The sexual life of woman in its physiological, pathological and hygienic aspectsKisch, E. Heinrich (Enoch Heinrich)
Science
The sexual life of woman in its physiological, pathological and hygienic aspects
Kisch, E. Heinrich (Enoch Heinrich)
Gynecology; Menstruation; Women -- Diseases
With this end in view the sexual life of woman is used as the fulcrum of
the lever, and is withdrawn from the twilight into the open light of
day, or indeed too often into a dazzling and altogether false
illumination. Women writers especially, who have hitherto been
accustomed to delude themselves and the world with sensational
representations of the feminine soul, of feminine modesty, and the
fineness of feminine sensibility in matters sexual, now find their
greatest joy in unveiling themselves and their sisters before the face
of all the world, and in discussing in the plainest language the most
intimate processes of the genital organs. In writings exhibiting but
little good taste, though all the more temperament, they emphasize again
and again one side only of the sexual life, to wit, the sexual impulse,
the force of which is intentionally exaggerated to a high degree, so
that it is described as a mighty current of passion, which may with
great pains be held in check for a season, but must ultimately break
loose, and with devastating rage must overwhelm everything which has
hitherto been regarded as discipline and good morals. Young girls, even,
step down into the arena to take part in the contest concerning the
reform that is to take place in the relations between men and women.
Especially sensational in this connection was _Eine für Viele_. _Aus dem
Tagebuche eines Mädchens von Vera_,[18] a book which, totally ignoring
the biological differentiation of the sexes and their diverse
sociological course of development, goes so far as to insist that from
the man entering upon marriage, as from the woman, sexual purity and
virginity are to be demanded. (The heroine of the book commits suicide
because her lover has in earlier years had experience of sexual
intercourse.)
From a mistaken standpoint other supporters of women’s rights oppose the
ideal method in sex-relations, life-long monogamy, and the ideal of
sexual sensibility, motherhood, and they put forward quite new sexual
pretensions on behalf of women, as belonging to them by natural right.
Upon these pretensions it is the duty of physicians, who truly know and
truly prize womanhood, to pass their judgment, and that judgment, which
will find ample justification in the ensuing descriptions of the
individual phases of the sexual life of woman, is that the modern
movement on behalf of the emancipation of women goes much too far. We do
not, however, mean to imply that this movement is totally unjustified.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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