Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2: Sexual InversionEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2: Sexual Inversion
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
Homosexual relationships are also a cause of suicide among women.
Such a case was reported in Massachusetts early in 1901. A girl
of 21 had been tended during a period of nervous prostration,
apparently of hysterical nature, by a friend and neighbor,
fourteen years her senior, married and having children. An
intimate friendship grew up, equally ardent on both sides. The
mother of the younger woman and the husband of the other took
measures to put a stop to the intimacy, and the girl was sent
away to a distant city; stolen interviews, however, still
occurred. Finally, when the obstacles became insurmountable, the
younger woman bought a revolver and deliberately shot herself in
the temple, in presence of her mother, dying immediately. Though
sometimes thought to act rather strangely, she was a great
favorite with all, handsome, very athletic, fond of all outdoor
sports, an energetic religious worker, possessing a fine voice,
and was an active member of many clubs and societies. The older
woman belonged to an aristocratic family and was loved and
respected by all. In another case in New York in 1905 a retired
sailor, "Captain John Weed," who had commanded transatlantic
vessels for many years, was admitted to a Home for old sailors
and shortly after became ill and despondent, and cut his throat.
It was then found that "Captain Weed" was really a woman. I am
informed that the old sailor's despondency and suicide were due
to enforced separation from a female companion.
The infatuation of young girls for actresses and other prominent
women may occasionally lead to suicide. Thus in Philadelphia, a
few years ago, a girl of 19, belonging to a very wealthy family,
beautiful and highly educated, acquired an absorbing infatuation
for Miss Mary Garden, the _prima donna_, with whom she had no
personal acquaintance. The young girl would kneel in worship
before the singer's portrait, and studied hairdressing and
manicuring in the hope of becoming Miss Garden's maid. When she
realized that her dream was hopeless she shot herself with a
revolver. (Cases more or less resembling those here brought
forward occur from time to time in all parts of the civilized
world. Reports, mostly from current newspapers, of such cases, as
well as of simple transvestism, or Eonism, in both women and men,
will be found in the publications of the Berlin
Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitee: the _Monatsberichte_ up to
1909, then in the _Vierteljahrsberichte_, and from 1913 onward in
the _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_.)
Yet, until recently, comparatively little has been known of sexual
inversion in women. Even so lately as 1901 (after the publication of the
first edition of the present Study), Krafft-Ebing wrote that scarcely
fifty cases had been recorded. The chief monographs devoted but little
space to women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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