Sex instruction; Women social reformers -- United States -- Biography
The nervous system also undergoes great changes at this age, and the
growing girl is subject to various forms of nervous affections,
stammering, jerking, restlessness, etc. These are symptoms which, if
allowed to continue unattended, may develop into permanent disorders. In
short, the adolescent girl needs constant watchfulness and attention.
GIRLHOOD—PART II.
The organs of sense are also awakened to activity in the adolescent
girl. The sense of smell becomes extremely acute; offensive odors are
=very= offensive, while pleasant ones are greatly enjoyed and desired.
Thus we find perfumes used lavishly in girlhood, and alas! too often
indiscriminately.
With the development of the other senses the sense of color is awakened.
The girl, who, yesterday allowed her elders to choose clothing and
colors for her, at this time becomes most exacting in her own selection
of ribbons and dresses. Sunsets and forests have become beautiful, and
often the girl with artistic talent decides at this age to choose her
life work. Laces, jewelry, trinkets, ribbons and shop windows become her
world. Indeed, so great is her desire to possess ornaments that she has
been known to resort to petty thievery, when unable to avail herself of
the means to obtain them otherwise. Certain authorities, who have made
vice and kindred subjects a study, assert that it is this great desire
for trinkets, silk petticoats, etc., which induces girls to sell their
bodies and enter prostitution. Such authorities fail to see the economic
significance of these unsatisfied desires. There is something wrong with
a system of society which allows its women to sell their bodies for such
trifles, the desire for which is part of their natural development.
Is flesh and blood and the virtue of the mothers of the future so cheap
in this land of plenty that it can be sacrificed for such passing whims?
It is impossible to suppress that inherent and natural desire in the
adolescent girl to adorn and beautify herself. She must and will do it.
The girl of wealth, of the so-called upper class, can beautify herself
and adorn her body with the costliest jewels and fabrics. All eyes are
upon her in admiration of her exquisite taste and attractive appearance.
Yet this same manifestation in a working girl is condemned. Any attempt
on the part of a working girl to give expression to the desire to be
beautiful is considered “dangerous to her welfare”; is spoken of as her
“awful desire for trinkets.”
The women of wealth set certain standards for themselves and their
class, but separate and distinct standards for the women of the working
class. It is about time the reformers and philanthropists do something
other than deal with the symptoms of the great social unrest, and some
of the latest reports of vice investigators have been compelled to face
some of the most fundamental causes, and acknowledged these causes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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