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
The general direction of the investigation is easy to understand from
what has already been stated. A woman’s demand for emancipation and her
qualification for it are in direct proportion to the amount of maleness
in her. The idea of emancipation, however, is many-sided, and its
indefiniteness is increased by its association with many practical
customs which have nothing to do with the theory of emancipation. By the
term emancipation of a woman I imply neither her mastery at home nor her
subjection of her husband. I have not in mind the courage which enables
her to go freely by night or by day unaccompanied in public places, or
the disregard of social rules which prohibit bachelor women from
receiving visits from men, or discussing or listening to discussions of
sexual matters. I exclude from my view the desire for economic
independence, the becoming fit for positions in technical schools,
universities and conservatoires or teachers’ institutes. And there may
be many other similar movements associated with the word emancipation
which I do not intend to deal with. Emancipation, as I mean to discuss
it, is not the wish for an outward equality with man, but what is of
real importance in the woman question, the deep-seated craving to
acquire man’s character, to attain his mental and moral freedom, to
reach his real interests and his creative power. I maintain that the
real female element has neither the desire nor the capacity for
emancipation in this sense. All those who are striving for this real
emancipation, all women who are truly famous and are of conspicuous
mental ability, to the first glance of an expert reveal some of the
anatomical characters of the male, some external bodily resemblance to a
man. Those so-called “women” who have been held up to admiration in the
past and present, by the advocates of woman’s rights, as examples of
what women can do, have almost invariably been what I have described as
sexually intermediate forms. The very first of the historical examples,
Sappho herself, has been handed down to us as an example of the sexual
invert, and from her name has been derived the accepted terms for
perverted sexual relations between women. The contents of the second and
third chapter thus at once become important with regard to the woman
question. The characterological material at our disposal with regard to
celebrated and emancipated women is too vague to serve as the
foundation of any satisfactory theory. What is wanted is some principle
which would enable us to determine at what point between male and female
such individuals were placed. My law of sexual affinity is such a
principle. Its application to the facts of homo-sexuality showed that
the woman who attracts and is attracted by other women is herself half
male. Interpreting the historical evidence at our disposal in the light
of this principle, we find that the degree of emancipation and the
proportion of maleness in the composition of a woman are practically
identical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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