The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and WomenCarpenter, Edward
General
The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women
Carpenter, Edward
Homosexuality; Sex
Now in the Urning societies a certain freedom (though not complete,
of course) exists. Underneath the surface of general Society, and
consequently unaffected to any great degree by its laws and customs,
alliances are formed and maintained, or modified or broken, more in
accord with inner need than with outer pressure. Thus it happens that in
these societies there are such opportunities to note and observe human
grouping under conditions of freedom, as do not occur in the ordinary
world. And the results are both interesting and encouraging. As a rule I
think it may be said that the alliances are remarkably permanent. Instead
of the wild “general post” which so many good people seem to expect in
the event of law being relaxed, one finds (except of course in a few
individual cases) that common sense and fidelity and a strong tendency to
permanence prevail. In the ordinary world so far has doubt gone that many
to-day disbelieve in a life-long free marriage. Yet among the Uranians
such a thing is, one may almost say, common and well known; and there are
certainly few among them who do not believe in its possibility.
Great have been the debates, in all times and places, concerning
Jealousy; and as to how far jealousy is natural and instinctive and
universal, and how far it is the product of social opinion and the
property sense, and so on. In ordinary marriage what may be called social
and proprietary jealousy is undoubtedly a very great factor. But this
kind of jealousy hardly appears or operates in the Urning societies. Thus
we have an opportunity in these latter of observing conditions where only
the natural and instinctive jealousy exists. This of course is present
among the Urnings--sometimes rampant and violent, sometimes quiescent
and vanishing almost to _nil_. It seems to depend almost entirely upon
the individual; and we certainly learn that jealousy though frequent and
widespread, is not an absolutely necessary accompaniment of love. There
are cases of Uranians (whether men or women) who, though permanently
allied, do not object to lesser friendships on either side--and there
are cases of very decided objection. And we may conclude that something
the same would be true (is true) of the ordinary Marriage, the property
considerations and the property jealousy being once removed. The tendency
anyhow to establish a dual relation more or less fixed, is seen to be
very strong among the Intermediates, and may be concluded to be equally
strong among the more normal folk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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