-seated differences are linked with what I have been
describing. The mother-woman craves for respectability in the man, not
because she grasps its value as an idea, but because it is the supporter
of the life of the world. She herself works, and is not idle like the
prostitute; she is filled with care for the future, and so requires from
the man a corresponding practical responsibility, and will not seduce
him to pleasure. The prostitute, on the other hand, is most attracted by
a careless, idle, dissipated man. A man that has lost self-restraint
repels the mother-woman, is attractive to the prostitute. There are
women who are dissatisfied with a son that is idle at school; there are
others who encourage him. The diligent boy pleases the mother-woman, the
idle and careless boy wins approval from the prostitute type. This
distinction reaches high up amongst the respectable classes of society,
but a salient example of it is seen in the fact that the “bullies” loved
by women of the streets are usually criminals. The souteneur is always a
criminal, a thief, a fraudulent person, or sometimes even a murderer.
I am almost on the point of saying that, however little woman is to be
regarded as immoral (she is only non-moral), prostitution stands in some
deep relation with crime, whilst motherhood is equally bound with the
opposite tendency. We must avoid regarding the prostitute as the female
analogue of the criminal; women, as I have already pointed out, are not
criminals; they are too low in the moral scale for that designation.
None the less, there is a constant connection between the prostitute
type and crime. The great courtesan is comparable with that great
criminal, the conqueror, and readily enters into actual relations with
him; the petty courtesan entertains the thief and the pickpocket. The
mother type is in fact the guardian of the life of the world, the
prostitute type is its enemy. But just as the mother is in harmony, not
with the soul but with the body, so the prostitute is no diabolic
destroyer of the idea, but only a corrupter of empirical phenomena.
Physical life and physical death, both of which are in intimate
connection with the sexual act, are displayed by the woman in her two
capacities of mother and prostitute.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account