Tokology : $b A book for every womanStockham, Alice B. (Alice Bunker)
Science
Tokology : $b A book for every woman
Stockham, Alice B. (Alice Bunker)
Women -- Health and hygiene
Witness the effect of this same theory in the marriage relation! The
man who has been accustomed to gratify his passions promiscuously,
seeks and marries a lovely, virtuous girl. She is not supposed to have
needs in this direction. Neither has she learned that her body is
her own and her soul is her Maker’s. She gives up all _ownership_ of
herself to her husband, and what is the difference between her life
and the life of the public woman? She is sold to one man, and is not
half so well paid. Is it too strong language to say she is the one
_prostitute_ taking the place, for the man, of many, and not like
her, having choice of time or conditions? In consequence she not only
suffers physically, but feels disgraced and outraged to the depths of
her soul.
She is liable to a chance maternity and the _unwelcome_ child is
deprived of physical vigor, and may be endowed with lustful passions
and morbid appetites, if he does not indeed curse his own existence.
At the close of one of my health _conversations_ after speaking upon
this subject, a lady tremblingly, but touchingly, gave her experience.
She said: “Ladies, when I was married two years I was the mother of
a puny, sickly baby; it had required incessant care and watching to
keep it alive. When it was only seven months old, to my surprise,
astonishment and horror, I felt _quickening_, and for the first time,
I knew I was pregnant again. I was abased, humiliated. The sense of
degradation that filled my soul, cannot be described. What had been
done? The babe that was born and the babe that was unborn were robbed
of their just inheritance. Remorsefully and tearfully I told my mother.
She says: ‘Why child, you should not grieve; don’t you know your
children are legitimate?’ My whole being arose in protest; I stamped
my foot and almost screamed; ‘Although my husband is the father of my
children, they are not legitimate. No man-made laws, nor priestly rites
can ever make an act legitimate that deprives innocent children of
their right to life and health.’ With sobs and moans, reaction came and
I fainted in her arms. What was the sequel? Two years later both of
these children after a brief existence lay in the ‘city of the dead,’
and until my husband and I learned _the law_ we could not have children
to live.”
Parties holding the _second theory_ claim:
That coition is a love act.
That it should never occur except when there is mutual participation on
the part of both man and woman, and should be governed and guarded so
as to control the creative power.
Thus this act is the emblem of love; by it there is a mutual exchange
of subtle elements which gives health and vigor, and more firmly
cements the union.
That if the lives of married people accorded to this theory, the demand
of the man would be no more frequent than that of the woman.
That the husband cannot sustain this relation satisfactorily and
without injury to himself unless there is reciprocation on the part of
the wife.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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