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
“According to the information of De Joux in ‘The Disinherited of Love,’
the number of Urnings in all Europe is about five millions; about 4.5
per cent. of all males in Europe are Urnings, while only 0.1 per cent.
of females are Urningins. A malady therefore--if malady it should be
called--which is so widespread certainly demands our deepest interest;
and it is strange that it is only since the ’70’s that this subject has
been discussed in scientific literature.
“It is owing to this ignorance that the public mind has been
dominated, and still is dominated, by the prejudice, that psychical
hermaphroditism and sex-inversion are nothing but crimes, wilful crimes,
whereas they proceed necessarily out of the inborn nature of such
individuals.”--NORBERT GRABOWSKY, “Die verkehrte Geschlechtsempfindung,”
p. 16. Leipzig, 1894.
Dr. HIRSCHFELD, in his “Statistischen Untersuchunge über den
Prozentensatz der Homosexuellen,” gives the result of various statistical
investigations on this subject; and their remarkable agreement enables
him to speak with some confidence. He says (p. 41), “Now we _know_
that we must reckon the numbers of those who vary from the normal,
not by fractions of thousands but by fractions of hundreds. The fact
that, as a result of these circular enquiries and commissions about the
same figure has emerged (for the proportion of exclusively homosexual
persons), namely, a figure in the neighbourhood of 1½ per cent.--this
extraordinary agreement cannot possibly be a chance, but must rest on a
law--a law of nature--namely, that only 90 to 95 per cent. of mankind
are normally sexual by birth; that about 1½ to 2 per cent. are born pure
homosexuals (say about 1,000,000 in Germany); and that between the two
classes there remain some 4 per cent. who are bisexual by nature.”
And again (p. 60), “But what do these figures show? They show that of
100,000 inhabitants on the average only 94,600 are sexually normal,
while 5,400 vary from the normal. Of these latter 1,500 are exclusively
homosexual, and 3,900 bisexual. While of these last again 700 are
_predominantly_ homosexual; so that of 100,000 Germans, 2,200 (or 2.2
per cent.) are either exclusively or predominantly homosexual--making
1,200,000 for the whole German Fatherland.”
“Sexual inversion has usually been regarded as psycho-pathological, as a
symptom of degeneration; and those who exhibit it have been considered
as physically unfit. This view, however, is falling into disrepute,
especially as Krafft-Ebing, its principal champion, abandoned it in the
later editions of his work. None the less, it is not generally recognised
that sexual inverts may be otherwise perfectly healthy, and with regard
to other social matters quite normal. When they have been asked if they
would have wished matters to be different with them in this respect,
they almost invariably answer in the negative.”--O. WEININGER, “Sex and
Character,” ch. iv. Heinemann, London, 1906.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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