Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6: Sex in Relation to SocietyEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6: Sex in Relation to Society
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
There can be no doubt that this more humane conception of
prostitution is to-day beginning to be realized in the actual
civilized life of Europe. Thus in writing of prostitution in
Paris, Dr. Robert Michels ("Erotische Streifzüge,"
_Mutterschutz_, 1906, Heft 9, p. 368) remarks: "While in Germany
the prostitute is generally considered as an 'outcast' creature,
and treated accordingly, an instrument of masculine lust to be
used and thrown away, and whom one would under no circumstances
recognize in public, in France the prostitute plays in many
respects the part which once give significance and fame to the
_hetairæ_ of Athens." And after describing the consideration and
respect which the Parisian prostitute is often able to require of
her friends, and the non-sexual relation of comradeship which she
can enter into with other men, the writer continues: "A girl who
certainly yields herself for money, but by no means for the first
comer's money, and who, in addition to her 'business friends,'
feels the need of, so to say, non-sexual companions with whom she
can associate in a free comrade-like way, and by whom she is
treated and valued as a free human being, is not wholly lost for
the moral worth of humanity." All prostitution is bad, Michels
concludes, but we should have reason to congratulate ourselves if
love-relationships of this Parisian species represented the
lowest known form of extra-conjugal sexuality. (As bearing on the
relative consideration accorded to prostitutes I may mention that
a Paris prostitute remarked to a friend of mine that Englishmen
would ask her questions which no Frenchman would venture to ask.)
It is not, however, only in Paris, although here more markedly
and prominently, that this humanizing change in prostitution is
beginning to make itself felt. It is manifested, for instance, in
the greater openness of a man's sexual life. "While he formerly
slinked into a brothel in a remote street," Dr. Willy Hellpach
remarks (_Nervosität und Kultur_, p. 169), "he now walks abroad
with his 'liaison,' visiting the theatres and cafés, without
indeed any anxiety to meet his acquaintances, but with no
embarrassment on that point. The thing is becoming more
commonplace, more--natural." It is also, Hellpach proceeds to
point out, thus becoming more moral also, and much unwholesome
prudery and pruriency is being done away with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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