Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the familyKnight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Science
Taboo and genetics : $b A study of the biological, sociological and psychological foundation of the family
Knight, Melvin M. (Melvin Moses)
Sex (Biology); Sex (Psychology); Taboo; Women
Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of
eugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusing
marriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferior
and average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As a
therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a
new method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of
love; The solution of the conflict between individual and group
interests.
From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situation
of human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimental
aspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined by
irrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness.
These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh the
more rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks of
personal beauty around which romantic love centres and which therefore
play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative of
physical and mental health that will insure the production of sound
offspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as
feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Grecian
type of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals
of "the lady," the demand is rather for a delicate and fragile
prettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity.
The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in the
midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger of
losing her erotic attraction.
Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easily
discovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athletic
heroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receiving
the offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course or
the summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development of
the eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize the
feminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at the
models of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirts
plainly reveals.
Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotional
reaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent
ideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is also
entirely a matter of chance whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating.
Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus upon a person who does
not conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected
upon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath a
neurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to the
offspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken into
consideration in making the choice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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