,,our ,,changing ,,morality ,a ,,symposium ,,edited ,,by ,,freda ,,kirchwey ,,albert ,,charles ,,boni ,,new ,,york #aibd ,,copyright1 #aibd1 ,,by ,,albert ,,charles ,,boni1 ,,inc4 ,printed in the ,united ,states of ,america by ,j4 ,j4 ,,little ,,and ,,ives ,,company1 ,,new ,,york ,,introduction ,,by ,,freda ,,kirchwey ,the subject of sex has been treated in this generation with a strange1 rather panic-stricken lack of balance4 ,obscenity hawks its old wares at one end of the road and dogmatic piety shouts warnings at the other--while between is chaos4 ,and the chaos extends beyond ideas and talk1 beyond novels and scenarios and ,sunday feature stories1 into the realm of actual conduct4 ,religion has indeed found substantial matter for its words of caution and disapproval3 never in recent generations have human beings so floundered about outside the ropes of social and religious sanctions4 ,but while ,john ,roach ,straton and ,billy ,sunday point a pleasant way toward hell1 while sensationalism finds in new manners of life subject for five-inch headlines1 and while modern novelists make their modern characters stumble through pages of inner conflict to ends of darkness and desperation1 a few people are at work quietly sorting out the elements of chaos and holding fragments of conduct up in the sun and air to find what they really are made of4 ,no one seeks to argue chaos away4 ,certainly ,mr4 ,straton and ,mr4 ,sunday are right3 ,men and women are ignoring old laws4 ,in their relations with each other they are living according to tangled1 conflicting codes4 ,remnants of early admonitions and relationships1 the dictates of custom1 the behavior of their friends1 their own tastes and desires1 elusive dreams of a loveliness not provided for by rules--all these are scrambling to fill the gap that was left when ,right and ,wrong finally followed the other absolute monarchs to an empty1 nominal existence somewhere in exile4 ,but the traditional1 ministerial method with chaos was not ,jehovah's method4 ,he brought order and light into the world2 but the way of our current moralists has been to clamp down the hatches even though 8sin0 bubbled beneath4 ,a few courageous1 matter-of-fact glances into the depths have been embodied in the articles in this volume4 ,the men and women who have written them have approached the subject variously2 the fragments they have brought up to examine do not necessarily fit together4 ,but none of these writers is afraid to saunter up to the edge and see what moral disorder looks like4 ,some of them find it thoroughly disagreeable4 ,they believe that old laws were born of old desires and find their sanctions in the emotions of men4 ,they seek for new and rational ways back to the sort of stability provided by the traditional relationships of men and women4 ,others find in contemporary manners merely the disorder incident to reconstruction2 they find there tentative beginnings rather than ruinous endings4 ,they see chaos as an interesting laboratory1 filled with strange ferments and the pungent odors of new compounds4 ,none of these writers offers dogmatic conclusions--and in this they differ delightfully from our most popular novelists and preachers4 ,they present facts1 they analyze and interpret2 they suggest directions1 they even prophesy4 ,but they never announce or warn or reprove4 ,when these chapters first appeared as articles in ,the ,nation it became evident that this exercise of thought was itself commonly held to be a simple blasphemy4 ,letters from readers came in scores charging the articles with the sin of intelligence where only faith and conformity were tolerable4 ,dogma is so deep in the bone of even the more enlightened and adult members of our modern world that the most modest doubt regarding the success of monogamy or the virtue of chastity becomes in some way an insult to ,moses or ,saint ,paul4 ,it is interesting to see how many of the authors of this group of articles find a connection between the changing standards of sex behavior and the increasing freedom of women4 ,are women forcing this change8 ,or does freedom itself make change inevitable8 ,possibly only the woman in the isolation of the home is able to sustain the double load of her own virtue and her husband's ideals4 ,out in the world1 in contact and competition with men1 she is forced to discriminate2 questions are thrust upon her4 ,the old rules fail to work2 bewildering inconsistencies confront her4 ,things that were sure become unsure4 ,and slowly1 clumsily1 she is trying to construct a way out to a new sort of certainty in life2 she is seeking something to take the place of the burden of solemn ideals and reverential attitudes that rolled off her shoulders when she emerged4 ,that some such process may be going on is hinted at in more than one of these articles4 ,certainly1 of the factors involved in modern sex relations1 women and economic conditions are the two that have suffered the most revolutionary change2 and men's morals must largely shape themselves to the patterns laid down by these two masters of life4 ,much has been said about sex--and everything remains to be said4 ,largely1 new conclusions will be reached through new processes of living4 ,people will act--and then a new code will grow up4 ,but along the way guidance and interpretation are deeply needed1 if only to take the place of the pious imprecations of those who fear life and hate the dangers and uncertainties of thought and emotion4 ,,contents ,,page ,,introduction v ,by ,freda ,kirchwey ,,styles ,,in ,,ethics #c ,by ,bertrand ,russell ,,modern ,,marriage #ai ,by ,arthur ,garfield ,hays ,,changes ,,in ,,sex ,,relations #cg ,by ,elsie ,clews ,parsons ,,toward ,,monogamy #ec ,by ,charlotte ,perkins ,gilman ,,women--,,free ,,for ,,what8 #fi ,by ,edwin ,muir ,,virtue ,,and ,,women #he ,by ,isabel ,leavenworth ,,where ,,are ,,the ,,female ,,geniuses8 #ajg ,by ,sylvia ,kopald ,,man ,,and ,,woman ,,as ,,creators #abi ,by ,alexander ,goldenweiser ,,dominant ,,sexes #adg ,by ,m4 ,vaerting ,,modern ,,love ,,and ,,modern ,,fiction #afg ,by ,j4 ,w4 ,krutch ,,can ,,men ,,and ,,women ,,be ,,friends8 #ahc ,by ,floyd ,dell ,,love ,,and ,,marriage #aig ,by ,ludwig ,lewisohn ,,communist ,,puritans #bjg ,by ,louis ,fischer ,,stereotypes #bai ,by ,florence ,guy ,seabury ,,women ,,and ,,the ,,new ,,morality #bce ,by ,beatrice ,m4 ,hinkle ,styles in ,ethics ,by ,bertrand ,russell ,hon4 ,bertrand ,arthur ,william ,russell is a mathematician1 writer1 and lecturer on international affairs and problems of government4 ,born at ,trellech1 ,england1 ,may #ahth1 #ahgb4 ,f4,r4,s4 #aijh2 ,late ,lecturer and ,fellow ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,heir presumptive to #bnd ,earl ,russell4 ,author of 8,german ,social ,democracy10 #ahif2 8,essay on the ,foundation of ,geometry10 #ahig2 8,philosophy of ,leibnitz10 #aijj2 8,principles of ,mathematics10 #aijc2 with ,d4 ,a4 ,n4 ,whitehead1 8,principia ,mathematica10 #aiaj2 8,our ,knowledge of the ,external ,world as a ,field for ,scientific ,method in ,philosophy10 #aiad2 8,principles of ,social ,reconstruction10 #aiag2 8,why ,men ,fight10 #aiag2 8,mysticism and ,logic10 #aiah2 8,roads to ,freedom10 #aiah2 8,introduction to ,mathematical ,philosophy10 #aiai2 8,the ,practice and ,theory of ,bolshevism10 #aibj2 8,the ,analysis of the ,mind10 #aiba2 8,the ,problem of ,china10 #aibb2 8,the ,a4 ,b4 ,c4 of ,atoms10 #aibc2 8,icarus1 or the ,future of ,science10 #aibd4 ,,our ,,changing ,,morality ,,styles ,,in ,,ethics ,,by ,,bertrand ,,russell ,in all ages and nations positive morality has consisted almost wholly of prohibitions of various classes of actions1 with the addition of a small number of commands to perform certain other actions4 ,the ,jews1 for example1 prohibited murder and theft1 adultery and incest1 the eating of pork and seething the kid in its mother's milk4 ,to us the last two precepts may seem less important than the others1 but religious ,jews have observed them far more scrupulously than what seem to us fundamental principles of morality4 ,south ,sea ,islanders could imagine nothing more utterly wicked than eating out of a vessel reserved for the use of the chief4 ,my friend ,dr4 ,brogan made a statistical investigation into the ethical valuations of undergraduates in certain ,american colleges4 ,most considered ,sabbath-breaking more wicked than lying1 and extra-conjugal sexual relations more wicked than murder4 ,the ,japanese consider disobedience to parents the most atrocious of crimes4 ,i was once at a charming spot on the outskirts of ,kioto with several ,japanese socialists1 men who were among the most advanced thinkers in the country4 ,they told me that a certain well beside which we were standing was a favorite spot for suicides1 which were very frequent4 ,when ,i asked why so many occurred they replied that most were those of young people in love whose parents had forbidden them to marry4 ,to my suggestion that perhaps it would be better if parents had less power they all returned an emphatic negative4 ,to ,dr4 ,brogan's undergraduates this power of ,japanese parents to forbid love would seem monstrous1 but the similar power of husbands or wives would seem a matter of course4 ,neither they nor the ,japanese would examine the question rationally2 both would decide unthinkingly on the basis of moral precepts learned in youth4 ,when we study in the works of anthropologists the moral precepts which men have considered binding in different times and places we find the most bewildering variety4 ,it is quite obvious to any modern reader that most of these customs are absurd4 ,the ,aztecs held that it was a duty to sacrifice and eat enemies captured in war1 since otherwise the light of the sun would go out4 ,the ,book of ,leviticus enjoins that when a married man dies without children his brother shall marry the widow1 and the first son born shall count as the dead man's son4 ,the ,romans1 the ,chinese1 and many other nations secured a similar result by adoption4 ,this custom originated in ancestor-worship2 it was thought that the ghost would make himself a nuisance unless he had descendants 7real or putative7 to worship him4 ,in ,india the remarriage of widows is traditionally considered something too horrible to contemplate4 ,many primitive races feel horror at the thought of marrying any one belonging to one's own totem1 though there may be only the most distant blood-relationship4 ,after studying these various customs it begins at last to occur to the reader that possibly the customs of his own age and nation are not eternal1 divine ordinances1 but are susceptible of change1 and even1 in some respects1 of improvement4 ,books such as ,westermarck's 8,history of ,human ,marriage0 or ,mller-,lyer's 8,phasen der ,liebe10 which relate in a scientific spirit the marriage customs that have existed and the reasons which have led to their growth and decay1 produce evidence which must convince any rational mind that our own customs are sure to change and that there is no reason to expect a change to be harmful4 ,it thus becomes impossible to cling to the position of many who are earnest advocates of political reform and yet hold that reform in our moral precepts is not needed4 ,moral precepts1 like everything else1 can be improved1 and the true reformer will be as open-minded in regard to them as in regard to other matters4 ,mller-,lyer1 from the point of view of family institutions1 divides the history of civilization into three periods--the clan period1 the family period1 and the personal period4 ,of these the last is only now beginning2 the other two are each divided into three stages--early1 middle1 and late4 ,he shows that sexual and family ethics have at all times been dominated by economic considerations2 hunting1 pastoral1 agricultural1 and industrial tribes or nations have each their own special kinds of institutions4 ,economic causes determine whether a tribe will practice polygamy1 polyandry1 group marriage1 or monogamy1 and whether monogamy will be lifelong or dissoluble4 ,whatever the prevailing practice in a tribe it is thought to be the only one compatible with virtue1 and all departures from it are regarded with moral horror4 ,owing to the force of custom it may take a long time for institutions to adapt themselves to economic circumstances2 the process of adaptation may take centuries4 ,christian sexual ethics1 according to this author1 belong to the middle-family period2 the personal period1 now beginning1 has not yet been embodied in the laws of most ,christian countries1 and even the late-family period1 since it admits divorce under certain circumstances1 involves an ethic to which the church is usually opposed4 ,mller-,lyer suggests a general law to the effect that where the state is strong the family is weak and the position of women is good1 whereas where the state is weak the family is strong and the position of women is bad4 ,it is of course obvious that where the family is strong the position of women must be bad1 and vice versa1 but the connection of these with the strength or weakness of the state is less obvious1 though probably in the main no less true4 ,traditional ,china and ,japan afforded good instances4 ,in both the state was much weaker than in modern ,europe1 the family much stronger1 and the position of women much worse4 ,it is true that in modern ,japan the state is very strong1 yet the family also is strong and the position of women is bad2 but this is a transitional condition4 ,the whole tendency in ,japan is for the family to grow weaker and the position of women to grow better4 ,this tendency encounters grave difficulties4 ,i met in ,japan only one woman who appeared to be what we should consider emancipated in the ,west--she was charming1 beautiful1 high-minded1 and prepared to make any sacrifice for her principles4 ,after the earthquake in ,tokio the officer in charge of the forces concerned in keeping order in the district where she lived seized her and the man with whom she lived in a free union and her twelve-year-old nephew1 whom he believed to be her son2 he took them to the police station and there murdered them by slow strangulation1 taking about ten minutes over each except the boy4 ,in his account of the matter he stated that he had not had much difficulty with the boy1 because he had succeeded in making friends with him on the way to the police station4 ,the boy was an ,american citizen4 ,at the funeral1 the remains of all three were seized by armed reactionaries and destroyed1 with the passive acquiescence of the police4 ,the question whether the murderer deserved well of his country is now set in schools1 half the children answering affirmatively4 ,we have here a dramatic confrontation of middle-family ethics with personal ethics4 ,the officer's views were those of feudalism1 which is a middle-family system2 his victims' views were those of the nascent personal period4 ,the ,japanese state1 which belongs to the late-family period1 disapproved of both4 ,the middle-family system involves cruelty and persecution4 ,the indissolubility of marriage results in appalling misery for the wives of drunkards1 sadists1 and brutes of all kinds1 as well as great unhappiness for many men and the unedifying spectacle of daily quarrels for the unfortunate children of ill-assorted couples4 ,it involves also an immense amount of prostitution1 with its inevitable consequence of widespread venereal disease4 ,it makes marriage1 in most cases1 a matter of financial bargain between parents1 and virtually proscribes love4 ,it considers sexual intercourse always justifiable within marriage1 even if no mutual affection exists4 ,it is impossible to be too thankful that this system is nearly extinct in the ,western nations 7except ,france74 ,but it is foolish to pretend that this ideal held by the ,catholic church and in some degree by most ,protestant churches is a lofty one4 ,it is intolerant1 gross1 cruel1 and hostile to all the best potentialities of human nature4 ,nothing is gained by continuing to pay lip-service to this musty ,moloch4 ,the ,american attitude on marriage is curious4 ,america1 in the main1 does not object to easy divorce laws1 and is tolerant of those who avail themselves of them4 ,but it holds that those who live in countries where divorce is difficult or impossible ought to submit to hardships from which ,americans are exempt1 and deserve to be held up to obloquy if they do not do so4 ,an interesting example of this attitude was afforded by the treatment of ,gorki when he visited the ,united ,states4 ,there are two different lines of argument by which it is possible to attack the general belief that there are universal absolute rules of moral conduct1 and that any one who infringes them is wicked4 ,one line of argument emerges from the anthropological facts which we have already considered4 ,broadly speaking the views of the average man on sexual ethics are those appropriate to the economic system existing in the time of his great-grandfather4 ,morality has varied as economic systems have varied1 lagging always about three generations behind4 ,as soon as people realize this they find it impossible to suppose that the particular brand of marriage customs prevailing in their own age and nation represents eternal verities1 whereas all earlier and later marriage customs1 and all those prevailing in other latitudes and longitudes1 are vicious and degraded4 ,this shows that we ought to be prepared for changes in marriage customs1 but does not tell us what changes we ought to desire4 ,the second line of argument is more positive and more important4 ,popular morality--including that of the churches1 though not that of the great mystics--lays down rules of conduct rather than ends of life4 ,the morality that ought to exist would lay down ends of life rather than rules of conduct4 ,christ says3 8,thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself02 this lays down one of the ends of life4 ,the ,decalogue says3 8,remember that thou keep holy the ,sabbath ,day02 this lays down a rule of action4 ,christ's conduct to the woman taken in adultery showed the conflict between love and moral rules4 ,all his priests1 down to our own day1 have gone directly contrary to his teachings on this point1 and have shown themselves invariably willing to cast the first stone4 ,the belief in the importance of rules of conduct is superstitious2 what is important is to care for good ends4 ,a good man is a man who cares for the happiness of his relations and friends1 and1 if possible1 for that of mankind in general1 or1 again1 a man who cares for art and science4 ,whether such a man obeys the moral rules laid down by the ,jews thousands of years ago is quite unimportant4 ,moreover a man may obey all these rules and yet be extremely bad4 ,let us take some illustrations4 ,i have a friend1 a high-minded man1 who has taken part in arduous and dangerous enterprises of great public importance and is almost unbelievably kind in all his private relations4 ,this man has a wife who is a dipsomaniac1 who has become imbecile1 and has to be kept in an institution4 ,she cannot divorce him because she is imbecile2 he cannot divorce her because she affords him no ground for divorce4 ,he does not consider himself morally bound to her and is therefore1 from a conventional point of view1 a wicked man4 ,on the other hand a man who is perpetually drunk1 who kicks his wife when she is pregnant1 and begets ten imbecile children1 is not generally regarded as particularly wicked4 ,a business man who is generous to all his employees but falls in love with his stenographer is wicked2 another who bullies his employees but is faithful to his wife is virtuous4 ,this attitude is rank superstition1 and it is high time that it was got rid of4 ,sexual morality1 freed from superstition1 is a simple matter4 ,fraud and deceit1 assault1 seduction of persons under age1 are proper matters for the criminal law4 ,relations between adults who are free agents are a private matter1 and should not be interfered with either by the law or by public opinion1 because no outsider can know whether they are good or bad4 ,when children are involved the state becomes interested to the extent of seeing that they are properly educated and cared for1 and it ought to insure that the father does his duty by them in the way of maintenance4 ,but neither the state nor public opinion ought to insist on the parents living together if they are incompatible2 the spectacle of parents' quarrels is far worse for children than the separation of the parents could possibly be4 ,the ideal to be aimed at is not life-long monogamy enforced by legal or social penalties4 ,the ideal to be aimed at is that all sexual intercourse should spring from the free impulse of both parties1 based upon mutual inclination and nothing else4 ,at present a woman who sells herself successively to different men is branded as a prostitute1 whereas a woman who sells herself for life to one rich man whom she does not love becomes a respected society leader4 ,the one is exactly as bad as the other4 ,the individual should not be condemned in either case2 but the institutions producing the individual's action should be condemned equally in both cases4 ,the cramping of love by institutions is one of the major evils of the world4 ,every person who allows himself to think that an adulterer must be wicked adds his stone to the prison in which the source of poetry and beauty and life is incarcerated by 8priests in black gowns40 ,perhaps there is not1 strictly speaking1 any such thing as 8scientific0 ethics4 ,it is not the province of science to decide on the ends of life4 ,science can show that an ethic is unscientific1 in the sense that it does not minister to any desired end4 ,science also can show how to bring the interest of the individual into harmony with that of society4 ,we make laws against theft1 in order that theft may become contrary to self-interest4 ,we might1 on the same ground1 make laws to diminish the number of imbecile children born into the world4 ,there is no evidence that existing marriage laws1 particularly where they are very strict1 serve any social purpose2 in this sense we may say that they are unscientific4 ,but to proclaim the ends of life1 and make men conscious of their value1 is not the business of science2 it is the business of the mystic1 the artist1 and the poet4 ,modern ,marriage and ,ancient ,laws ,by ,arthur ,garfield ,hays ,arthur ,garfield ,hays is an attorney practicing in ,new ,york ,city4 ,he was manager of the ,new ,york ,state ,la ,follette campaign1 #aibd4 ,,modern ,,marriage ,,and ,,ancient ,,laws ,,by ,,arthur ,,garfield ,,hays 8,are we married80 ,this was a query recently put to a ,new ,york lawyer4 ,the woman wanted to have been married1 but wished not to be married any longer2 at the same time she rather objected to a divorce4 ,the man did not care much about it1 so long as he could marry1 or marry again1 without too much inconvenience arising from the earlier entanglement4 ,the lawyer's answer was so obvious that it might have been made by a layman3 8,how do ,i know80 ,the two had been living together1 had called each other husband and wife1 and had in general passed as such1 but at the beginning of the relationship each had felt that if one wanted to be free the other would not hold him or her2 it was agreed that they should have no financial responsibility for each other and that there should be nothing about the arrangement which would make it last 8till death do us part40 ,in speaking of themselves as 8husband and wife0 they had intended the words to represent merely a formula of their own4 ,now common-law marriage as recognized in ,new ,york ,state consists in a meeting of the minds--a contract4 ,thus1 if two people live together as husband and wife this may be evidence of a common-law marriage4 ,no formal agreement is necessary4 ,but if there has not been even a private agreement of marriage their living together would be unimportant4 ,if they wished to separate they would need no divorce1 for they would never have been married4 ,by passing as husband and wife they might gain the social advantages that come from a recognized relationship1 and1 since there had been no definite agreement1 they might save the inconvenience of divorce if they wished to separate4 ,difficulty arises only when both parties do not agree that there was no agreement4 ,sometimes one party claims there was and the other that there was not4 ,then the very indefiniteness of the tie means added difficulty and publicity in breaking it4 ,in order to avoid future disagreement one couple made a contract in which they stated that they lived as husband and wife in order to avoid social stigma1 but that as between themselves there was no agreement of marriage4 ,the situation was trying because they always felt they were living a lie4 ,their answer was that society foolishly demanded either a penalty or a form and they preferred to provide the form4 ,fortunately1 neither ever had to swear to the status and they felt that this contract--which provided for future maintenance of the wife and custody of the children--solved the problem or doubt of a life-long relationship4 ,to those who made ethical objection1 they answered that they were willing to contract on matters which concerned their wills1 but knew it was contrary to human nature to contract on matters which concerned their emotions4 ,not long ago in ,new ,york ,city a young woman who had scruples about promising to love a man forever expressed to the city clerk her unwillingness to use the form of marriage ceremony which he had produced committing her to love1 honor1 and cherish the man for the rest of his or her life4 ,she said she was in good faith willing to contract to marry1 and that she would do the best she could to make the marriage successful1 but that was all2 to which the clerk answered that if she were entering marriage in that spirit she should not be married at all4 ,he was finally persuaded that the parties could be tied merely by agreement on her part to become the man's wife and on his part to become her husband4 ,if the law seems full of vagaries on the problem of entering marriage it is still more perplexing and technical when it concerns the question whether or not two people are still legally married when one has obtained a supposed divorce--so much so that it is not at all uncommon for a lawyer to be faced by a client asking whether or not he1 or she1 is really married4 ,some years ago a man was married in ,philadelphia and later1 having separated from his wife1 went to ,new ,york4 ,she obtained a decree of divorce in ,pennsylvania1 the papers having been served on him in ,new ,york4 ,he married again and died a generation later1 leaving a considerable fortune and three children by his second marriage4 ,the first wife1 or her attorneys1 then discovered that the original divorce was not legal1 since the ,pennsylvania courts had not acquired a jurisdiction which would be recognized in ,new ,york4 ,since the man had left the estate to his 8wife10 there were complications4 ,as the question involved the meaning of a will1 the matter was one of intention and it was not difficult to prove that the deceased intended as his beneficiary the woman whom he regarded as his wife4 ,but had he owned real estate at the time of his divorce the first wife might have had a dower interest1 and had his status become one of public importance his enemies might successfully have charged him with bigamy4 ,ordinarily1 people are satisfied with a decree of divorce4 ,it gives them the desired social status4 ,its technical legality becomes of importance only in connection with estates or the legitimacy of children4 ,but a difficult question arises in case of remarriage4 ,legality depends upon the jurisdiction of the court4 ,this can be acquired by personal service of papers upon the defendant within the ,state or a voluntary submission to the jurisdiction by appearing in the case personally or by attorney4 ,but ,state courts claim and recognize their own jurisdiction even though papers are served outside the ,state4 ,under these latter circumstances1 suppose a divorce granted a man in ,utah is not recognized in ,new ,york4 ,if he remarries in ,utah he will have one wife there1 while in ,new ,york another woman would be his wife and he would be obliged to support her there4 ,if his wife in ,new ,york married again1 she would be guilty of bigamy4 ,in ,utah it would be his duty to live with one woman4 ,new ,york would attempt to make it his pleasure to live with another1 and this on the ground of morality1 for1 although1 ordinarily1 the law of the place of the new marriage 7in this case1 ,utah7 would apply1 yet this would result in his having two wives in ,new ,york4 ,so on legal grounds we disregard the divorce1 and on moral grounds we negative the second marriage4 ,foreign divorces raise the question not only of jurisdiction but of recognition by treaty of a judgment of the particular foreign country4 ,for instance1 judgments of ,french courts are not absolutely binding upon the courts of this country1 as are the judgments of sister-,states4 ,in the case of ,russia1 where any two parties by agreement or a single person by request may become divorced1 there is no treaty whatever4 ,occasionally1 cases arise where persons abroad have obtained a decree for a rabbinical divorce4 ,under the old ,jewish custom a rabbi could pronounce a divorce and the law of the state permitted a decree to be entered upon his pronouncement4 ,some states and countries make bids for the divorce business2 not long ago an advertisement appeared announcing that a divorce might be had in ,yucatan for #be1 not1 of course1 including the expense of travel4 ,questions of the effect of interlocutory and final judgments1 of the provisions of a divorce decree forbidding remarriage within a certain period1 of the bona fides of residence1 of the jurisdiction of the court1 of treaties with foreign countries may make it difficult to answer the question whether or not two people are legally married4 ,all this confusion represents a beating of wings against a cage--an endeavor to obtain a legal paper with a red seal which will avoid a situation which two people find intolerable4 ,we are tending toward a new moral conception of the marriage relationship1 well expressed by ,premier ,zahle of ,denmark when submitting a new liberal divorce law3 8,it is based on the fundamental conception that it is morally indefensible to maintain a marriage relation by legal statute where all the real bonds between the parties are broken4 ,this is a measure which certainly means a great step forward in the recognition of marriage as a moral relation40 ,marriage is a status resulting from a civil contract1 but very few people who enter into it know what this contract is4 ,it assumes certain rights and obligations4 ,what are they8 ,that the wage-earner will provide4 ,this is enforcible1 at least theoretically4 ,what else8 ,that the parties live in an emotional and mental state designated by an agreement 8to love1 honor1 and cherish10 and1 sometimes1 8obey40 ,this is obviously unenforcible4 7,i make this assertion despite the recent ,texas case in which a husband obtained an injunction restraining his wife's employer from flirting with her47 ,the contract continues for life1 subject to termination for causes which depend chiefly upon the place of residence1 actual or acquired4 ,if they live in ,south ,carolina and stay there1 the contract is indissoluble4 ,in ,new ,york the contract may be terminated for adultery1 unless the other party has likewise sought refuge outside of marriage2 in ,alabama1 for habitual drunkenness2 in ,nevada1 for neglect to provide for one year2 in ,kentucky and ,new ,hampshire1 for joining a religious sect which believes marriages unlawful2 in ,new ,jersey1 for extreme cruelty2 in ,wisconsin1 if the parties have voluntarily lived separately for five years2 in ,massachusetts and a host of other ,states1 for desertion2 in ,pennsylvania and ,oregon1 for personal indignities or conduct rendering life burdensome2 in ,vermont1 for intolerable severity2 in ,france1 if the parties have other emotional interests2 in ,denmark1 by consent2 in ,russia1 by request4 ,of course1 in most of these states there are other grounds1 but the result is that either party can bring about a situation which permits divorce or can make life so intolerable for the other that he or she consents to it4 ,but these grounds must arise subsequent to marriage2 the agreement cannot be made in advance4 ,in life the duration of marriage depends upon the desires or consent of individuals4 ,in law it is perpetual1 subject to termination not by agreement made at the outset1 or by later consent1 but by court decree4 ,at the time of entering into marriage people usually know merely that somehow1 somewhere1 some time there is a way out if the situation becomes too strained4 ,technically1 since the contract is for life1 a divorce is granted for a breach4 ,thus there is an implied term1 as there is in every contract1 that relief is granted for a breach--but what constitutes a breach depends not upon the terms of the contract or the law of the place where the contract is made but upon the jurisdiction where relief is sought--a matter of which the parties ordinarily know nothing when they make the contract4 ,convention seems to demand that the parties know not what they do4 ,modern society1 this summary seems to show1 has been moving toward freedom of contract in marriage4 ,those phases which concern the state1 such as economic provision and children1 must be conserved4 ,but time was--and still is in some places--when marriage itself was a tribal or a state matter4 ,then it became a family matter1 determined by the parents1 and property and family rights and interests were the important considerations4 ,but parents1 knowing by experience that there can be no happiness without security--although there might be unhappiness with it--failed to take into sufficient account the emotional content1 and1 particularly in the ,western ,world1 there developed a certain freedom of contract in making a choice4 ,to-day1 when people have come to recognize the necessity of sexual and social compatibility1 which cannot be determined in advance1 there has come a demand for a further freedom of contract1 to which society has responded by more liberal divorce laws4 ,the laws which permit a divorce where parties have not lived together for a certain length of time make the duration of the marriage relation really a matter of consent4 ,they mean in effect that a contract of marriage contains an implied term that it is to continue until the parties consent to its end1 and in human relations this means until one party demands its end4 ,if a person proposed that the law recognize a marriage contract which was to continue until either party desired its termination1 he would be regarded as a wrecker of our institutions2 but society is doing this very thing--obscurely1 perhaps1 as an after-effect1 not as a preconceived design2 blindly1 and not with intelligent forethought4 ,many have suggested that marriages be made harder and divorces easier4 ,but how revolutionary would seem a suggestion that marriage contracts be made in advance1 conforming to the teachings of experience1 providing for maintenance and custody of children and limited by the understanding of the parties2 that those who1 for religious or ethical reasons1 wished to enter into a life contract be permitted to do so2 that those who wished to enter into a contract to terminate by joint consent or at the option of either party likewise be permitted to do so8 ,an objection that this would be dangerous assumes that people choose the present form only because compelled to do so4 ,individuals are breaking from the old conventions1 and the law1 usually a laggard by a generation1 is following them4 ,in forty-three ,states desertion is a ground for divorce2 in twenty of them1 desertion for one year4 ,in seven ,states1 failure or neglect to provide is a ground2 in four of them1 the period is one year4 ,in some ,states1 if the parties live apart for a certain length of time--in three of them for five years--that is ground for divorce4 ,is not this divorce by agreement8 ,and by implication1 since living together requires the willingness of two parties1 the result is a contract which may be ended by either of the parties at any time he or she sees fit--after an intervening cooling period4 ,thus does freedom creep in by the back door4 ,does this work harm to society8 ,there is little difference in the marital or social conditions or in the welfare of children in ,norway and ,sweden1 where there are liberal laws1 and in ,england1 where divorce is a long1 complicated1 and expensive process4 ,no one could discover that he had crossed the ,state line from ,new ,york to ,pennsylvania by observation of the state of society1 the happiness or apparent duration of marriage1 the welfare of children1 or the social conventions of the people4 ,yet in ,pennsylvania there was one divorce for every #aj4b marriages in #aibb and only one for every #bb4f in ,new ,york4 ,in ,south ,carolina there are no divorces2 in ,oregon1 the number of marriages to one divorce was #b4f2 in ,wyoming1 #c4i2 in ,california1 #e4a4 ,in the ,district of ,columbia1 the banner section1 there were #ce4h marriages to one divorce4 ,there1 as in ,new ,york1 the only ground is adultery4 ,yet ,san ,francisco society seems as stable as that of ,washington4 ,of course1 the figures do not mean that seven times as many ,washington couples as ,california couples1 and four times as many ,new ,york couples1 make a success of marriage or live together when it has ceased to be a success2 but rather1 that ,new ,yorkers and ,washingtonians solve their marital troubles elsewhere than at home4 ,thus1 in ,nevada in #aibb there were more divorces than marriages1 because people married in other ,states repented in ,nevada4 ,whatever effect it may have on society1 the extension of grounds for divorce which has taken place in the last decade1 and the modern improvement in communication and travel1 which opens other ,states or foreign countries to an increasing number1 brings about a situation by which people1 though not free to contract1 do avail themselves of means which have the same effect4 ,revolutionary changes occur unnoticed1 while our delusions persist and our sense of conservatism is gratified4 ,changes in ,sex ,relations ,by ,elsie ,clews ,parsons ,elsie ,clews ,parsons is widely known as an anthropologist and writer4 ,she has contributed largely to scientific journals and in #aibb edited the volume on ,american ,indian ,life by various students of the subject4 ,graduated from ,barnard #ahif2 ,ph4,d4 ,columbia #ahii4 ,fellow and ,lecturer in ,sociology at ,barnard2 ,lecturer in ,anthropology in ,new ,school for ,social ,research4 ,she is editor of the ,journal of ,american ,folklore2 ,treasurer of ,american ,ethnological ,society2 ,president of ,folk ,lore ,society4 ,is author of 8,the ,family02 8,the ,old-,fashioned ,woman02 8,fear and ,conventionality02 8,social ,freedom0 and 8,social ,rule40 ,,changes ,,in ,,sex ,,relations ,,by ,,elsie ,,clews ,,parsons ,the other day ,i listened to a conversation on marriage and divorce between a well-known feminist1 her daughter1 and an ,episcopal clergyman4 ,the celibate cleric and the younger woman were in fair accord3 the institution of marriage was invaluable to society and had to be protected4 ,let there be no divorce1 said the cleric1 on any ground1 at least within the church2 children should be cared for by both parents1 divorce being sought only as an ultimate recourse1 said the girl1 who was two years married and had a son4 ,the feminist was biding her time4 ,finally she said3 8,so much for the institution4 ,what of the actual sex life8 ,no divorce and continence or no divorce and intimacy with another80 8,the first1 of course10 said the cleric4 8,not at all2 the second10 said the girl4 8,and you1 mother80 8,oh1 on the whole ,i'm for the brittle marriage as against the lax1 the ,american way against the ,european4 ,but most of all ,i am for tolerance in sex relations and for respecting privacy4 ,why not all kinds of relations for all kinds of persons8 ,just as there are now1 but with respect or tolerance for the individual and without hypocrisy40 8,even if we did not agree10 the cleric said later to the feminist1 8we could talk about it as twenty years ago we could not4 ,so much to the good40 8,so much to the bad10 said the girl's father1 still later2 8better for all of us the old reserve40 ,the speaker was a lawyer with divorce cases in his practice4 ,had we not here a mingling of currents from law1 the church1 feminism1 and the younger generation which illustrates what divergency of attitude on sex and sex institutions or practices may exist to-day1 even within the same cultural and local circle8 ,include circles of different education and locality and although the range of difference would be no larger the expressions of opinion would vary4 ,is the variation in opinion due to variation in experience or is it due to that contemporaneous lifting of the taboo on discussion which characterizes not only our talk about sex but about other interests as well8 ,a remarkable and indisputable change of attitude1 this release from verbal taboo1 which often gives us a sense of change in general greater perhaps than the facts themselves warrant4 ,in the conversation ,i quoted the women were on the whole the radicals1 the men on the whole the conservatives4 ,this alignment was far from typical1 ,i think1 and yet in contemporaneous life1 whether or not in opinion1 women have been the exponents of cultural change in sex relations4 ,the increase in the divorce rate1 it seems probable1 has been effected predominantly by women2 about two-thirds of the total number of divorces are granted to women4 7,of course the tradition that it is decent for the man to let the woman get the divorce must not be ignored in this connection47 ,this increase in divorce may indicate a changing attitude toward the criteria of marriage on the part of women4 ,women may be demanding more of marriage than in the day when they had little to expect but marriage4 ,in other words1 marriage standards mount as marriage has other relations to compete with4 ,at any rate in the talk of women it seems to me that desire for integral satisfaction in marriage is more consciously or realistically expressed than ever before4 ,emotional and sexual appeasements are considered as well as social or economic advantage4 ,what of the part played by women in changes in sex relations outside marriage8 ,unfortunately1 we have no dependable statistics of prostitution1 but whatever decrease there has been in prostitution1 and opinion is that with the passing of segregated districts there has been a decrease1 may be1 on the whole1 put down to women1 if only indirectly through an increase in illicit relations4 ,illicit relations are not subject to statistics1 but that there has been an increase in them in this country in this century will be generally accepted1 likewise that in this1 too1 the increase is due to women1 alike more willing to participate in such relations and more tolerant of them in others4 ,again those curious suits for alienation of affection appear to be brought against women as much as against men2 and theories of seduction by men have long since been sounding archaic to our ears4 ,even on the screen1 the great present vehicle of traditional manners and morals1 although rape is always in order1 seduction is infrequent4 ,seduction with its complement of marital honor has been rendered an anachronism1 through women4 ,the theory of seduction is affiliated with the proprietary theory of woman and1 needless to say1 this general theory has been undergoing considerable change for several decades4 ,to-day women are not only not property1 they are property holders1 and property holding has become a significant factor in the social independence of women4 ,of this social independence1 independence in mating is the most recent expression1 more recent even than political independence1 and less fully realized or accomplished4 ,indeed it would be rash to predict how this type of independence may be expected to come about2 apart from the gesture1 sometimes gay1 sometimes merely comic1 of keeping one's name in marriage1 there is no conscious feministic movement1 in this country at least1 toward freedom in sex4 ,the political emancipation of women came to us as a reflex from abroad1 largely through ,england4 ,whatever the political effect of militancy in ,england1 without the advertisement of the ,british suffragette ,american women would be voteless to-day4 ,quite likely the direction of emancipation in mating may be determined likewise from abroad1 perhaps from innovating ,scandinavia or from ,soviet ,russia1 where the last legal word has been said on sex equality4 ,in the soviet laws on marriage and domestic relations there is no mention of suit for breach of promise or for alimony whereby woman proclaims herself a chattel1 and according to the soviet code husband as well as wife is entitled to support if incapacitated for work4 ,incapacity for work is the sole condition which entitles either spouse to support4 ,in other words1 the ,russian state has interested itself not in maintaining the proprietary theory of woman2 but in providing for the care of man or woman in distress4 ,of such clear distinction ,american law is innocent4 ,in ,american law the husband is still the provider and in this law lags but little behind current opinion1 which holds that a married woman should work only when she has to4 ,dr4 ,herskowits tells me that this ,american attitude is so well represented in the ,negro population of ,harlem that in gathering statistics of employment as soon as he learns the occupation of the husband he can predict whether or not the wife is at work4 ,low-paid employment for the husband means wage-earning by the wife1 and highly paid employment means that the woman is not a wage-earner4 ,surveys in other parts of the country have shown the same condition4 ,these surveys have been made among wage-earners1 and concerned primarily with the margin of subsistence2 but familiar enough is the record in other economic classes of the persuasion that marriage exempts a woman from industry or professional activity4 ,the standing controversies about married women as school-teachers are fully documented instances4 ,the ,harvard prize play acted last year on ,broadway hinged on the rigidity of the alternative of a man marrying and sacrificing his career or pursuing his career and sacrificing his love4 ,there was not the faintest suggestion that the woman might contribute to the family income and so render marriage and career economically compatible4 ,the young couple1 to be sure1 belonged to smart ,suburbia1 economically a conservative circle2 but there was no indication in the play that the university intelligentsia did not hold to the theory of wifely parasitism1 nor that audiences might question the theory4 ,and ,i incline to think that few in those ,broadway audiences1 although drawn as they were from fairly composite circles1 did question4 ,wifely parasitism is holding its own4 ,in less invidious terms1 where income permits1 the wife continues to be the consumer1 the husband the producer4 ,conjugal partnership in production1 familiar in ,europe1 remains by and large unfamiliar in this country4 ,outside of marriage1 on the other hand1 the last years have seen considerable lessening in our ,american forms of segregating the sexes4 ,not only has there been an increase of women in gainful occupations together with an increase of occupations open to women1 but between men and women in business and in the professions relations are increasingly less restricted1 influenced less by sex taboo4 ,there is more coperation1 more goodwill1 more companionship4 ,possibly this companionship between the sexes at large will have a reflex upon marriage1 and marriage will become a more comprehensive partnership4 ,the question of the married woman in gainful occupations is related1 however1 to a larger economic issue4 ,our capitalistic and competitive economy not only suffers parasites and drones1 it compels them by reason of its inelasticity in providing for part-time labor4 ,the whole workday or no work at all is the notice given to women who would be part-day home-keepers1 either in their child-bearing years or because of other family exigency1 as well as to men who are aging or invalid4 ,for this economic waste and loss to personal happiness and welfare there seems to be no promise of relief in prospect4 ,just the opposite1 in fact1 for women1 since1 given the increasing mechanization of housekeeping and the ramifying organization of hospital1 nursery1 and school1 women at home may have a larger and larger part of the day on their hands and their functions become less and less significant4 ,in this connection birth control has been for some time an important factor4 ,as knowledge of contraception becomes surer and more widespread and births more spaced1 even during her child-bearing period the home-staying woman will have less and less call on her vitality and energy4 ,discussion of contraception has been active in the last decade or so2 but curiously enough its significance aside from contributing to directly saner ways of life#a has been little realized4 ,birth control makes possible such clear-cut distinctions between mating and parenthood that it might be expected to produce radical changes in theories of sex attitude or relationship1 forcing the discard of many an argument for personal suppression for the good of children or the honor of the family1 and forcing redefinition of concepts of honor and sincerity between the sexes4 ,in such redefinition reciprocity in passion1 emotional integrity1 and mutual enhancement of life might share in the approval once confined to constancy1 fidelity1 and duty1 virtues that are obviously suggested by the hit or miss system of mating and reproducing our social organization has favored4 ,with little or no self-knowledge or knowledge of men1 a girl often marries in order to find out how much she cares or whether or not she qualifies1 and then when her experience has but begun she finds herself an expectant mother1 and maternity begins to supersede other interests4 ,she may become a parent without the assurance of being well-mated1 if not1 more tragically1 with the certainty of being mismated4 ,advocates of the monogamous family would do well to consider how essential to an enduring union1 at least in our society1 experience in love may be1 together with restraint from child-bearing before experience is achieved4 ,that neither such considerations nor other changes in the theory of sex morality have yet come to the fore in current discussion is perhaps because the technique of contraception is still in the experimental stage1 perhaps because in popular consciousness the morality of contraception in itself is not fully established4 ,how is it going to be established8 ,i doubt if through rationalism or rationalistic propaganda4 ,social changes1 we begin to know1 are rarely due to deliberation1 in any society4 ,in our society they are due mainly to economic causes4 ,housing congestion in ,new ,york will in time affect birth-control legislation in ,albany2 and fear of an overpopulated world will drive church as well as state into a new attitude toward multiplying to the glory of ,god4 ,as in birth control so in other matters of sex intimacy the growth of cities and the complexity of our economy may be the more potent factors of change4 ,in very large communities there is an ignorance of the personal relations of others1 an inevitable ignoring which contributes unconsciously to tolerance toward experiment and variation in sex relations4 ,indifference to the private life of others is almost an exigency of our economic organization4 ,attention is directed to the efficiency of the personality encountered and away from the individual means taken to induce that efficiency4 ,what difference does it make to an employer how clerk or stenographer lives after hours provided he or she is competent1 alert1 and responsive to the business need8 ,in office or in factory one may be but a cog in the machine and yet left larger personal freedom than in a more independent job in a small place or than in a household4 ,out of such urban influences--negatively1 of indifference1 and positively1 of attention to personality per se--come opportunities for personal freedom that will set men and women to ordering their sex life to please themselves rather than to please society4 ,that is1 ordinary men and women2 certain outstanding figures will have to continue to forego freedom4 ,the ,president of the ,united ,states1 presidents of banks or colleges1 cinematograph stars1 8society ladies10 now and again a clergyman or a prize-fighter--all these will continue to be observed closely in their private life1 and1 like the gods and goddesses of other cultures or times1 will have to conform to popular preconceptions of marriage or celibacy1 chastity or libertinism4 ,for them1 as for other personages in folk-lore1 individual adjustment or variation would be out of the picture4 ,,footnotes3 #a ,dr4 ,ogburn informs me that his recent and still unpublished analysis of the census of #aibj shows that in localities where birth control is presumedly practiced the marriage rate mounts4 ,he states also that in the country at large there has been a higher marriage rate in the last census decade and that the age at marriage is earlier4 ,toward ,monogamy ,by ,charlotte ,perkins ,gilman ,charlotte ,perkins ,gilman feminist1 philosopher1 writer was born at ,hartford1 ,conn41 ,july #crd1 #ahfj4 ,editor of the ,forerunner #aiji-aiaf2 ,author of 8,women and ,economics10 #ahih2 8,in ,this1 ,our ,world10 #ahih2 8,the ,yellow ,wall-,paper10 #ahii2 8,concerning ,children10 #aijj2 8,the ,home1 ,its ,work and ,influence10 #aijc2 8,human ,work10 #aijd2 8,what ,diantha ,did10 #aiaj2 8,the ,man-,made ,world10 #aiaj2 8,the ,crux10 #aiaa2 8,moving the ,mountain10 #aiaa2 8,his ,religion and ,hers10 #aibc4 ,,toward ,,monogamy ,,by ,,charlotte ,,perkins ,,gilman ,physiologists tell us that in all our long ages of animal evolution we have not yet completed the physical changes incident to assuming an erect posture4 ,psychologists may as plainly see that in the short centuries of social evolution we have naturally failed to complete the changes incident to our growth from tribal to national and international relationships4 ,since we remained savages for some #ij per cent of the period of human life on earth1 it is to be expected that the long-practiced tribal morals should have modified our characters more deeply than those evolved in the recent1 varied1 and fluctuating relationship of larger range4 ,yet we see1 during the short period of progressive civilization1 such swift and amazing development in some lines1 such achievement in knowledge1 in wealth1 in ability1 in breadth of thought1 and nobility of feeling that our coincident stupidity and senseless misbehavior call for explanation4 ,the main reason for this peculiar delay and irregularity in social evolution is that it has been limited to half the race1 the other half being restricted to domestic industry and to the still lower level of misused sex4 ,our specialized knowledge1 power1 and skill are developed through the organic relationships of the social group2 as are also those characteristics of mutual loyalty and love1 of truth1 honor1 and courage which are as natural to a human society as the distinctive virtues of ants or beavers to their groups4 ,humanity's major error1 the exploitation of the female by the male1 has not only kept her at the lowest step in social progress--solitary hand-labor in and for the family--but has resulted in excessive sex-development through prolonged misuse4 ,this has made her ultra-feminine1 to a degree often injurious to motherhood2 and him ultra-masculine1 his social advance confused1 impeded1 and repeatedly destroyed by his excessive emotions4 ,in social morals he has of course outdistanced her1 as he alone has entered into the relationships which develop them2 but he has carefully exempted his essentially male activities from this elevating influence1 maintaining that 8all's fair in love and war40 ,of her1 domestic morality demanded but one virtue1 sex-loyalty2 her mate or master taking it upon himself to be both judge and executioner in case of failure4 ,she might be a liar and a coward1 lazy1 selfish1 extravagant1 or cruel1 but if chaste these traits were overlooked4 ,if unchaste1 no array of other virtues was enough to save her4 ,in her household labors she developed minor virtues natural to the position2 a tireless industry1 an instinct for cleanliness and order1 with great capacity for self-denial and petty economy4 ,speaking broadly1 of a race where the young1 though necessarily inheriting from both parents1 yet are divided almost from birth in training and experience1 it may be said that the social virtues have belonged to men1 the domestic virtues to women4 ,our present age1 counting the incredible advance of the last century and the swift fruition of these immediate years1 shows among its newly distinguishing social movements one of supreme importance4 ,within a hundred years women1 in most civilized countries1 have moved from domestic into social relationship4 ,such a sudden and enormous change1 while inherently for the improvement of society1 is naturally accompanied by much local and immediate dislocation in previously accepted conditions4 ,many are alarmed at what is considered 8the danger to the home0 resultant from the refusal of an increasing number of women to spend their lives as house-servants2 they fear 8the menace to the family0 due to similarly increasing numbers of women who refuse compulsory motherhood2 they are shocked at a looseness1 even grossness1 of behavior between the sexes which seems to threaten marriage itself4 ,few seem able to look beyond the present inconveniences to a specialized efficiency in household management which will raise the standard of public health and private comfort1 with large reduction in the cost of living2 to such general improvement in child-culture as will lift the average of citizenship and lower the death-rate appreciably2 and to a rational and permanent basis for our monogamous marriage4 ,to understand rightly this trying period1 to be patient with its unavoidable reactions and excesses1 to know what tendencies to approve and promote and what to condemn and oppose1 requires some practical knowledge of biology and sociology4 ,men1 though as yet beyond women in social morality1 are unreliable judges in this time of change because their ox is gored--they are the ones who are losing a cherished possession4 ,the overdeveloped sex instinct of men1 requiring more than women were willing to give1 has previously backed its demands by an imposing array of civil and religious laws requiring feminine submission1 has not scrupled to use force or falsehood1 and held final power through the economic dependence of women4 ,it is easy to see that if women had been equally willing no such tremendous machinery of compulsion need have been evolved4 ,but now that the woman no longer admits that 8he shall rule over her10 and is able to modify the laws2 now that she has become braver1 and above all is attaining financial freedom1 her previous master has no hold upon her beyond natural attraction and--persuasion4 ,toward this end he manifests an instant and vigorous activity4 ,whereas in the past women were taught that they had no such 8imperative instincts0 as men1 and the wooer1 even the husband1 sought to preserve this impression1 now it is quite otherwise4 ,all that elaborate theory of feminine chastity1 that worship of virginity1 goes by the board1 and women are given a reversed theory--that they are just the same as men1 if not more so2 our 8double standard0 is undoubled and ironed flat--to the level of masculine desire4 ,clothed in the solemn1 newly invented terms of psychoanalysis1 a theory of sex is urged upon us which bases all our activities upon this one function4 ,it is exalted as not only an imperative instinct1 but as the imperative instinct1 no others being recognized save the demands of the stomach4 ,surely never was a more physical theory disguised in the technical verbiage of 8psychology40 ,we should not too harshly blame the ingenious mind of man for thinking up a new theory to retain what the old ones no longer assured him2 nor too severely criticize the subject class1 so newly freed1 for committing the same excesses1 the same eager imitations of the previous master1 which history shows in any recently enfranchised people4 ,just as women have imitated the drug-habits of men1 without the faintest excuse or reason1 merely to show that they can1 so are they imitating men's sex habits1 in large measure4 ,those who go too far in such excesses will presumably die without issue1 doing no permanent harm to the stock4 ,this wild excitement over sex1 as if it were a new discovery peculiar to our time1 will be allayed by further knowledge4 ,even a little study of the common facts of nature has a cooling and heartening influence4 ,the essential facts are these3 ,that all living forms show the tendency to maintain and to reproduce themselves2 that some1 in differing degree1 show tendencies to vary and to improve2 that after an immense period of reproduction without it 7showing that as the 8life force0 it was quite unnecessary7 the distinction of sex appeared as a means to freer variation and improvement2 that the male characteristics of intense desire for the female1 personal display1 and intermasculine combat1 as well as the female's instinct of selection1 are visible contributions to the major purpose of improvement2 that in the higher and later life-forms further and more rapid improvement has been made through the development in the female of new organs and functions for the benefit of the young2 through her alone have come the upward steps of viviparous birth1 the marsupial pouch1 and that crowning advantage1 the mammary glands2 the female solely is responsible for the development of nature's aristocracy1 ,order ,mammalia4 ,in the human species she adds to her previous contributions to racial progress the invention of our primitive industries1 which were evolved by her in service to the young1 and later carried out by men into the trades and crafts which support human life4 ,in the developing care and nurture of her children she laid the foundation for those social functions of government1 education1 and coperative industry which are so vitally important to social progress that we have called the family 8the unit of the state40 ,this is an error4 ,the family is the prototype of the state1 a tiny primitive state in itself1 often quite inimical to the interests of the larger state which has developed through the wider interaction of individuals4 ,the state does not elect families1 tax families1 punish families1 nor thrive where physical inheritance is made the basis of authority4 ,where the family persists too powerfully1 as in ,china1 there is a commensurate lack in the vitality and efficiency of the state4 ,by restricting women to the family relationship1 with its compulsory woman service and domestic morality1 we have checked and perverted social growth by keeping out of it the most effective factor in that growth1 the mother4 ,the world having been for so long dominated by the individualistic and combative male1 with that vast increment of masculine thought and emotion embodied in our literature1 our religion1 our art1 modifying all our ideals1 it is not to be wondered at that the newly freed women are as yet unable to see their opportunity1 their power1 and their long-prevented sex duty--race improvement4 ,the collapse of the arbitrary and unjust domestic morality of the past will presently be followed by recognition of the social morality of the future4 ,rightly discarding artificial standards of virtue based on the pleasure of men1 we shall establish new ones based on natural law4 ,repudiating their duty to an owner and master1 women have yet to accept and fulfill their duty to society1 to the human race4 ,this is not generally clear to them4 ,in their legitimate rebellion against domestic service and compulsory sex-service they almost inevitably confuse these things with marriage1 with which indeed they have been long synonymous4 ,some of our most valuable women1 as well as many of negligible importance1 speak of marriage as if it were an invention of ,queen ,victoria4 ,surely no excessive education is needed to learn that monogamy1 among many of the higher carnivora and birds1 is as natural a form of sex union as the polygamy of the grass eaters or the promiscuity among insects1 reptiles1 and fish4 ,monogamy appears when it is to the advantage of the young to have the continued care of both parents4 ,this means that the parents share in the activities of supporting the family2 it does not mean that the female becomes the servant of the male4 ,because of the united activities and mutual services of the pair love is developed1 and stays4 ,such profound affection is found in some of these natural 8marriages0 that if one of a pair is killed the other will not mate again4 ,mated leopards or ostriches do not remain together because they are 8,victorian0 or 8puritanical10 but because they like to4 ,they could form as many and as variegated 8free unions0 as ,greenwich ,villagers if they choose2 there is nothing to stop them4 ,but natural monogamy is as free from sex service as from domestic service4 ,the pairing species adhere to their mating season as do the polygamous ones1 or even the promiscuous4 ,man is the only animal using this function out of season and apart from its essential purpose4 ,these natural monogamists are not 8ascetics40 ,they are not dominated by religious doctrine or civil law4 ,they fulfill their natural desires with the utmost freedom1 but these desires do not move them out of season4 ,the human species1 with all its immense advantages1 has made many conspicuous missteps4 ,its eating habits are such as to have induced a wide assortment of wholly unnecessary diseases2 its drinking habits are glaringly injurious2 and its excessive indulgence in sex-waste has imperiled the life of the race4 ,domestic morality vaguely recognized some duty to society and sought through religion to limit masculine desires or at least to restrict their indulgence to marriage4 ,but the desires of a vigorous polygamist are not easily restricted to one wife2 and our polygamous period was far longer than that of the recently established monogamy4 ,it is a most reassuring fact in social evolution that monogamy1 naturally belonging to our species1 has persisted among the common people and in popular ideals3 even in 8,the ,arabian ,nights0 the love story is always about one man and one woman1 never of the mad passion for a harem6 ,so with the accelerated progress of recent centuries monogamous union becomes accepted1 and is carefully buttressed by the law1 while religion1 with commandments and ceremonies1 does its best to establish 8the sanctity of marriage40 ,but as religion1 law1 and family authority were all in the hands of men1 they naturally interpreted that sanctity to suit themselves1 ignored the religious restrictions1 and so handled the law as to apply its penalties to but one party in a dual offense4 ,social morality requires the promotion of such lines of conduct as are beneficial to the maintenance and improvement of society4 ,it will demand of both man and woman the full development of personal health and vigor1 careful selection of the best mate by both1 with recognition on her side of special responsibility as the natural arbiter4 ,it will encourage such sex relations as are proved advantageous both to individual happiness and to the race4 ,we are as yet so hag-ridden by domestic morality1 with its arbitrary restrictions1 and by the threats and punishments of law and religion1 that we shrink from the broader biological judgment as if it involved blame1 punishment1 compulsory reform4 ,not at all4 ,men and women are no more to blame for being oversexed than a prize hog for being over-fat4 ,the portly pig is not sick or wicked1 he is merely overdeveloped in adipose tissue4 ,our condition does not call for condemnation1 nor can we expect any sudden and violent change in our behavior resting on foolish ideals of celibacy1 of self-denial1 or of 8sublimated sex40 ,it will take several generations of progressive selection1 with widely different cultural influences1 to restablish a normal sex development in genus homo1 with its consequences in happier marriage1 better children1 and wide improvement in the public health4 ,it is to this end1 with all its widening range of racial progress1 that social morality tends4 ,women--,free for ,what8 ,by ,edwin ,muir ,edwin ,muir1 poet and essayist1 has been assistant editor of the ,new ,age 7,london7 as well as dramatic critic for the ,scotsman and the ,athenum4 ,he was a frequent contributor to ,the ,freeman4 ,,women--,,free ,,for ,,what8 ,,by ,,edwin ,,muir ,in the beginning of the ,scottish ,shorter ,catechism there is a beautiful affirmation4 8,the chief end of man10 it says1 8is to glorify ,god and enjoy ,him forever40 ,to any one nourished on the literature and thought of the last half-century that sentence1 which defines the chief purpose of life as praise and enjoyment1 comes like an audacious blasphemy1 a blasphemy1 however1 bringing light and freedom4 ,the terms of the dogma are a little antiquated now1 but it would be easy to restate them in modern language4 ,for 8,god0 we might substitute 8nature and man0 or1 if we were metaphysically inclined1 8,god in nature and man40 ,the authors of the ,shorter ,catechism1 entangled as they were in a gloomy theology1 recognized that the significance of life cannot reside in the labor by which men maintain it1 but in some kind of realization of ourselves and of the world which is the highest enjoyment conceivable of both4 ,let us go back for a few decades and see if we can catch the values of our time confusedly shaping themselves within the framework of human life4 ,i say shaping themselves1 for as ,nietzsche said fifty years ago1 the time of the conscious valuers has passed2 our values for a century have not been created1 they have happened4 ,they happened because men had become skeptical not merely of ,god1 or of the existence of a moral order1 but of life itself1 and could not set before themselves any purpose justifying life1 but only its bare mechanism1 work1 duty1 the preservation of society4 ,it has been1 thus1 one of the main achievements of modern thought to banish from the world the notion of enjoyment4 ,this was begun first in a philosophical way by the utilitarians1 who were reasonably convinced that1 factories existing for the first time as far as they knew in history1 it was incumbent on men to work in them4 ,a fine philosophy1 truly2 yet men believed in it4 ,after the utilitarians came the advocates of self-help1 who showed that the utilitarian policy might not be without individual advantage2 that if one cut off one's pleasures1 or at least those which cost money1 one might win a bizarre1 undreamed-of success4 ,the anchorites of wealth arose1 the great men who1 when they had acquired riches which might have built a new ,florence1 if scarcely a new ,jerusalem1 could make no use of them1 preferring to teach in ,sunday-schools and endow universities4 ,in the eyes of these men wealth was justified only if it could not be enjoyed1 for enjoyment was the one thing which went against all their ideas1 all those instincts which had set them where they stood4 ,wealth1 thus1 could not be enjoyed1 could not be used1 for when they had reached their end the means still remained means4 ,the disciples of ,smiles have disappeared2 men get rich in other ways now2 nevertheless a whole view of life has been left behind which we have not fundamentally questioned4 ,the ,victorians established the basis of morals in utility2 we have come to the stage when we imagine that the basis of life itself is utility4 ,for recreation as an end in itself we have so little appreciation that even sport has become a kind of duty1 and nothing is more devastating than the scorn of a conscientious athlete for those who1 enjoying perfectly good health1 do not go to the trouble of keeping themselves fit4 ,a little unpremeditated pleasure still persists in our common lives1 in fox-trotting1 drinking1 and revues1 but it is without either taste or resource2 it is not expression but simply relaxation1 an amusing way of being tired4 ,the one thing that people will not pardon is the taking of pleasure seriously as an end in itself4 ,the sthete1 at the ,renaissance a type of the opulence of life1 and quite a common1 indeed an expected type1 is in our day an aberration demanding our satire when once we have overcome our indignation4 ,nothing shows more disastrously how incapable we are of entertaining the conviction that life in itself1 apart from the labor necessary to make it possible1 is a thing worth living4 ,even art has justified itself for several decades chiefly by its social utility1 and only now1 against strong opposition1 is it escaping from the barriers set up by the generation overawed by ,mr4 ,shaw and ,mr4 ,wells4 ,the notion that men may be on the earth for something else than sweating is dead4 ,we have arrived at an amazing incapacity for joy2 and life is to us always less worth living than it should be4 ,this exaltation of means has brought about a general instrumentalization of life4 ,it weighs heavily upon men2 but upon women its weight is crushing1 for women have not such a ready capacity as men for transforming themselves to the image of their functions1 and they disfigure themselves more in the attempt4 ,consequently1 as woman has taken a large and larger part in our tentative and unsatisfactory civilization she has undergone1 in fact and in people's minds1 a distorting process4 ,it is true1 woman1 lovely woman1 the fair charmer1 has passed away2 but we are hardly better off now when she has become a term like economics4 ,after the economic man has come the economic woman2 that is1 an entity almost as useful as machinery1 and for the inner culture of mankind almost as uninteresting4 ,how1 in striving for emancipation1 woman has reached such a dismal stage in her development is one of the saddest stories of our time4 ,the age is an age of work2 woman desires freedom1 the right of every human being2 and freedom in such an age can only mean the freedom to work4 ,but to work1 except in a few vocations such as art1 is in our time to specialize oneself1 and the freedom of women has necessarily resolved itself into a permission to do little things which can give them no final satisfaction4 ,their freedom is bounded by the slavery under which men1 too1 suffer2 and in changing their occupations they have not escaped from the cage1 but only out of one compartment of it into another1 a little more cheerless than the first4 ,they have achieved a little more liberty than they had before2 but this liberty is disenchanting because it leaves them as far away as ever from the full liberty of their spirit4 ,perhaps in no other age has woman been1 in a deep1 instinctive sense1 so skeptical as she is at present4 ,and for all this the age--an age in which labor has a fantastic prominence--is responsible2 for it is in a time when everybody works1 and when there is nothing conceivable that one can do but work1 that the cantankerous question of inequality arises4 ,only in a race can one be slower than another2 only then does the necessity to become as good a runner as the fastest come home poignantly to every one4 ,but if it should happen that life is not a race at all8 ,where leisure is regarded as a more important thing than work and work falls into its proper1 subordinate place as the mere means to leisure one does not think very much about inequality1 for it has no longer any urgent importance4 ,nor does one set much value1 except in superficials1 on uniformity4 ,among people free from crushing labor 7as the whole human race may some time be7 there has always been delight in diversity and scorn for uniformity2 for1 to people enjoying their spirit and the world1 diversity even when it is exasperating is of infinite interest1 giving a satisfying sense of the richness of life4 ,comedy--and comedy is idleness tolerantly enjoying itself--is founded1 it has been said1 upon a recognition of the equality of the sexes2 but it would be more just to say that it is founded upon a view of life into which the notions of equality and inequality do not enter at all1 because they are unnecessary4 ,to ,congreve and ,stendhal women were not the inferior sex1 for1 in spite of the conventions in which ostensibly they moved1 they were free1 and therefore interesting4 ,and remote as these figures are from us1 they demonstrate a very useful truth1 that the way to get over our stupid obsession with inequality is to reach a stage where diversity will be the norm1 involving disadvantage to no one4 ,toward that stage1 which can only be made possible by a more general leisure1 we are moving1 if what the reformers and the scientists tell us is true4 ,it will be a stage in which rules will have more importance than laws and spontaneous actions than obligations2 and most of the things we do will be regarded as play rather than duty4 ,conduct will probably be about a fourth of life1 instead of the three-fourths postulated by ,matthew ,arnold4 ,and although this state has not come yet and may not come for a long time1 it would be as sensible to found a philosophy upon it as upon a period of transition as dismal and impermanent as ours4 ,moreover the values of the past are against us as well as those of the future which we imagine4 ,there is a certain ignobility in the dispute over human inequality1 a failure to rise to the human level4 ,it is not a question but a misunderstanding1 which the accumulated imaginative culture of the world might have made impossible4 ,a little sense of the richness of life would disperse it4 ,who would be so fantastic as to say that ,falstaff is greater or less than ,ophelia1 or whether ,uncle ,toby is the exact equal of ,anna ,karenina8 ,to ask the question is to evoke at once an image of the diverse riches of human nature and of the poverty of mind which can reduce it to such terms1 destroying all interest and all nuance4 ,but where our instrumental philosophy has had the most grotesque effect has been upon our conception of love4 ,people have come to regard love as merely a device for propagating the race4 ,now this view of love is not new2 it has always been dear to the bourgeoisie1 who have always thought it a matter of immense moment that they should have sons to carry on their businesses when they were dead4 ,it is the immemorial philistine conception of love3 the strange thing is that it has been taken over by the intelligentsia and glorified4 ,this is in the strictest sense a revolution in thought4 ,no one who has written beautifully of love has thought of it as the intellectuals think4 ,to ,plato and ,dante the essence of love did not reside in procreation2 nor has procreation been anything but a divine accident to the poets4 ,and that is in the human tradition1 and probably in the natural order of things2 for it is possible that both love and procreation are most perfect when they are unpremeditated1 and the child comes as a gift and a surprise2 for in the fruits of joy there is a principle of exuberance which distinguishes them from the fruits of duty4 ,the intellectuals have destroyed the humanistic conception of love as pure spontaneity1 as expression1 by setting its justification not within itself1 but in the child4 ,in 8,man and ,superman0 ,mr4 ,shaw makes ,tanner say that if our love did not produce another human being to serve the community1 the community would have the sacred right of killing us off1 just as the hive kills off the drones who do not attain the queen bee4 ,but what does that mean8 ,it means that happiness is of no importance1 that it is a matter of the slightest moment whether1 in a life which will never be given to us again1 we realize some of the potentialities of our being or pass through it blind to the end4 ,if it is worth while living at all1 this must needs be the precise opposite of the truth4 ,the child1 like everything else1 is justified2 but it is not justified because it adds to the potential wealth of society1 but because it adds to our present delight1 and moreover lives a life as valid as our own4 ,the truth is that we dare not admit that any pleasure whatever has a right to exist without serving society1 and serving it deliberately4 ,the joys of other generations have become our duties2 and it is significant that ,mr4 ,shaw and the bulk of the intelligentsia are at one on the birth-rate with the ,roman ,catholic ,church1 that church which has on many occasions through its theologians affirmed its belief that sensual love is a guilty thing1 and1 using its own kind of logic1 has exhorted man to multiply and replenish the earth4 8,the chief end of man is to glorify ,god and enjoy ,him forever02 and that being so1 it is the task of those who are a little more serious than the serious to set about discovering the principles of glory and enjoyment in life4 ,and--,i am setting down a truism--the main principle of enjoyment for the human race is not art1 nor thought1 nor the practice of virtue1 but for man1 woman1 and for woman1 man4 ,the exchange of happiness between the sexes is not only the creative agent in human life1 perpetuating it2 it is also the thing which gives the perpetuation of life its chief meaning4 ,people have always felt this vaguely2 it has made labor endurable to them2 but hardly ever have they recognized it clearly1 and to the poets and artists who know it they have always responded a little skeptically4 ,they have thought of love as a justification a little too materialistic for life2 but love is only materialistic when it is regarded as a means4 ,to accept men and women as ends in themselves1 to enter into their life as one of them1 is to partake of absolute life1 that life which at every moment realizes itself1 existing for its own sake4 ,we cannot live in that life continuously2 for the accomplishment of the intricate purposes of society we must at certain times and with part of our minds regard our fellow-creatures as instruments2 but the more we tend to do so the more we banish joy from life4 ,life does not consist1 whatever the utilitarians may say1 in functioning1 but in living2 and life comes into being where men and women1 not as functions1 but as self-constituted entities1 intersect4 ,this is the state which in religion as well as art has been called life2 this is the final life of the earth1 beyond which there is no other4 ,we may accept it or pass it by2 but whatever we may do with it1 it is our chief end1 giving meaning to the multitudinous pains of humanity4 ,this commerce between men and women is not merely sexual1 in the narrow sense which we have given the word2 it involves every human joy1 all the thoughts and aspirations of mankind stretching into infinity4 ,it is the thing which has inspired all great artists1 mystical as well as earthy4 ,it is the point of reference for any morality which is not a disguised kind of adaptation2 for virtue consists in the capacity to partake freely of human happiness4 ,all reform1 all economic and political theory has a meaning in so far as it makes for this2 and that was recognized by the first reformers1 the utopians who had not yet become mere specialists in reform4 ,the libertarian movement has been such a dismal affair1 thus1 not because it has been too free1 but because it has not been free enough4 ,the democracies and the women of the world have been potentially liberated2 but not so very long ago they were slaves1 and they have still a slave's idea of freedom4 ,instead of equal joys they have asked for equal obligations2 and the whole world is in the grip of a psychological incapacity to escape from the idea of obligation4 ,against the unreasonable solemnity which this has imposed on everything there is little left for us except a deliberate and reasonable light-heartedness2 this1 and the faith that the human race will some time attain the only kind of freedom worth striving for1 a freedom in joy4 ,virtue for ,women ,by ,isabel ,leavenworth ,isabel ,leavenworth is an instructor in philosophy at ,barnard ,college4 ,,virtue ,,for ,,women ,,by ,,isabel ,,leavenworth ,in the turmoil of discussion regarding present modes of sex life one can discern a pretty general approval of just one element in the whole situation3 the ideal by which the good woman has for so long been controlled4 ,it is commonly held that if changes are to be made they should be in the direction of persuading men1 and also the few women who have been at fault1 to be just as good as our good women have always been4 ,thus the young girl of to-day is criticized on the ground that instead of raising men to her level she is descending to theirs4 ,even those who are inclined to belittle the damage which she is doing to the social structure accompany their mild defense with the consoling reminder that human nature does not change and that in the end the girl of to-day will turn out as well as did the girls of yesterday2 that is1 she will finally come around to the good old feminine way of doing things4 ,it seems to me most unfortunate that the majority of people hope to improve matters through an extension of the feminine ideals of the past4 ,in the established scheme of things one finds a peculiarly gross form of immorality1 an immorality incommensurably greater than the dreaded evil of promiscuity2 and it is only as an element in this total scheme that woman's ideals have any significance4 ,the fact that they have always constituted one side of a 8double standard0 is not merely something which may be said about their relation to other elements after their essential characteristics have been considered4 ,these characteristics can be described only in terms of the double standard and of its attendant evils4 ,it would be as impossible1 then1 to destroy the double standard and still keep the feminine ideal intact as it would be to preserve the convex nature of a mathematical curve while destroying the concave4 ,according to the present system there is a standard of conduct set up for women which is to constitute virtue4 ,this standard is a combination of specific positive commands and1 more especially1 of specific prohibitions4 ,there are certain things which no nice woman will do--a great many things1 in fact4 ,she must learn them by heart and accept them on faith as the ,pythagoreans must have had to learn their curious list of taboos1 a list running from the taboo against eating beans to that against sitting on a quart measure4 ,this ideal of virtue does not apply with equal rigidity to men2 quite different things are expected of them and accepted for them4 ,it is obvious that two such conflicting ideals by the very nature of their combination will produce a class of women who do not live up to the standard of virtue set them as members of their sex4 ,this class is not merely an excrescence but an integral part of the situation created by the total sex ideal of society4 ,the function of women of this class is to make possible for men the way of life commonly considered as suited to their sex and to make possible a virtuous life for the remainder of womankind4 ,in fulfilling this function such women lose1 in the eyes of society1 their moral nature and forfeit the right to live within the pale of social morality4 ,they are considered unfit for normal social intercourse and are denied those relationships and responsibilities which ordinarily serve as the basis for moral growth4 ,from all normal responsibility toward them society regards itself as released4 ,that which is personal1 the inner life1 the character1 the soul--whatever one prefers to call it--having been sacrificed in the service of the social scheme1 one is to treat what is left as of no value in itself1 but merely as an instrument to be used in the service of man's pleasure or woman's virtue4 ,the prostitute is to society that one thing1 defined by the purpose which she serves1 and that is all she is1 all she is allowed to be4 ,the depersonalization1 the moral non-existence1 one might call it1 of a large number of women is1 then1 implicit in the social system currently accepted4 ,it is not a punishment meted out to those who fail to act in accordance with the social scheme 7though it is as such1 of course1 that society defends it7 but is itself an absolutely essential element in the social scheme1 an element woven in and out through the entire fabric of current sex morality4 ,it is curious how many people feel that a choice between the present system and any other is reducible to a choice between different degrees of promiscuity4 ,promiscuity would be an evil1 but it does not in itself involve this particular immorality4 ,the worst evils in the present situation are due not to the 8lower0 half of the double standard but to the doubleness itself4 ,it is true that the ideal of womanly virtue is only one element in the conventional system of sex morality4 ,but1 like a ,leibnitzian monad1 it reflects the whole universe within itself--the universe of sex mores4 ,it is in no real sense any 8higher0 than the ideal by which men have lived4 ,they are warp and woof of the same fabric4 ,according to this ideal it is woman's prime duty to keep aloof from evil4 ,this sounds commendable enough4 ,and it would be at least innocuous if one could interpret it as meaning that woman should hold herself aloof from some imagined evil that would become existent were she to embrace it4 ,this is not1 however1 a possible interpretation of the varied collection of prohibitions which it is her duty to respect4 ,their import is clearly enough that she is to keep aloof from evil which is already existent1 which is an acknowledged part of her background4 ,she is to shun all of those vulgarities1 coarsenesses1 and immoralities which are to enter into the lives of men and for which1 one is forced to conclude1 the 8other0 women are to provide4 ,and from this other class of women she is1 of course1 to keep herself absolutely separate1 distinct4 ,i recently heard an elderly ,boston lady make a remark which expresses the horror commonly aroused by any conduct which endangers the distinction between the two classes4 8,do you know10 she said1 8,i heard that a young man of our set said he and his friends no longer had to go to girls of another kind for their enjoyment4 ,they can get all they want from girls of their own class40 ,this was the outrage4 ,the nice girls were allowing the classes to become confused4 ,much the same attitude is revealed in the frequent remark that the young girl of to-day appears like 8any chorus girl0 or like any 8common woman40 ,the horrid picture is usually rounded off with the comment that you simply can't tell the difference any more between the nice girl and the other kind4 ,one can imagine that this might cause considerable inconvenience4 ,each of the two classes of women has served a special purpose and it is1 to say the least1 disconcerting for a person not to know which way to turn when he knows very well which purpose he wants fulfilled4 ,the precautions which a good woman takes to preserve her purity are indeed legion4 ,there are places where no nice woman will go1 situations with which she must have no immediate acquaintance1 people with whom she must not associate2 there are various embodiments of evil1 in short1 to which she must not expose herself4 ,that these evils should exist1 that they should be tolerated as meeting certain needs in the lives of men and be made possible by other women--all this the average good woman swallows without repulsion1 or1 more commonly1 ignores4 ,she is aroused to a state of true indignation only when her own moral exclusiveness1 or that of her kind1 is threatened4 ,the same woman who accepts with a good deal of equanimity the fact that men she associates with also associate with 8gay0 women would be considerably upset if these men were to attempt to associate with both kinds of women at the same time4 ,why is the average woman so upset if a man of her acquaintance makes 8improper advances08 ,is it that she is horrified to find that he is willing to indulge his irregular sex desires8 ,no4 ,she is outraged because he thinks she is willing to indulge hers1 because he holds her virtue too lightly4 ,sex evils1 coarsenesses are then to be part of the good woman's environment in the intimate sense that they often enter into the lives of the men she accepts as friends1 even of the men with whom she is to have the most personal and supposedly ideal relationships4 ,her sole function is to turn her back on these evils4 ,the point of prime importance to her is that they should not pollute her2 and the first demand which she makes upon men is that they shall show their respect for this ideal by keeping her apart4 ,the acceptance of this situation is implied in the ideals which are passed down to girls by the good old-fashioned parent4 ,do the mothers who insist that their daughters shall not go with boys on certain occasions and at certain hours unchaperoned expect boys to refrain from seeing any girls except on occasions thus carefully timed and adequately supervised8 ,i doubt it4 ,whatever their expectations may be1 it is certain that they would rather that the good girl should cling to protection1 letting the man seek gayety where he may1 than that she should take the chance involved in seeking gayety by his side4 ,they would rather have what they consider the evil sex element taken care of by men and by a class of women devoted by society to that purpose than to risk any slip in conduct on the part of their own daughters4 ,purity purchased at such a price may be purity in some magical sense1 similar to that secured in the ancient mysteries by passing through fire or going in bathing with sacred pigs4 ,purity in any moral sense it certainly is not4 ,it is simply a social asset1 like physical beauty or pleasing accomplishments1 so tremendously valuable to woman that for it she has been willing to pay any moral price1 however degrading4 ,its non-moral character is revealed in the common assumption that any man can1 without injury to himself1 pass through experiences or be placed in situations from which1 since they would pollute her1 every good woman must be guarded4 ,this assumption1 so obviously insulting to women1 is at present complacently accepted by them as something of a compliment4 ,william ,graham ,sumner in his remarkably unemotional and objective treatment of social customs devotes some pages to a description of the houses of prostitution established and run by the cities of medieval ,europe 8in the interest of virtuous women40 ,in this connection ,mr4 ,sumner for once indulges in terms of opprobrium1 judging the custom as 8the most incredible case0 illustrating 8the power of the mores to extend toleration and sanction to an evil thing40 ,the inmates of these houses were dedicated entirely to this special function1 wore distinctive dress1 and were taboo to all 8good0 women whose virtue1 according to the scheme of things1 they made possible4 ,authority for such a custom can be found1 as ,sumner points out1 in ,saint ,augustine1 the reformed rake4 8,the bishop10 writes ,sumner1 8has laid down the proposition that evil things in human society1 under the great orderly scheme of things which he was trying to expound1 are overruled to produce good40 ,is not this the position taken by people who hold that it is better to have prostitution in order to provide for the assumed sex irregularity of men than to risk the loss of a woman's 8virtue0 through the removal of those conventions and taboos which prevent her from coping with the situation herself and making her own moral decisions8 ,i can see no difference4 ,has man at any period of his checkered moral career devised a more unpleasant method of saving his own soul8 ,the good woman sits serenely on the structure upheld for her by prostitutes and occasionally even commits the absurdity of attempting to 8reform0 these women1 the necessity for whose existence is implied by the beliefs according to which she herself lives4 ,it is hard to follow the mental processes of those persons who1 while deploring the increased freedom allowed women and the tendency to judge them less severely1 still claim belief in a single standard for both sexes4 ,in so far as woman's virtue consists in aloofness from the evils which the double standard implies it quite obviously cannot be adopted as the single standard by which all members of society are to live4 ,even aside from this consideration it would seem to be as undesirable as it is impossible to extend to men the traditions and restrictions which have for so long governed women4 ,does any one really wish to have grown boys constantly accompanied and watched over by their elders8 ,does any one wish that the goings and comings of men should be as specifically determined as those of women have always been8 ,should we look forward to a day when a man will be judged as good or bad on the sole basis of whether or not he has ever had any irregular sex relation8 ,one would think that the suspicions of even the most uncritical might be aroused by the rigidly absolute and impersonal nature of women's sex ideals4 ,the notion of purity as lying in the abstention from a particular act except under carefully prescribed circumstances has all the marks of a primitive taboo and none of the characteristics of a rational moral principle4 ,the ideals of woman's honor and chastity have without doubt been built up in answer to human wants--the defense which is invariably given of customs1 good or bad4 ,probably those sociologists are not far wrong who hold that they have developed as a response1 in early times1 to the sentiments of man as a property owner2 later1 in response to masculine vanity and jealousy1 though these motives have1 of course1 been idealized beyond all recognition4 ,we need not be surprised1 then1 to find that they bear no relation to an interest in woman's spiritual welfare and growth1 an interest to which society is only now giving birth with pitiable pains of labor4 ,to follow an ideal which almost entirely excludes sex interest as something evil is to condemn one of the richest elements in personal experience4 ,and this ideal has regulated not only woman's sex experience but has demanded and received incalculable sacrifices in all the phases of her life1 mercilessly limiting the sphere of her activities1 smothering interests of value and nourishing others to an unnatural state of development1 and warping her character to satisfy its most exacting demands4 ,because she must first of all conform to an unpolluted archetype1 and because society must be secure in the knowledge that she is indeed so conforming1 she has never been able to meet life freely1 to make what experience she could out of circumstances1 to poke about here and there in the nooks and crannies of her surroundings better to understand the world in which she lives4 ,we find here a more subtle but more deadly limitation than exclusion from institutions of learning or from political privileges4 ,and under this limitation woman has labored in the service of a paltry ideal4 ,not only is it undesirable that men should attempt to follow such an ideal but it is quite obvious that as long as they accept it as adequate for women they are prevented in innumerable ways from developing intelligent principles for their own guidance4 ,for one thing1 they will come to look upon the sex element in most of its forms as a moral evil4 ,experience tells them1 however1 that it is1 in their own case1 a natural good4 ,thus they are led to accept a distinction fatal to moral integrity and progress4 ,the sex element is admitted to the life of the average man by the back door2 once within1 it has fair run of the establishment though it is always looked on askance by the other members of the household4 ,sex interests are to be recognized and indulged but divorced from all that is 8fine0 and 8ideal40 ,they are considered desirable though immoral and so are to be tolerated just to the extent that they are divorced from those elements in society--the family1 the home1 and good women--which are supposed to embody virtue4 ,it is not realized that virtue1 far from being a rival of the other good things of life1 is to be attained only through an intelligent interest in good things1 and that to divorce moral from natural good is to deal a death blow to both4 ,we cannot wonder that at present sex interest so often expresses itself in the form of dubious stories1 coarse revues1 and degrading physical relations4 ,while the 8good0 woman who considers sex somehow lowering is apt to develop a personality which is anemic and immature1 the man who accepts the conventional scheme of life develops a personality coarse and uncordinated4 ,i do not mean to say that there have been no elements of value in the ideal of purity by which some women have lived4 ,it is undoubtedly true that unregulated and impersonal sex desires and activities quarrel with more stable and fruitful interests in life4 ,but while the most valuable experiences of love are1 in general1 to be found in more lasting relations1 it does not follow that society should prescribe for every one of its members a particular line of sex conduct and attempt to see1 through constant supervision1 that its prescriptions are carried out4 ,the sacrifice in terms of freedom of activity and experience is too great and the living flower of personal purity cannot be manufactured by any such artificial methods4 ,the sex relations of an individual should no more be subjected to social regulation than his friendships4 ,there is indeed a closely related matter for which he is immediately responsible to society--that is the welfare of any children resulting from such relations4 ,the two matters are1 however1 quite distinguishable and no one could hold that the effort which society makes to control sex relations is to any extent based upon concern for the welfare of possible offspring4 ,if this were so1 one would not hear so much condemnation of birth-control measures on the ground that they 8encourage immorality40 ,no4 ,it is personal experience which society would like to prescribe for its members1 personal virtue that it would like to mold for them4 ,but virtue is not a predetermined result1 a kind of spiritual dessert that any one can cook up who will follow with due care the proper ethical receipt4 ,it is1 on the contrary1 something which is never twice alike2 something which appears in ever new and lovely forms as the fruit of harmoniously developed elements in a unique character complex4 ,experience cannot be defined in terms of external circumstances and bodily acts and thus judged as absolutely good or bad4 ,sex experiences1 like other experiences1 can be judged of only on the basis of the part which they play in the creative drama of the individual soul4 ,there are as many possibilities for successful sex life as there are men and women in the world4 ,a significant single standard can be attained only through the habit of judging every case1 man or woman1 in the light of the character of the individual and of the particular circumstances in which he or she is placed4 ,from the changes taking place in sex morality we may1 with sufficient wisdom and courage1 win inestimable gains4 ,certainly we should be grateful that young people are forming the habit of meeting this old problem in a quite new way--that is1 with the coperation of the two sexes4 ,in the interest of this newer approach we should accord to girls as much freedom from immediate supervision as we have always given to boys4 ,the old restrictions1 imposed upon girls alone1 imply1 of course1 the double standard with all its attendant evils2 imply the placid acceptance of two essentially different systems of value2 imply the preference for physical purity over personal responsibility and true moral development4 ,we should encourage the daughters of to-day in their fast developing scorn for the 8respect0 which our feminine predecessors thought was their due--a respect which man was expected to reveal in the habit of keeping the nice woman untouched by certain rather conspicuous elements1 interests1 and activities in his own life4 ,in so far as there is something truly gay in these aspects of life1 something which men know at the bottom of their hearts they should not be called on to forego1 there is much that women can learn4 ,most people to-day hold in their minds an image of two worlds--one of gayety and freedom1 the other of morality4 ,it is because gayety and morality are thus divorced that gayety becomes sordidness1 morality dreariness4 ,not until men and women develop together the legitimate interests which both of these worlds satisfy will the present inconsistency and hypocrisy be done away with and both men and women be free to achieve1 if they can1 rich and unified personal lives4 ,where ,are the ,female ,geniuses8 ,by ,sylvia ,kopald ,sylvia ,kopald is primarily a specialist in labor and the author of a recent study of outlaw strikes1 8,rebellion in ,labor ,unions40 ,,where ,,are ,,the ,,female ,,geniuses8 ,,by ,,sylvia ,,kopald ,many years ago1 ,voltaire was initiated into the mysteries of ,newton by ,mme4 du ,chtelet4 ,finishing her translation and her rich commentary upon the ,principles1 in a glow he extended to her the greatest tribute which man has yet found for exceptional women4 ,he said1 8,a woman who has translated and illuminated ,newton is1 in short1 a very great man40 ,genius has long been a masculine characteristic1 although some more generous authors admit its possession by certain 8depraved0 women4 ,only the courtesans of classical antiquity could be women and individuals at once1 and1 therefore1 ,jean ,finot found it necessary to remind us emphatically even in #aiac that 8women of genius and talent are not necessarily depraved40 ,not necessarily1 mind you4 ,no1 the great woman may be1 in short1 a great man1 but she is not necessarily depraved4 ,as the twentieth century progresses and women capture the outposts of individuality one after the other1 the old questions lose much of their old malignancy4 ,women battle with the problem of how to combine a home and a career and men become less sure 7especially in these days of high living costs7 that woman's place is in the home4 ,as women enter the trades and the arts and the professions1 men begin to discover comrades where there were only girls and wives and mothers before4 ,it is an exciting century1 this women's century1 and even though prejudices crumble slowly1 they crumble4 ,yet one of the old questions remains1 stalwart and unyielding as ever3 ,where are the female geniuses8 ,even a pessimist may find cause for rejoicing in this final wording of the 8woman question40 ,man's search for the female genius is more consoling than his sorrowful quest for the snows of yesteryear4 ,for snows1 like all beauty1 have a way of melting with time2 a mind ripens and mellows with age4 ,granted a mind which it is no longer a shame or a battle to develop1 women can look upon the passing of the years with at least as great an equanimity as does man4 ,she remains in the picture of life long after the ,maker's paints have begun to dry4 ,and that is good4 ,but as long as the female geniuses remain undiscovered1 it must be also a bit insecure4 ,women may have minds--every average man will now grant that4 ,but 7he will quickly ask7 have they ever much more than average minds8 ,look at history1 which this time really does prove what you want it to4 ,every high peak in the historic landscape is masculine4 ,point them out just as they occur to you3 ,shakespeare1 ,dante1 ,goethe1 ,virgil1 ,horace1 ,catullus1 ,plato1 ,socrates1 ,newton1 ,darwin1 ,pasteur1 ,watt1 ,edison1 ,steinmetz1 ,heine1 ,shelley1 ,keats1 ,beethoven1 ,wagner1 ,bach1 ,tolstoi4444 ,where are the female geniuses8 ,it has really become much more than a question of feminist conversation4 ,science has attempted to put its seal of approval upon the implied answer to this rhetorical question4 ,it has sought to put the notion that 8a woman is only a woman1 but a genius is a man10 into impressively scientific lingo4 ,the argument goes something like this3 ,in regard to practically all anatomical1 physiological1 and psychic characteristics1 the male exhibits a greater variability 7i4e4 a greater range of spreading down from and up above the average7 than the female4 ,the male is the agent of variation2 the female is the agent of type conservation4 ,this sex difference operates in the realm of mental ability as everywhere4 ,in any comparable group of men and women1 the distribution of intelligence will tend to follow the law of chances 7,gaussian ,curve74 ,but female intelligence will cluster far more about its average than male4 ,there will be more imbeciles and idiots among men1 but there will also be more geniuses4 ,it is really very simple1 as the following arbitrary example will show4 ,supposing you take comparable sample groups of #ajjj men and #ajjj women from a given population4 ,after testing them for grade of intelligence1 you classify them according to previously accepted 8intelligence classes40 ,your results would tend to read a little like this3 ,number ,number ,intelligence ,class ,men ,women ,idiots #aj #c ,inferior #ajj #ej ,slow #bjj #aej ,average #chj #eie ,able #bjj #aej ,highly ,talented #ajj #eb ,geniuses #aj 44 ,of course none of the proponents of this theory would state the alleged facts of man's greater variability in such bald terms4 ,but all of them would agree that men do vary more than women and in some such fashion4 ,in this greater variability they see the explanation of men's monopoly of genius4 ,according to ,karl ,pearson this 8law of the greater variability of the male0 was first stated by ,darwin4 ,somewhat earlier1 the anatomist ,meckel had concluded that the female is more variable than the male4 ,it is interesting to note in passing that he consequently judged 8variation a sign of inferiority40 ,by the time ,burdach1 ,darwin1 and others had declared the male more variable1 however1 variation had become an advantage and the basis and hope of all progress4 ,to-day great social significance is attached to the comparative variability of the sexes1 especially in its application to the questions of sex differences in mental achievement4 ,probably the outstanding ,english-speaking supporters of the theory in its modern form have been ,havelock ,ellis and ,dr4 ,g4 ,stanley ,hall4 ,but even so cautious a student as ,dr4 ,e4 ,l4 ,thorndike has granted it his guarded support4 ,and ,dr4 ,james ,mc,keen ,cattell has explained the results of his study of #ajjj eminent characters of history by means of it4 ,indeed many others hold the theory in one form or another--e4g4 ,mnsterburg1 ,patrick4 ,what is most important1 of course1 is that its supporters do not stop with the mere statement of the theory4 ,they ascribe to it tremendous effects in the past and ask for it a large influence in the shaping of our policies in the present4 ,for ,havelock ,ellis1 the greater variability of the male 8has social and practical consequences of the widest significance4 ,the whole of our human civilization would have been a different thing if in early zological epochs the male had not acquired a greater variational tendency than the female40 78,man and ,woman10 p4 #chg47 ,professor ,hall builds up upon it a scheme of gushingly paradisaical 7and properly boring7 education for the adolescent girl1 which 8keeps the purely mental back0 and develops the soul1 the body1 and the intuitions4 78,the ,psychology of ,adolescence10 ,vol4 ,,ii1 ,chap4 #ag47 ,just because ,professor ,thorndike is so careful in his statements1 his practical deductions from the theory are most interesting3 8,thus the function of education for women1 though not necessarily differentiated by the small differences in average capacity1 is differentiated by the difference in range of ability4 ,not only the probability and desirability of marriage and the training of children as an essential feature of women's career but also the restriction of women to the mediocre grades of ability and achievement should be reckoned with by our educational systems4 ,the education of women for such professions as administration1 statesmanship1 philosophy1 or scientific research1 where a few very gifted individuals are what society requires1 is far less needed than education for such professions as nursing1 teaching1 medicine1 or architecture1 where the average level is essential4 ,elementary education is probably an even better investment for the community in the case of girls than in the case of boys2 for almost all girls profit by it1 whereas the extremely low grade boy may not be up to his school education in zeal or capacity and the extremely high grade boy may get on better without it4 ,so also with high school education4 ,on the other hand1 post graduate instruction to which women are flocking in great numbers is1 at least in its higher reaches1 a far more remunerative social investment in the case of men40 78,sex in ,education10 ,bookman1 ,vol4 ,,xxiii1 ,april1 #aijf1 p4 #bac47 ,before we begin the revision of our educational systems in accordance with this theory1 we must make sure that it really explains away the 8female geniuses40 ,for although the theory is still widely held by biologists and psychologists1 it requires only a short study to discover how tenuous is the evidence adduced in support of it--in all its phases1 but especially in regard to mental traits4 ,darwin apparently gave no statistical evidence to support 8the principle10 as he called it1 and those who have followed him have done little to fill the lack4 ,professor ,hall offers evidence that is almost entirely empirical2 ,havelock ,ellis has been attacked by ,karl ,pearson for doing much 8to perpetuate some of the worst of the pseudo-scientific superstitions to which he ,ellis refers1 notably that of the greater variability of the male human being40 ,professor ,thorndike1 in spite of his conclusions1 admits that it 8is unfortunate that so little information is available for a study of sex differences in the variability of mental traits in the case of individuals over fifteen40 ,and while the overwhelming majority of ,professor ,cattell's #ajjj eminent characters are men1 he merely states without proving his explanation that 8woman departs less from the normal than man40 ,wise feminists to-day are concentrating their forces upon this theory4 ,women have won the right to an acknowledged mind2 they want now the right to draw for genius and high talents in the 8curve of chance40 ,and this is no merely academic question4 ,for while genius may overcome the sternest physical barriers of environment1 it is nourished and developed by tolerant expectancy4 ,men may accomplish anything1 popular thought tells them1 and so some men do4 ,but if women are scientifically excluded from the popular expectation of big things1 if their educations are toned down to preparation for 8the average level10 if motherhood remains the only respected career for all women1 then the female geniuses will remain few and far between4 ,and1 more important still1 all thinking women will continue restless over the problem of how to secure the chance to vary in interests and abilities from the average of their sex1 and at the same time to be wives and mothers4 ,in this fight for a full chance to compete1 woman may do one 7or all7 of three things4 ,she may merely ignore the theory and go on 8working and living10 trusting that as environmental barriers fall one after the other1 this final question1 too1 will lose its meaning4 ,she can point out in support of this attitude that the past does contain its female geniuses1 however few2 and certainly if all the barriers that have been set up against woman's entry into the larger world have not entirely stifled female genius1 we may at least look forward hopefully to a kinder future4 ,something of this attitude1 of this demand for free experimentation1 must make part of every woman's armor against the implications of this theory4 ,but taken alone1 it becomes more merely defensive than the status of the theory deserves4 ,for it is really the theory that must defend itself4 ,it must not only bring forward more affirmative evidence1 but it must also meet the contrary findings of such investigation as has been made4 ,it must1 again1 prove its title to the cause of the scarcity of female geniuses when so many other more eradicable causes may be at its bottom4 ,the actual evidence that has been gathered on this question is still uncertain and fragmentary4 ,while it does not yet establish anything definitely1 it points to rather surprising conclusions4 ,in all cases investigated the discovered differences in variability have been very slight1 and if they balance either way tend to prove a greater variability among women4 ,neither sex need have a monopoly of either imbeciles or geniuses1 but women may yet be found to be slightly more favored with both6 ,the first painstaking investigation in this field was made by ,dr4 ,karl ,pearson who published his interesting results as one essay in his ,chances of ,death and ,other ,studies in ,evolution in #ahig4 ,under the heading 8,variation in ,man and ,woman0 7,vol4 ,i1 pp4 #bef-cgg71 written as a polemical attack upon ,havelock ,ellis's stand in this theory1 he set forth results of measurements upon men and women in seventeen anatomical characteristics4 ,he obtained his data from statistics already collected1 from measurements of living men and women1 and from post-mortem and archeological examinations4 ,female variability 7coefficients of variation7 proved greater in eleven of these seventeen characteristics1 male in six4 ,he concluded among other things that 8there is 444 no evidence of greater male variability1 but rather of a slightly greater female variability4 ,accordingly the principle that man is more variable than woman must be put on one side as a pseudo-scientific superstition until it has been demonstrated in a more scientific manner than has hitherto been attempted40 ,to round out this evidence ,doctors ,leta ,hollingworth and ,helen ,montague measured #bj1jjj infants at their birth in the maternity wards of the ,new ,york ,infirmary for ,women and ,children4 ,they sought to discover whether environmental influences played any determining rle in producing the results obtained by ,pearson from measurements upon adults4 ,from the ten anatomical measurements made upon these babies they found that 8in all cases the differences in variability are very slight4 ,in only two cases does the percentile variation differ in the first decimal place4 ,in these two cases the variability is once greater for males and once greater for females40 78,the ,comparative ,variability of the ,sexes at ,birth10 ,american ,journal of ,sociology1 ,vol4 ,,xx1 #aiad-aiae1 pp4 #cce-cgj47 ,the findings on anatomical variability do not1 of course1 necessarily prove anything about differences in the range of mental ability4 ,they do1 however1 suggest the probability of parallel results and such studies as have been made tend1 on the whole1 to bear this out4 ,all the recent work in this field 7and it is still fragmentary7 seems to point at least to equal mental variability among men and women4 ,in #aiag1 ,terman and others in their 8,stanford ,revision of the ,binet-,simon ,scale for ,measuring ,intelligence0 investigated this problem among school children from five to fourteen years old4 ,they obtained the ,intelligence ,quotients of #deg boys and #ddh girls and compared these ,i4,q4's with teachers' estimates and judgments of intelligence and work and with the age grade distribution of the sexes for the ages of #g to #ad4 ,after making all necessary qualifications1 they concluded that the tests revealed a small superiority in the intelligence of the girls that 8probably rests upon a real superiority in intelligence1 age for age40 ,but 8apart from the small superiority of the girls1 the distribution of intelligence shows no significant differences in the sexes4 ,the data offer no support to the wide-spread belief that girls group themselves more closely about the median or that extremes of intelligence are more common among boys0 7p4 #hc74 ,dr4 ,hollingworth1 again1 has made a study of mental differences for adults4 ,she has summarized the results of recent studies in sex differences in mental variability and in tastes1 perceptions1 interests1 etc4 ,her conclusions on this score are interesting3 87#a7 ,the greater variability of males in anatomical traits is not established1 but is debated by authorities of perhaps equal competence4 7#b7 ,but even if it were established1 it would only suggest1 not prove1 that men are more variable in mental traits also4 ,the empirical data at present available on this point are inadequate and contradictory1 and if they point either way1 actually indicate greater female variability44440 78,variability as ,related to ,sex ,differences in ,achievement10 ,american ,journal of ,sociology1 ,vol4 ,,xix1 pp4 #eaj-ecj1 ,jan41 #aiad47 ,it seems hardly safe scientifically1 therefore1 to restrict women to the average levels in education and work and profession on the ground that eminence is beyond their range4 ,but if the female geniuses have not been cut off by a comparatively narrowed range of mental ability1 where are they8 ,certainly history does not reveal them in anything like satisfactory number4 ,and it is now that women may bring forward their third weapon of attack4 ,the female geniuses may have been missing not because of an inherent lack in the make-up of the sex1 but because of the oppressive1 restrictive cultural conditions under which women have been forced to live4 ,the important rle played by cultural conditions in the cultural achievement of various nations and races has been noted with increasing emphasis by the newer schools of sociology and anthropology4 ,no scholar can now defend unchallenged a thesis of 8lower or higher races0 by urging the achievements of any race as an index of its range of mental ability4 ,culture grows by its own laws and the high position of the white race may be as much a product of favorable circumstances as of exceptional innate capacities4 ,similarly the expression taken by the genius of various nations appears to vary strikingly4 ,this is especially impressive in the realm of music4 ,the ,anglo-,saxon peoples are singularly lacking in great musical composers4 ,neither ,britain nor ,america1 nor indeed any of the northern countries have contributed one composer worthy of mention beside the ,beethovens and ,wagners and ,chopins of this art4 ,indeed the great names in music are generally of ,german1 ,latin or ,slavic origin4 ,yet no one thinks of urging this fact as evidence of an ,anglo-,saxon failure of major creativeness4 ,instead we point to achievements in other fields or at most attempt to explain this peculiar lack by some external causation4 ,similarly all our impatience with the un-artistic approaches of the ,american people does not lead us to frame a theory of their lack of genius4 ,there are many cultural factors to be considered first4 ,but as soon as we approach the problem of female genius1 too many of us are apt to bring forward an entirely different kind of interpretation4 ,we pass over the undoubted female geniuses lightly--granting ,sappho and ,bonheur and ,brunn and ,eliot and ,bront and ,amster and ,madame ,curie and ,caroline ,herschel and perhaps even ,chaminade and ,clara ,schumann and several others4 ,we admit the undoubtedly significant parts women are playing in modern literature4 ,but the question always remains4 ,yet in no national or racial group have cultural influences exercised so restrictive an influence as among the entire female sex4 ,not only has the larger world been closed to them1 not only has popular opinion assumed that 8no woman has it in her10 but the bearing and rearing of children has carried with it in the past the inescapable drudgery of housework4 ,and this is 8a field10 as ,dr4 ,hollingworth points out1 8where eminence is not possible40 ,it was ,prudhon who sneered in response to a similar argument that 8women could not even invent their distaff40 ,but we now know enough about the laws of invention to realize how unfair such sneering is4 ,professor ,franz ,boas and his school have long demonstrated that cultural achievement and mental ability are not necessarily correlated4 ,for material culture1 once it begins1 tends to grow by accumulation and diffusion4 ,each generation adds to the existing stock of knowledge1 and as the stock grows the harvests necessarily become greater4 ,modern man need have no greater mental ability than the men of the ice ages to explain why his improvements upon the myriad machines and tools that are his yield so much larger a harvest than the ,paleolithic hunters' improvements upon their few flint weapons and industrial processes4 ,for1 as ,professor ,ogburn has well shown 7in 8,social ,change10 ,part ,,iii7 all invention contains two elements--a growing cultural base and inventive genius to work with the materials it furnishes4 ,the number of new inventions necessarily grows with the cultural base4 ,even #ej times #ajj make only #ejjj1 but #b times #a1jjj1jjj make #b1jjj1jjj4 ,countless generations have added their share to the total material culture which is ours and which we shall hand down still more enriched to posterity4 ,it must be at once obvious that there has been no such cultural growth in housework4 ,housework has long remained an individualized1 non-cumulative industry1 where daughter learns from mother the old ways of doing things4 ,the small improvements and ingenuities which most housewives devise seldom find their way into the whole stream of culture4 ,thus it is that the recent great inventions which are slowly revolutionizing this last stronghold of petty individualism have come from the man-made world4 ,workers in electricity could more easily devise the vacuum cleaner than the solitary housewife2 the electric washer1 parquet floors1 the tin can1 quantity production of stockings1 wool1 clothing1 bread1 butter1 and all the other instruments that have really made possible women's emancipation have naturally come not from women's minds 7any more than from men's7 but from the growth of culture and the minds that utilize that growth for further expansion4 ,consequently1 as women participate in the work of the world and win the right to acquire the results of past achievement in science and technique and art1 we may expect their contributions to the social advance to appear in ever greater numbers4 ,until we give them this full chance to contribute1 we have no right to explain the paucity of their gifts to society by inherent lacks4 ,and it seems reasonable to expect that such a chance will render the old quest for female geniuses properly old-fashioned4 ,for they will be there1 these women--the able and talented and geniuses--working side by side with men1 not as 8very great men0 nor as necessarily 8depraved0 nor in any way unusual4 ,they will be there as human beings and as women4 ,man and ,woman as ,creators ,by ,alexander ,goldenweiser ,alexander ,goldenweiser1 psychologist and anthropologist1 is a lecturer at the ,new ,school for ,social ,research in ,new ,york4 ,,man ,,and ,,woman ,,as ,,creators ,,by ,,alexander ,,goldenweiser 8,a hen is no bird1 a woman--no human10 says a ,russian proverb4 ,in this drastic formulation stands written the history of centuries4 ,woman's claim to 8human0ness was at times accepted with reservations1 at other times it was boldly challenged and even to-day when woman's legal1 social1 economic and political disabilities have been largely removed1 woman's acceptance in society as man's equal remains dependent on a definition of the 8equal40 ,as in the case of the mental capacity of races1 the question of woman's intellectual status was never judged on its merits4 ,rather1 it was accepted as a practical social postulate1 then rationalized into the likeness of an inductive conclusion4 ,the problem seems so replete with temptations for special pleading that a thoroughly impartial attitude becomes well-nigh impossible4 ,however1 let us attempt it6 ,is woman psychologically identical with man8 or1 if there is a difference1 is it one of superiority and inferiority8 ,and of what practical significance is this issue to society8 ,two ways of approach are open3 subject men and women to psychological tests1 or observe performance in life and1 exercising due critical care1 infer capacity4 ,both methods have been tried4 ,the first enjoys to-day a certain vogue3 it is the method of science1 of experimental psychology4 ,unfortunately1 the findings of science in this field have to date resulted in precisely nothing4 ,it was feasible to assume that woman was man's equal in elementary sensory capacity1 in memory1 types and varieties of associations1 attention1 sensitiveness to pain1 heat and cold1 etc4 ,experimental psychology has confirmed these assumptions4 ,but what of it8 ,what can we make of it8 ,precisely nothing4 ,what we are interested in is whether woman can think 8as logically0 as man1 whether she is more intuitive1 more emotional1 less imaginative1 more practical1 less honest1 more sensitive1 a better judge of human nature4 ,these1 among many other interesting issues cannot even be broached by experimental psychology 8within the present state of our knowledge40 ,remains the second method1 to observe performance and infer capacity4 ,to examine in this fashion all the issues involved would require a small library4 ,i select only one1 creativeness4 ,is woman man's equal in creativeness8 ,the choice is justified by the highly controversial character of the issue as well as its practical bearings4 ,two periods in the history of civilization lend themselves admirably for our purpose1 the primitive and the modern4 ,the primitive world was not innocent of discrimination against woman4 ,in social and political leadership1 in the ownership and disposition of property1 in religion and ceremonialism1 woman was subjected to more or less drastic restrictions4 ,it would1 therefore1 be obviously unfair to expect her creativeness in these fields to have equaled or even approximated that of man4 ,not so in industry and art1 where division of labor prevailed1 but no sex disability4 ,as one surveys the technical and artistic pursuits of primitive tribes1 woman's participation is everywhere in evidence4 ,the baskets of ,california1 the painted pots of the ,pueblos1 the beaded embroideries of the ,plains1 the famous ,chilkat blankets1 the tapa cloth of ,polynesia1 all of these were woman's handiwork4 ,almost everywhere she plans and cuts and sews and decorates the garments worn by women as well as men4 ,also1 in all primitive communities she gathers the wild products of vegetation and transforms them into palatable foods4 ,more than this1 in societies that know not the plow woman is1 with few exceptions1 the agriculturist4 ,it follows that the observations1 skills1 techniques and inventions involved in these pursuits must also be credited to woman4 ,it will be conceded that in primitive society woman's record is impressive3 wherever she is permitted to apply her creativeness she makes good1 and the excellence of her achievement is equal to that of man1 certainly not conspicuously inferior to his4 ,in evaluating these findings1 however1 it is important to take cognizance of the submergence of individual initiative by the tribal pattern1 a feature characteristic of primitive life4 ,this applies to men and women1 to artisans and artists4 ,imaginative flights being cut short by traditional norms1 the individualism and subjectivism of modern art are here conspicuous by their absence4 ,how does this record compare with a survey of the modern period8 ,here again woman's disabilities in the social1 political and religious realms were so marked that creative participation was impossible4 ,the same is true of architecture4 ,then come philosophy1 mathematics1 science1 and sculpture1 painting1 literature1 music and the drama4 ,in philosophy and mathematics there is no woman in the ranks of supreme excellence4 ,even ,sonya ,kovalevsky1 though a talent1 was not a great mathematician4 ,in science also1 where women have done fine things1 none are found among the brightest luminaries4 ,it must be added1 moreover1 that the few women who have made their mark in the scientific field1 notably ,mme4 ,curie1 have done so in the laboratory1 not in the more abstract and imaginative domain of theoretical science4 ,at this point some may protest that the period during which women have had a chance to test their talents in philosophy1 mathematics and science was too short1 their number too small1 and that here once more performance cannot fairly be used as a measure of possible achievement4 ,we must heed this protest4 ,as to sculpture1 painting1 literature1 music and the drama1 ,i claim that woman's protracted disabilities cannot in any way be held accountable for whatever her performance may be found to be4 ,women artists1 musicians1 writers and1 of course1 actresses1 have been with us for a long time4 ,their number is large and on the increase4 ,whether married or single1 they devote their energies to these pursuits quite unhampered by social taboos4 ,there are in this field no taboos against women4 ,in the ,united ,states1 in fact1 these occupations are held to be more suitable for women than for men4 ,but what do we find8 ,in painting and sculpture1 no women among the best1 although considerable numbers among the second best and below4 ,there is no woman ,rodin or ,meunier or ,klinger or ,renoir or ,picasso4 ,in literature the case for woman stands better4 ,here women have performed wonderfully1 both in poetry and prose4 ,if they have fallen short1 it is only of supreme achievement4#b ,finally we come to music and the stage4 ,the case of music is admirably suited for our purpose1 is really a perfect test case4 ,what do we find8 ,as performers1 where minor creativeness suffices1 women have equaled the best among men4 ,as composers1 where creativeness of the highest order is essential1 they have failed4 ,we have a ,carreo or ,novaes to match a ,hofmann or ,levitski1 a ,melba or ,sembrich to match a ,caruso or de,reszke1 a ,morini or ,powell or ,parlow to match a ,heifetz or ,elman or ,kreisler2 but there is no woman to match a ,beethoven or ,wagner or ,strauss or ,mahler or ,stravinsky1 or ,rachmaninoff--a composer-performer4 ,the situation in drama is almost equally illuminating4 ,here women have reached the top1 have done it so frequently and persistently1 in fact1 as to challenge men1 some think successfully so4 ,but as dramatic writers the few women who tried have never succeeded to rise above moderate excellence4 ,a ,rachel or ,duse can hold her own as against a ,possart or ,orlenyev1 a ,bernhardt looms as high as an ,irving1 ,booth or ,salvini2 but there is no woman to compare with a ,molire or ,ostrovski or ,rostand or ,hauptmann or ,chekhov or ,kapek4 ,if now we glance once more at the primitive record the conclusion suggested by an analysis of music and the drama is greatly renforced4 ,in primitive society woman1 whenever opportunity was given her1 equaled man in creativeness2 in modern society she has uniformly failed in the highest ranges4 ,the results are not incompatible4 ,as indicated before1 in early days cultural conditions precluded the exercise of creativeness on the part of the individual except on a minor scale1 in modern society major creativeness is possible and has been realized4 ,woman's creative achievement reaches the top when the top is relatively low2 when the top itself rises1 she falls behind4 ,to analyze this fact further is no easy task4 ,we may not assume1 as some do1 that the difference between major and minor creativeness lies in degrees of rationality4 ,this is certainly erroneous4 ,the true creator is what he is1 not because of his rationality but because of what he does with it4 ,the differentia1 as ,i see them1 are two3 boldness of imagination and tremendous concentration on self4 ,the creator1 when he creates1 is spiritually alone2 he dominates his material by drawing it into the self and he permits his imagination1 for once torn off the moorings of tradition and precedent1 to indulge in flights of gigantic sweep4 ,imagination and personality exalted to the nth power--not rationality--are the marks of the highest creativeness4 ,in the possession of these traits1 then1 as here understood1 woman is somehow restricted4 ,she has them1 of course1 and exercises them1 but not on the very highest level4 ,we might stop right here1 but it is hard to suppress at least a tentative interpretation4 ,if the personality-imagination complex is where woman fails at the top1 then it becomes a priori probable that this difference between man and woman constitutes a remote sex characteristic4 ,and if this is so1 then it may prove worth our while to look for a corresponding difference on a level more directly connected with sex life4 ,no sooner is this done than a difference does indeed appear1 and it meets our expectations1 for it lies in the direction of personality or self-concentration as well as of imagination4 ,woman is never so much 8a part of0 as when she loves1 man never so 8whole02 her self dissolves1 his crystallizes4 ,also1 woman's love is less imaginative than man's3 man is more like what woman's love makes him out to be than woman is like what man's love makes her out to be4 ,relatively speaking1 his love is romantic1 hers realistic4 ,this difference in the diagnostic features of man's love and woman's love confirms our suspicion that the discrepancy in performance1 where the personality-imagination complex is involved1 constitutes a remote sex characteristic4 ,we must now turn once more to woman's achievement in the different fields of cultural creativeness1 for the variation in the degree of excellence reached by her provides a valuable clue as to where her strength lies4 ,in an ascending series of woman's achievements musical composition is at the bottom of the list1 then come sculpture and painting1 then literature 7with a strange drop in dramatic writing71 then instrumental and vocal performance2 acting1 finally1 heads the list4 ,this order is most illuminating4 ,the relative excellence of woman's achievement is seen to rise with the concreteness of the task and the prominence of the technical and human elements4 ,creativeness is more abstract in music than in the plastic and graphic arts1 more abstract in these than in literature2 and in each case woman's relative achievement increases as abstractness decreases4 ,even the peculiar drop in dramatic writing when compared with other forms of literature is explicable in terms of a more abstract sort of creativeness required by the formal elements of dramatic art4 ,again1 the high position in the list of musical performers and actresses1 must in part be ascribed to the importance of the technical element in these arts4 ,the preeminence of the musical performers is probably entirely due to this factor1 although the intrusion of the human element 7performing for an audience7 may also have a share in the result4 ,in the case of acting the human element is the most important factor1 for here there is not only an audience to act to but the human content of the acting itself4 ,the human orientation also accounts for the relatively high position of literature in the list when compared to sculpture and painting and to musical composition4 ,finally1 the creativeness of musical performance and acting--two fields in which woman excels--is concrete when compared to that of literature1 the arts and musical composition4 ,incidentally1 a sidelight is thus thrown on the case of science where woman's relative preeminence is found in the concrete and technical domain of the laboratory4 ,the preceding analysis leads to the conclusion that woman's strength lies in the concrete as contrasted with the abstract1 the technical as contrasted with the ideational1 the human as contrasted with the universal and detached4 ,this conclusion1 it may be of interest to note1 harmonizes perfectly with the general consensus of mankind1 as expressed in lay opinion and the judgments of literary men4 ,to summarize3 in all fields of cultural activity opened to her1 woman has shown creative ability1 but since cultural conditions have made major creativeness possible1 she has failed1 in comparison with man1 in the highest ranges of abstract creativeness4 ,on the other hand1 woman has shown in her psychic disposition affinities for the concrete1 the technical and the human4 ,before closing1 these findings may be utilized for a prognostication of woman's activities in the immediate and more remote future4 ,the present tendency toward equalizing the cultural opportunities of man and woman will no doubt persist4 ,thus the range of woman's cultural contributions will expand and the excellence of her creative achievement will rise1 especially in the fields in which she has so far had but little chance to try her hand4 ,it is to be expected1 however1 that in the highest ranges of abstract creativeness in philosophy1 science1 art1 music1 and perhaps literature1 she will fail as she has hitherto failed to equal man4 ,her concrete-mindedness will ever continue to provide a useful counterpoise to the more imaginative and abstract leanings of her male companion4 ,her technical talents will shine more brilliantly in a world in which the crafts will again occupy the prominent place which was theirs once before4 ,but her unique contributions will come in the range of the human element4 ,in this respect1 woman's principal affinity is calculated to bear its choicest fruits in a world better than the one we live in4 ,when formalism recedes from the field of education1 as indeed it has already begun to do1 and gives room for more individual and psychologically refined processes1 woman's share in education will grow in scope and creativeness4 ,when the family has left behind the agonies of its present readjustments1 the reconstruction of a freer and happier family life will largely rest on the shoulders of woman4 ,when prisons will be turned into hospitals and criminals will be treated as patients1 woman's sensitiveness1 insight and tact will bring her leadership in this field4 ,when a return of leisure and the reduction of economic pressure will permit a revival of the more intimate forms of social intercourse1 woman's social talents will find new fields to conquer4 ,when the world of nations will sheathe its sword forever--an event toward the realization of which woman will probably contribute more than man--woman1 to whom nothing human is foreign1 will at last be free to show the world what she can accomplish as the mother of the family of man4 ,,footnotes3 #b ,we need not mention a ,dante1 ,shakespeare1 ,cervantes or ,milton4 ,perhaps these are too far back4 ,not so ,tolstoi1 ,dostoyevski1 ,turgenev1 ,goethe1 ,heine1 ,balzac1 ,maupassant1 the ,goncourts1 ,flaubert1 ,byron1 ,browning1 ,shelley1 ,emerson1 ,walt ,whitman4 ,where are their equals among women8 ,and coming down to the modern period1 when literature is flooded with feminine figures1 is there one who can be placed beside ,anatole ,france or d',annunzio or ,proust or ,gorki or even ,bernard ,shaw 7not to mention ,ibsen78 ,the feminine names that might be cited in comparison are obvious enough1 but would any of them measure up to these--quite8 ,however1 let me mention ,katherine ,mansfield1 ,edith ,wharton1 ,edna ,st4 ,vincent ,millay4 ,and ,i may add ,sheila ,kaye-,smith1 ,willa ,cather1 ,selma ,lagerlf and ,margurite ,audou4 ,i realize1 of course1 that such comparisons1 except in a most sweeping statement1 are invidious4 ,a better picture could be obtained by juxtaposing1 one to one1 writers of similar type and literary form--but this is a task for a volume4 ,dominant ,sexes ,by ,m4 ,vaerting ,m4 ,vaerting1 one of a group of ,german anthropologists whose lectures and articles have attracted much attention in ,europe2 is also part author of 8,the ,dominant ,sex10 recently published in the ,united ,states4 ,,dominant ,,sexes ,,by ,m4 ,,vaerting ,certain peculiarities of physical form are to-day considered typical feminine sex characters4 ,thus roundness and fullness of figure are generally regarded as characteristic of women2 larger size and strength among men are accepted as a sex difference1 biologically determined4 ,but this theory1 like the entire doctrine of secondary sex characters1 stands upon a doubtful basis4 ,it has grown up out of a comparison of men and women in very unequal situations4 ,the bodies of men and women whose field of work and type of occupation differ widely have been compared4 ,the man attends to the extra-domestic activities1 while the woman is chiefly occupied at home4 ,bachofen writes3 8,if a man sits at a spinning-wheel a weakening of body and of soul will inevitably follow40 ,charles de ,coster in his 8,wedding ,journey0 makes the significant remark3 8,work in the fields had given ,liska hips like a robust man's40 ,certain of the physical differences between men and women may therefore be sociologically determined rather than due to inborn differences4 ,one may object that the division of labor between the sexes1 in which the woman takes the domestic and the man the extra-domestic sphere1 is itself determined by inborn sex differences4 ,even in ,socrates's time it was believed that the nature of the sexes fixed their fields of activity4 ,man was unquestionably intended for matters which must be attended to outside the house1 8while the weak and timid woman was by divine order assigned to the inner work of the home40 ,after thorough investigation it appears that this hoary theory1 which still persists1 is false4 ,the division of labor between man and woman corresponds not to an innate difference but to their power-relation4 ,if man dominates he says that woman's place is the home1 and that work outside the home is fit only for men4 ,if woman is dominant then she has the opposite opinion1 takes care of business outside the home1 and leaves the man to take care of the family and the housekeeping4 ,the ruling sex1 whether male or female1 always puts the domestic duties on the subordinate sex and takes to itself work outside the home4 ,to-day man is dominant1 but there have been many peoples among whom woman was dominant and the rle of man and woman was the reverse of that common to-day4 ,in ancient ,egypt there was a period when women ruled4 ,herodotus reports that they unnaturally performed 8masculine0 activities1 carried on commerce in the market-place1 while the men stayed at home1 sewed1 and attended to domestic difficulties4 ,to ,herodotus1 who came from a state where men were dominant1 the work of the ,egyptian women naturally seemed 8male40 ,in the ,talmud ,herodotus's report is confirmed4 ,the children of ,israel1 it tells us1 were disturbed because their men were forced to do women's work and their women men's work4 ,in ,sophocles's 8dipus ,kolonos0 dipus says to his two daughters3 8,ha1 how they imitate the ,egyptians in the manner and meaning of life4 ,there the men stay home and sit at the spinning-wheel1 and the women go out to meet the needs of life40 dipus also mentions the fact reported also by ,herodotus1 that only the daughters1 not the sons1 were compelled in ,egypt to support their parents4 ,the sons could not fulfill that duty1 ,sophocles says1 because1 like the ,greek girls1 they stayed at home and had no income from their labor4 ,furthermore1 they had only a limited right to own property4 ,one might cite many other peoples where the woman was dominant4 ,among the ,kamchadales the men1 in the days of female dominance1 were such complete housewives that they cooked1 sewed1 washed1 and were never allowed to stay away from home for more than a day4 ,similarly among the ,lapps there was a period when the men did the housework while the women fished and sailed the sea4 ,under such circumstances the men also took care of the children4 ,strabo and ,humboldt both report of the ,vasko-,iberian races that the women worked in the fields2 after child birth they turned the child over to the man and themselves resumed their work in the fields4 ,a similar arrangement prevailed in the days when women ruled ,lybia1 which bordered upon ,egypt4 ,when one sex is dominant there is always a division of labor4 ,this differentiation of occupation is one of the chief causes of certain differences in physical form between men and women4 ,it changes the fundamental conditions of development--among others the course of the inner secretions4 ,where man rules he does the active outside work and is accordingly larger and stronger2 where woman rules and does the same 8man's work0 her body assumes what are to-day regarded as typically male proportions1 whereas the man develops what we call feminine characteristics4 ,we have a few definite proofs of this from states dominated by women4 ,when woman ruled among the ,gauls1 and worked outside the home1 we are told by ,strabo that the female was the larger and stronger sex4 ,among the ,adombies on the ,congo women were in power and did all the hard work4 ,according to ,ellis they were stronger and better developed than the men4 ,the same was true of the ,wateita in ,east ,africa4 ,fritsch and ,hellwald report that the woman is larger than the man among the ,bushmen4 ,female and male pelvises show no differences1 but are alike 8male0 in our sense of the word4 ,the ,spartan women in the days of their rule had a reputation for enormous strength4 ,aristophanes says that a ,spartan woman could strangle an ox bare-handed4 ,the ,egyptian women at the height of their power were called by their neighbors the 8lionesses of the ,nile10 and they seemed to like the name4 ,when ,heracles visited the ,lybians1 whose state bordered on ,egypt and of whose rule by women we have many witnesses1 he had to work1 like the other men of the country1 with the distaff4 ,his wife ,omphale1 however1 wandered about clad in a lionskin and armed with a club1 and won respect for her strength4 ,a very striking report comes from near ,new ,guinea1 where the woman was stronger than the man4 ,there it was a common sight to see a woman spanking her husband with a paddle4 ,through the brute force of superior strength she oppressed the man just as men oppress women where the woman is weaker4 ,thus through legend and the records of travelers we have clear testimony that man is not larger and stronger than woman because of innate differences1 as is generally supposed1 but that physical superiority is a characteristic of the dominant sex1 regardless whether that be male or female4 ,similarly those secondary physical characteristics which are to-day regarded as female are found among males when they occupy the subordinate position in which woman lives to-day4 ,woman is inclined to-day to full1 rounded curves and even to stoutness4 ,among the ,celts the woman dominated1 and according to ,strabo the men of that people were inclined to be fat and heavy-paunched4 ,the same was true of the ,kamchadales in the days of woman rule4 ,the men were strikingly voluptuous and well rounded4 ,the male ,eskimos too were inclined to fatness in the days when they did the housekeeping4 ,the more subordinate the fatter4 ,in this connection the ,oriental women are typical2 their exuberance of figure is as well known as their absolute subordination and their confinement to the home4 ,they may be contrasted with the fat and subordinate male ,kamchadales1 whose wives were slim and firm breasted into old age4 ,equal rights do away with this division of labor4 ,there are no longer male and female jobs2 not sex but inclination and fitness now begin to determine the individual's occupation4 ,in late ,egypt1 when the domination of woman was merging into a period of equal rights1 there are many indications that both sexes did the same work without any differentiation of occupation4 ,in the marriage contract in the time of ,darius1 the woman--who then made the contract alone--says1 8,all1 which you and ,i may together earn44440 ,victor ,marx has studied the position of woman in ,babylon in the period #fjd-dhe ,b4,c41 and finds a similar situation4 ,in an inheritance case of that period a woman recites that 8,i and my husband carried on business with my dowry and together bought a piece of land40 ,such common businesses by man and woman are frequently mentioned4 ,under such circumstances it was natural that neither man nor woman bound themselves at marriage to live in the same house1 for both went to work outside the home4 ,to-day1 when we are passing from male domination to equal rights it is natural that the woman should be seeking more and more to get out of the home4 ,the greater her power the more she seeks to level the lines between male and female work4 ,this effort is strongest in the subordinate sex--in this case the feminine--because it seeks naturally to better its position4 ,in this transition period1 therefore1 women are pressing into male pursuits much faster than men into domestic occupations4 ,yet even in ,germany a beginning has been made4 ,for women the male professions seem higher and better1 because they have hitherto belonged to the dominant sex1 while for the men feminine occupations seem to have about them something degrading2 but the more women approach equality the less odium attaches to what has been their sphere1 and the more men tend to enter it4 ,the same phenomenon may be observed in periods of transition from female to male domination4 ,among the ,batta1 for instance1 both sexes worked in the fields1 but the man alone cared for the children4 ,this was obviously a step toward equal rights4 ,the men already shared the extra-domestic occupations of the women1 but the women still refused to share the work of the hitherto subordinate men4 ,when equal rights put an end to the differentiation of occupation the physical differences between men and women also disappear4 ,we are to-day still far enough away from equality of the sexes1 but there have been people where equal rights prevailed1 and among such people the physical form of the two sexes was so like that they could hardly be distinguished4 ,in ,tacitus's day1 when equality was probably general among the ,germans1 men and women are reported to have had exactly the same weight and strength4 ,albert ,friedenthal says of the ,cingalese that a stranger could not distinguish the sexes4 ,men and women were so alike among the ,botocudos that one had to count their tresses to tell them apart4 ,lallemant found among this people 8a swarm of men-women and women-men1 not a single man or a single woman in the whole tribe40 ,this good man came from a state where men dominated and did not suspect that when the power-relation of the sexes changed their physical appearance changed too4 ,if a ,botocudo had come to ,europe in those days he would presumably have judged by his own standards and noted with equal horror the outer differences of ,european men and women4 ,every age holds its own standards absolute4 ,the domination of one sex depends upon the artificial development of as many and as striking bodily differences as possible1 and therefore approves them and insists upon emphasizing them4 ,equal rights tend to develop the natural similarity of the sexes and considering that the norm1 regards it as ideal4 ,there is ample opportunity to observe to-day that equality of the sexes coincides with a tendency slowly to do away with artificial physical differences4 ,the disappearance of the so-called feminine figure was so striking in ,america1 where the sexes are more nearly equal than in ,europe1 that ,sargent and ,alexander prophesied in #aiaj that soon men and women could hardly be distinguished from one another4 ,a comparison with pictures of thirty or forty years ago makes it plain that even in ,europe male and female figures are coming closer to each other4 ,the narrow waists and full bosoms of the women and the full beards of the men have disappeared4 ,and1 as a result of our investigation1 we may prophesy that the coming equality will still more completely iron out those differences which hitherto have been regarded as genuine secondary sex characters4 ,whenever one sex is dominant there is a tendency to differentiate male and female costume4 ,the more completely one sex dominates the greater will be the differences in clothes1 and as the sexes become equal the differences disappear4 ,when the two sexes are really equal they will wear the same clothing4 ,the clothing of the dominant sex usually tends to be uniform and tasteless1 that of the subordinate to be varied and richly ornamented4 ,to-day man is still dominant1 and his clothes are monotonous1 dull1 and less subject to shifts of fashion4 ,especially in formal dress he wears a sort of uniform4 ,all men1 of whatever age or position1 wear dress clothes of the same cut and color4 ,a grandfather wears a dinner coat exactly like that of his eighteen-year-old grandson4 ,this seems natural1 but the situation is reversed with the subordinate sex1 most completely when the subordination is most complete4 ,only twenty or thirty years ago it was a crime in ,germany for a mother to dress as 8youthfully0 as her unmarried daughter4 ,a grandmother who dared to dress like her eighteen-year-old granddaughter would have been laughed to scorn4 ,as woman's power has grown1 this has changed4 ,custom no longer requires a grandmother to emphasize her age by her clothes4 ,where woman dominates she tends to wear darker and plainer clothing and the man dresses himself more richly and variously4 ,erman writes of the old ,egyptians3 ,while according to our conceptions it befits the woman to love finery and ornament1 the ,egyptians of the old ,empire seem to have had an opposite opinion4 ,beside the elaborate costumes of the men the women's clothing seems very monotonous1 for1 from the fourth to the eighteenth dynasty1 all1 from the king's daughter to the peasant woman1 wore the same garb--a simple garment without folds4 ,herodotus1 indeed1 reported that ,egyptian men had two suits1 women only one4 ,erman naturally cannot explain the simplicity of the women's clothes and the eagerness of the men for color and ornament1 because it contradicted current theories of the character of the two sexes4 ,to-day the view is current which ,runge expressed when he said that 8,women's desire to please and love of ornament is dependent upon her sex life40 ,this view1 though still common1 is fundamentally false4 ,the inclination to bright and ornamental clothing is dependent not upon sex but upon the power-relation of the sexes4 ,the subordinate sex1 whether male or female1 seeks ornament4 ,strabo tells of the love of finery and cult of the body among ,lybian men4 ,they curled their hair1 even their beards1 wore gold ornaments1 diligently brushed their teeth and polished their finger-nails4 8,they arrange their hair so tenderly10 he writes1 8that when walking they never touch one another1 in order not to disturb it40 ,it is usual in states where women are dominant for the men to wear long hair and pay particular attention to their barbering4 ,the men of ,tana1 in the ,hebrides1 wore their hair #ah to #bj inches long1 divided into six or seven hundred tiny locks1 in the days when women ruled4 ,among the ,latuka the men wore their hair so elaborately that it took ten years to arrange it4 ,the ,konds also wore very long hair1 elaborately arranged4 ,the stronger tendency of the subordinate sex to ornamentation apparently is closely related to the division of labor4 ,the subordinate sex1 working at home1 has more leisure and opportunity for ornament than the dominant4 ,furthermore1 leisure stimulates the erotic feelings4 ,since the partner does not share the leisure the lonely erotic often seeks a way out in self-ornamentation4 ,at the same time the ornament is intended for the partner1 for the stimulated eroticism increases the desire to please the other sex4 ,when the sexes are equal the clothes of the two sexes tend to be alike4 ,we have noted that the ,cingalese were physically similar2 their clothes were exactly the same4 ,the only difference was that the men wore a mother-of-pearl comb in the hair1 the women none4 ,among the ,lepka the sexes can be distinguished only by the fact that the men wear their hair in two braids1 the women in one4 ,tacitus reports that the old ,germans wore the same clothes and wore their hair alike4 ,we can observe the tendency to similarity of costume in this transition period4 ,many such attempts fail the first time1 but finally succeed4 ,more than a decade ago ,paris attempted to establish a fashion of knickerbockers and bobbed hair4 ,the attempt failed1 but to-day the bobbed head has invaded every civilized country1 almost in direct proportion to the degree in which women have acquired equal rights4 ,it is reported from ,england that ,english women can already go to their work in trousers1 heavy shoes1 and short hair without exciting attention4 ,the reader may judge of the accuracy of these reports4 ,in ,germany the police forbid one sex to wear the clothes of the other1 but during the war when ,german women had to enter male trades they usually wore men's clothing4 ,among men too the tendency to similarity is evident4 ,thirty years ago the beard was a generally accepted sign of manhood2 it has fallen out of fashion4 ,in the ,youth ,movement there is a tendency to leave the shirt open at the neck and to adopt a hair-cut like a bobbed girl's4 ,a note in ,jean ,paul's 8,levana10 which appeared in #ahjf1 is interesting4 ,he writes3 8,a few years ago it was fashionable in ,russia for the men to fill out their clothing with high false bosoms40 ,that was in the days following the ,french ,revolution1 when a short wave of freedom1 even for women1 swept across the earth4 ,it showed also in the women's fashion which ,jean ,paul mentions3 ,a fortunate accident for daughters is the ,grecian costume of the present ,gymnosophists 7naked female runners71 which1 it is true1 injures the mothers but hardens the daughters2 for as age and custom should avoid every fresh cold so youth exercises itself on it as on every hardship until it can bear greater4444 ,so1 likewise1 the present naked manner of dressing is a cold bath into which the daughters are dipped1 who are exhilarated by it4 ,modern ,love and ,modern ,fiction ,by ,j4 ,w4 ,krutch ,joseph ,wood ,krutch has been ,professor of ,english at the ,brooklyn ,polytechnic ,institute1 and is now dramatic editor and regular critic of fiction of ,the ,nation4 ,,modern ,,love ,,and ,,modern ,,fiction ,,by ,j4 ,w4 ,,krutch ,seeing upon the jacket of a recent book the legend 8,solves the ,sex ,problem10 my first reaction was a fervent hope that it did nothing of the sort1 for ,i had no desire that fiction should be rendered supererogatory or1 what is the same thing1 that life should be made a less difficult art4 ,problems of housing1 wages1 taxation1 militarism1 and the like may be solved1 temporarily at least1 but what a contemporary writer has called 8the irony of being two0 is a sufficient guaranty of one never-to-be-resolved complexity4 ,until each individual of the human species becomes a complete biological entity1 until1 that is to say1 hermaphrodism is universal1 there can be no fear lest we should cease to live dangerously4 ,were ,i speaking of happiness ,i should be compelled to argue that the attitude of society and the individual toward sex is the most important thing in the world1 but speaking as ,i am of life as material for art ,i must maintain1 on the contrary1 that it is much less important4 ,as long as they have an attitude and as long as that attitude remains1 as it has always remained1 an inadequate one1 those unresolved discords which make living and reading interesting will continue to arise4 ,as a critic ,i 8view with alarm0 nothing except the possibility that the problem should be solved to everybody's satisfaction1 but that calamity does not seem at all likely to occur since ,i have never heard of a saint in the desert or a debauch in a brothel who was not sufficiently maladjusted to be a fruitful subject for fiction4 ,after all1 the things we do are both more significant and less changing than our attitude toward our acts4 ,we burn men at the stake to light a ,roman garden1 to save the world from the horror of heresy1 or to protect the sanctity of female virtue and assure the supremacy of the white race1 but we burn them always2 we fight because arms are glorious1 because the service of ,god demands the rescue of ,his holy sepulcher from the infidel1 or because we must make the world safe for peace1 but always we fight2 and the most important thing is the insistent lust of cruelty or the impulse to fight rather than the rationalization of these motives4 ,so1 too1 with love4 ,paphnutius is harried out of apathy into a state in which he sees visions because of the temptations of the devil1 ,milton because ,god gave ,eve to ,adam as a comforter1 ,shelley because woman is the symbol of the unutterable1 and ,shaw 7presumably7 because only by the process of reproduction can the ,life ,force perform its perfectionist experiments2 but the resultant impulses are not so very different4 ,mr4 ,f4 ,w4 ,myers once referred to the procreation of children in these lines3 ,lo6 ,when a man magnanimous and tender1 ,lo6 ,when a woman desperate and true1 ,make the inevitable sweet surrender1 ,show one another what the ,lord can do1444 but ,i doubt if the states of mind which called forth these lines and1 say1 ,swinburne's ,dolores were as different as the verses would suggest or as the authors imagined4 ,without going so far as to say that the two poems are of equal literary merit1 one can at least say that they are almost equally interesting and delightful to the observer of life or art and that as long as the mystical1 the ascetic1 the sentimental1 and the biological attitudes toward love continue to exist side by side or to follow one another in succeeding epochs1 the critic will not find literature either dull or monotonous4 ,if at the end of a period of twenty-five years during which fiction has frankly concerned itself to an unusual degree with sex the problem seems more complicated than ever before1 there is no cause for surprise4 ,even the specious pretense that a solution has been found can only be maintained when1 as during the ,victorian era1 the mass of men agree to assume that no difficulties exist which are not solvable by that rule of thumb known as the social and moral code1 and insist that sexual battles shall be fought out behind closed doors in life and between the chapters in books4 ,by dragging them out into public view we have been able1 no doubt1 to palliate some of the commoner tragedies of stupidity4 ,but chiefly we have been upon a voyage of discovery1 and it ought to be evident now1 if it has never been evident before1 that we cannot possibly solve the problem because its most important aspects are not social but human4 ,they have their roots in man's ironic predicament between gorilla and angel1 a predicament perfectly typified by the fact that as he grows critical he realizes that love is at once sublime and obscene and that only by walking a spiritual tight-rope above the abysses can he be said to live at all in any true sense4 ,the very fact that the social aspects can to a certain extent be worked out makes them less interesting and explains the fact that those novels intended to prove1 for example1 that the mother of an illegitimate child may still be within the human pale have come to seem so unutterably dull4 ,no doubt they 8did good10 but like all forms of useful literature their life was short4 ,by far the most interesting contemporary writers who deal chiefly with sex are largely concerned with the individual problem4 ,thanks partially to modern fiction we have attained a certain measure of freedom4 ,but freedom1 as everybody who understands either the meaning of the word or the value of the thing knows1 raises problems instead of settling them4 ,it is true that our attitude has changed4 ,there is hardly a serious contemporary novel which does not take for granted things which would have outraged even liberal thinkers of the past century1 and the changes have been mostly in the direction of clarification4 ,it would be impossible for any one to-day to fail to see1 as ,george ,eliot failed to see1 that the natural working of the 8inevitable moral law0 which punished ,hetty ,sorrel was neither inevitable nor natural4 ,the things which happened to her came entirely from society and not at all from nature1 so that the story which the author meant to be a tragedy of the ineluctable becomes merely a description of human stupidity4 ,so1 too1 we are clearer on other things2 we are not quite so hopelessly at sea as we once were when it comes to distinguishing between frigidity and chastity or purity and prudishness4 ,but these things mean only that more choices are open to us1 that we have come to see that sexual conduct cannot be guided or judged by a few outwardly applied standards1 and that1 accordingly1 the conduct of life has been made more thrillingly difficult4 ,most sex novels of the past have been concerned chiefly with what might be called the right to love4 ,they have combated an extremely old idea which ,christianity found congenial and embodied in the conception of love as a part of the curse pronounced upon man at the ,fall1 and hence at best a necessary evil4 ,they have been compelled solemnly to assure us that the early ,christian ,fathers were wrong in assuming that the human race would have been better off if it had been able to propagate itself by means of some harmless system of vegetation1 and they have had to fly in the face of all laws and social customs which are seen1 if examined closely1 to rest upon the assumption that desire is merely a dangerous nuisance1 fatal to efficiency and order1 and hence to be regimented at any cost4 ,it is now pretty generally admitted among the educated class that love is legitimate1 even that it has an sthetic as well as a utilitarian function4 ,we have got back to the point which ,ovid had reached some two thousand years ago of realizing that there is an art of love4 ,during the next quarter of a century fiction will be concerned1 ,i think1 more with the failure or success of individuals to attain this art than with the exposition of theses which most accept4 ,no doubt some of the more navely enthusiastic crusaders really believed that as soon as man was freed from the more grossly stupid restrictions from without and from the artificially cultivated inhibitions within1 love would become simple and idyllic1 but one needs look only at the books of ,d4 ,h4 ,lawrence or ,aldous ,huxley to be relieved of this stupid delusion4 ,the characters of both of these authors have long ago ceased to care what law or society thinks and they are surely untroubled by traditional asceticism1 but their problems are not less acute4 ,indeed it is just because these novelists are so completely concerned with love as a personal matter that they are the freshest of those contemporary writers with whom sex is the dominant interest4 ,each is concerned with something fundamental--the one with the problem of the adjustment of personalities and the other with the evaluation of sexual love4 ,if by 8immoral0 is meant 8tending to excite lubricity10 then nothing could be more absurd than the opinion1 apparently held by some1 that the books of these men are immoral4 ,they are so completely unable to lose themselves carelessly in passion and so insistent upon the need of adjusting it somehow to the other interests of life that they strike one as more like saints than like gallants1 and their books are far more chilling than inflammatory4 ,huxley and ,joyce try to laugh sex away1 but their scorn of the flesh suggests ,erasmus more than ,rabelais1 and1 as for ,lawrence1 his novels constitute so solemn a warning that one imagines him as thoroughly bored with the exigencies of passion and more likely to make his disciples celibates than debauchs4 ,in ,lawrence's morbidly sensitive and exaggeratedly individualistic characters one sees as through a magnifying-glass the thousand impingements of personality upon personality which make love more and more difficult as it becomes more intimate and personal4 ,his people1 like ,schopenhauer's porcupines1 are continually coming together for warmth only to find themselves pricked by one another's quills and to part snarling1 so that his perpetual prayer is a 8,lord deliver us from this need which can be neither stilled nor satisfied40 ,and abnormal though he is1 his abnormality is one of degree only1 for when sexual love is developed beyond the impulse of the animal and desires the contact of spirit as well as body that contact is bound to be both incomplete and painful4 ,nor is the even more fundamental problem with which ,aldous ,huxley is concerned likely ever to receive a permanent or a general solution4 ,he is in search of love1 but he can find only ridiculous and obscene biological facts1 for love1 like ,god and the other most important human possessions1 does not exist4 ,it is an illusion created by the effort of the imagination to transform the unsatisfactory materials which life has furnished it into something acceptable to the soul2 but being an illusion1 it is unstable and perpetually tending1 if not created anew1 to dissolve into its elements4 ,the racial need for the continuation of the species and the individual need for the satisfaction of a physiological impulse exist1 but they are hard1 unsatisfying realities1 and the struggle of mankind is to create some fiction which will as far as possible include and at the same time transcend them4 ,and nothing derogatory is1 of course1 meant by the word 8fiction40 ,all that distinguishes man from nature is such a fiction1 and it is by his insistent belief in these imaginary things that civilization has been created4 ,all of ,mr4 ,huxley's books are confessions1 first cynically triumphant and then despairing1 of his inability to be poet or mystic or ironist enough to achieve this transcendence and find in his animal heritage a satisfaction for his spiritual needs4 ,like everyone else1 he is compelled to love1 and love implies a certain amount of idealization4 ,how1 he asks in effect1 is he to poetize this ridiculous function1 which he shares with the beasts1 and concerning which science is constantly presenting us with an increasing amount of disillusioning knowledge8 ,exercising the most perverse ingenuity in confronting romance with biology and in establishing the identity 7in the realm of fact7 of love and lust1 he has continually tracked the trail of the beast into the holy of holies--but only because it hurt him so much to find it there4 ,the obscenities in which he seems to revel are defiances of the inner idealist who has dared to assimilate the loathsome trivialities of sex into something capable of satisfying spiritual desires4 ,when he sings one of his philosopher's songs or when1 in 8,antic ,hay10 he describes some particularly revolting orgy there is nothing new in the psychological state which provokes his obscenity4 ,his attitude is a result of failure to reconcile physical fact with spiritual feeling4 ,he is not far from ,huysmans1 who ended 8,a ,rebours0 with the words3 8,for the man who has written such a book there are only two alternatives--a pistol or the foot of the cross40 ,only of course ,huysmans was wrong4 ,anatole ,france and ,james ,branch ,cabell are not less sophisticated1 but through the perfection of sophistication they have achieved a peaceful irony in which they can worship a non-existent ,god and believe again in the illusions they create4 ,huxley1 too sophisticated for simple faith and too downright for ironic worship1 is lost4 ,when the conception of love is1 as it has tended to be in modern times1 legalistic1 these problems are submerged4 ,as long as marriage is a matter of contract1 the importance of the inward harmony of personalities is of the slightest1 for children may be begotten and reared whether the parents love or hate4 ,as long as passion is generally conceded to be but a shameful concession to unregenerate humanity1 the average man is not likely to be concerned if he finds that the ideal of the poets is not realized in his own nuptial couch4 ,but when love is free and unashamed then it is made ten times more difficult1 for lives are recognized as frank failures which once would have seemed useful and satisfactory4 ,fiction1 too1 becomes1 not more interesting1 but more important4 ,it ceases completely to be what it always tends to be when opinion is fixed1 namely1 a mere illustration of the working out of social or moral 8laws02 it becomes frankly the record of individual souls in search of a successful way of life4 ,it records1 no doubt1 more failures than successes1 but it furnishes the best and perhaps only really important material for the study of that art of life which grows ever more complicated as we demand that it be more complete and beautiful4 ,can ,men and ,women ,be ,friends8 ,by ,floyd ,dell ,floyd ,dell was born at ,barry1 ,illinois1 ,june #bhth1 #ahhg4 ,is the author of several novels and collections of essays including 8,janet ,march10 a story of a young woman and her adjustment to modern standards4 ,his latest book is 8,looking at ,life40 ,other books are 8,women as ,world ,builders10 #aiac2 8,were ,you ,ever a ,child80 #aiai2 8,moon ,calf10 #aibj2 8,the ,briary ,bush10 #aiba4 ,,can ,,men ,,and ,,women ,,be ,,friends8 ,,by ,,floyd ,,dell ,friendship between men and women is rather a new thing in the history of the world4 ,friendship depends upon equality and choice1 and there has been very little of either in the relations of the sexes1 up to the present4 ,a woman does not choose her male relatives1 nor is she according to archaic family laws their equal2 motives other than personal choice might lead her to become a man's wife2 wholly impersonal reasons might place her in the relationship of kept mistress4 ,only in her rle of paramour was there any implication of free choice2 and even here there was no full equality1 not even of danger4 ,none of these customary relationships of the past can be said to have fostered friendship between men and women4 ,doubtless it did exist1 but under difficulties4 ,family bonds1 however1 are being more and more relaxed1 women are no longer the wards of their male relatives1 and friendship with a father or brother is more than ever possible4 ,further1 the free personal choice which marked only the romantic amours of the age of chivalry is now popularly regarded in ,america as essential to any decent marriage1 while the possibility of divorce tends to make free choice something besides a mere youthful illusion4 ,more than ever before1 husbands and wives are friends4 ,at the same time the intensity of friendships between people of the same sex appears to be diminishing4 ,this intensity1 in its classic instances1 as in ,greece1 we now regard as an artificial product1 the result of the segregation of the sexes and the low social position of women4 ,as women become free and equal with men such romantic intensity of emotion finds a more biologically appropriate expression4 ,friendships between people of the same sex must to-day compete on the one hand with romantic love and on the other with the more fascinating though often less enduring friendships which can now be enjoyed between men and women4 ,neglect of these latter opportunities is coming to be regarded as a kind of spiritual cowardice1 or at least as a failure in enterprise4 ,the influences of the machine age1 so destructive to fixed authoritarian relationships1 appear to foster the growth of friendship between the sexes2 so much so that we may expect it to become1 in its further developments1 a characteristic social feature of the age that lies immediately before us4 ,friendship will become a more and more important aspect of marriage itself2 but1 except in the effects of its wider spread1 this will hardly be a new thing--we have friendships between husbands and wives now4 ,nor will extra-marital friendships between men and women be precisely a new thing4 ,what will be new1 furnishing us with an interesting theme for sociological speculation1 are the conventions which will gradually come into existence to give social protection and dignity to extra-marital friendships4 ,conventions are1 doubtless1 always rather ridiculous1 inevitably a shackle upon the free motions of the soul1 being imposed by fear4 ,but it will be remembered that we1 in ,america1 with a vast amount of freedom of intersexual association1 have thus far only begun to dispense with the locks and bars and whippings and chaperons which were the appurtenances of a physical segregation of the sexes2 the vast paraphernalia of psychic segregation1 including sexual taboos which hark back to the primeval darkness1 are with us still4 ,our minds are habituated to unreasonable fears in all matters concerning the relations of the sexes4 ,for a long time1 extra-marital friendships of men and women may be expected to be hedged about with elaborate and specific permissions1 for the sake of keeping them under social control4 ,yet these conventions may be very convenient2 and however irksome they may seem to the free spirits of a future day1 they may still be such as would appear to us generously libertarian4 ,to-day1 in the absence of such conventions1 it does not suffice that a man and woman1 too well married to be afraid of extra-marital friendships1 grant them to each other by private treaty2 relatives1 friends1 and neighbors do not fail to be duly alarmed4 ,extra-marital friendship exists in an atmosphere of social suspicion which a few conventions would go far to alleviate4 ,as an example in a different field1 the convention with regard to dancing may be adduced4 ,if dancing were not a general custom1 if it were the enlightened practice of an advanced few1 how peculiar and suspicious would seem the desire of ,mr4 ,x and ,mrs4 ,y to embrace each other to music2 and how scandalized the neighbors would be to hear that they did6 ,no one would rest until the pair had been driven into an elopement4 ,we build huge palaces for the kind of happy communion which dancing furnishes2 we tend more and more to behave like civilized beings about the impulses which are thus given scope4 ,we are less socially hospitable to the impulses of friendship between men and women4 ,in friendship there are many moods2 but the universal rite of friendship is talk4 ,talk needs no palaces for its encouragement2 it is not an expensive affair2 it would seem to be well within the reach of all4 ,yet it isn't4 ,for the talk of friendship requires privacy--though the privacy of a table for two in a crowded and noisy restaurant will suffice2 and it requires time4 ,such talk does not readily adjust itself to the limitations of the dinner hour4 ,it is a flower slow in unfolding2 and it seems to come to its most perfect bloom only after midnight4 ,but1 unfortunately1 not every restaurant keeps open all night4 ,it is satisfied with two comfortable chairs2 a table to lean elbows on is good1 too2 in winter an open fire1 where friendly eyes may stare dreamily into the glowing coals--that is very good2 hot or cold drinks according to the season1 and a cigarette--these are almost the height of friendship's luxury4 ,these seem not too much to ask4 ,yet the desire for privacy and uncounted hours of time together is1 when considered from that point of view1 scandalous in its implications2 quite as much so as the desire of ,mr4 ,x and ,mrs4 ,y to embrace each other to music4 ,however1 ,mr4 ,x and ,mrs4 ,y do1 under the gis of a convention1 indulge their desire and embrace each other to their heart's content with the full approval of civilized society2 and it seems as though another convention might grow up1 under the protection of which ,mr4 ,x and ,mrs4 ,y might sit up and talk all night without its seeming queer of them4 ,queer1 at the least1 it does seem nowadays1 except under the conventions of courtship2 friends who happen to be married to each other can of course talk comfortably in bed4 ,these bare facts are sufficient to explain why so many men and women who really want to be friends and sit up all night occasionally and talk find it easy to believe that they are in love with each other4 ,they find it all the easier to believe this1 because friendship between the sexes is usually spiced with some degree of sexual attraction4 ,but a degree of sexual attraction which might have kept a friendship forever sweet may prove unequal to the requirements of a more serious and intimate relationship4 ,disillusionment is the penalty1 at the very least4 ,society could well afford to grant more freedom to friendship between men and women1 and save the expense of a large number of broken hearts4 ,it is worth while to wonder if a good deal of 8romance0 is not1 after all1 friendship mistaking itself for something else2 or rather1 finding its only opportunity for expression in that mistake4 ,among civilized people1 after the romance has ended1 the friendship remains4 ,it may perhaps have been worth while to imagine oneself in love1 in order to enjoy a friendship2 but it seems rather a wasteful proceeding4 ,yet those who1 taking a merely economical view of the situation1 attempt to enjoy such friendships without becoming involved or involving others in such waste1 may with some embarrassment discover--what ,mrs4 ,grundy could have told them all along--that friendship and sexual romance may sometimes be difficult to relegate to previously determined boundaries4 ,friendship between the sexes may1 if only for a moment1 seem to demand the same tokens of sincerity as romantic love4 ,does not this fact threaten the traditional1 jealously-guarded dignity of marriage8 ,perhaps it does4 ,at present1 in any conflict of claims between a marriage and a friendship1 there is 8nothing to arbitrate02 marriage has all the rights1 friendship none4 ,if the rights of friendship are to be at all considered and protected1 marriage may have to yield something4 ,it may not be good manners for husbands and wives to be jealous of the quite possible momentary exuberances of each other's friendships2 it may be that such incidents will be regarded as being within the discretion of the persons immediately concerned1 and not quite proper subjects for inquiry1 speculation1 or comment by anybody else4 ,and this might have an effect unsuspected by those whom such a prospect of liberty would most alarm to-day4 ,when a moment's rashness does not necessarily imply red ruin and the breaking up of homes1 when sex is freed to a degree from the sense of overwhelming social consequences1 it may well become a matter of more profound personal consequence2 and with nothing to fear except the spoiling of their friendship1 men and women in an ardent friendship may yet prefer talk to kisses4 8,but what if they don't80 ,a complete answer to that question1 from the ,utopian point of view1 would take us far afield from the subject of friendship2 yet some further answer may seem to be required1 if only by way of confessing to ,mrs4 ,grundy that the problem is not so simple as it may seem4 ,well1 then1 out of many possibilities which the future holds1 ,i offer this one for what it may be worth4 ,such friendships1 let us agree1 tend to merge insensibly into romantic sexual love4 ,but if marriage may be conceived as yielding some of its traditional rights1 extra-marital romance may well be called upon for similar concessions4 ,the first thing that extra-marital romance might be asked to surrender would be its intolerable and fatuous airs of holiness4 ,yes1 8holiness0 is the word--a holiness all the more asserted by such extra-marital lovers because their relations are likely to be taken disrespectfully by a stupid world4 ,oh1 unquestionably1 if you ask them1 never was any legal and conventional love so high and holy as this romantic passion of theirs6 ,its transcendental holiness calls for sacrifices4 ,so they sacrifice themselves--and1 incidentally1 others--to it4 ,anything less1 they feel1 would be cowardly4 ,they must not palter with these sacred emotions--not even by the exercise of their dormant sense of humor6--,so it is to-day3 but perhaps in a future where extra-marital romance is made room for with a tender and humorous courtesy1 it may give up these preposterous and solemn airs1 and actually learn to smile at its illusions--illusions which will still give the zest of ultimate danger to relationships of merely happy and light-hearted play4 ,thus life will continue to be interesting4 ,as for the talk of friendship1 my ,utopian speculations uncover for me no respect in which the thing itself can be improved upon4 ,the circumstances can be made happier1 the attitude of society can foster it2 but the talk of friendship has already reached a splendid perfection beyond which my imagination is unable to soar4 ,at its best it has1 despite its personal aspect1 an impersonal beauty2 it is a poignant fulfillment of those profound impulses which we call curiosity and candor2 it serves human needs as deep as those which poetry and music serve1 and is in some sense an art like them4 ,the art exists1 and it remains only for the future to give it an adequate hospitality4 ,love and ,marriage ,by ,ludwig ,lewisohn ,ludwig ,lewisohn author of 8,up ,stream10 8,don ,juan0 and other books and contributing editor of ,the ,nation1 is now studying conditions in ,eastern ,europe and ,palestine4 ,was born ,may #cjth1 #ahhb1 in ,berlin--came to ,america in #ahij--;,b4,a4 and ,m4,a4 ,college of ,charleston1 ,s4 ,c41 #aija--,m4 ,a4 ,columbia1 #aijc--;,editorial staff1 ,doubleday1 ,page ,co41 #aiaj-aiaa4 ,instructor in ,german1 ,university of ,wisconsin1 and ,literature at ,ohio ,state ,university4 ,dramatic ,editor1 ,nation1 #aiai4 ,author of 8,the ,broken ,snare10 #aijh2--8;,a ,night in ,alexandria10 #aiji2 8,german ,style--an ,introduction to the ,study of ,german ,prose10--#aiaj2 8,the ,modern ,drama10 #aiae2 8,the ,spirit of ,modern ,german ,literature10 #aiaf2 8,the ,poets of ,modern ,france10 #aiah2 ,editor with ,w4 ,p4 ,trent of 8,letters of an ,american ,farmer10 #aiji2 8,a ,book of ,modern ,criticism10 #aiji4 ,translator--,feuchlersleben's 8,health ,suggestion10 #aiaj2 ,sudermann's 8,judean ,city10 #aiaa2 ,halbe's 8,youth10 ,hirschfeld's 8,the ,mothers10 #aiaf2 ,latzko's 8,the ,judgment of ,peace10 #aiai2 ,wassermann's 8,world's ,illusion40 ,editor and chief translator of ,gerhardt ,hauptmann's ,dramatic ,works1 #aiaf1 #aiag2 ,contributing ,editor1 ,warner's ,library of ,world's ,best ,literature4 ,his latest book is 8,the ,creative ,life10 #aibd4 ,,love ,,and ,,marriage ,,by ,,ludwig ,,lewisohn ,utopia is the loveliest of all countries2 it is also the farthest away4 ,one may make magnificent generalizations concerning the future of the relations of the sexes2 one may set down truths that are theoretically unanswerable4 ,only one will change nothing1 help not a single soul4 ,let me cling to a few humble facts4444 ,so far as any one can see the habit of one man living with one woman will persist4 ,the young will hear of nothing else1 since they are under the sway of romantic passion which is1 subjectively1 exclusive and final2 those who are older will hear of nothing else because experience has shown this method of life capable of securing the healthiest freedom from preoccupation with sex and the maximum amount of ordered activity4 ,to be a rake or even a fastidious 8varietist0 is the costliest of occupations4 ,rational monogamy is in no danger4 ,the trouble lies elsewhere2 it lies in the fact that current notions of monogamy are1 ,i use the word advisedly1 insane4 ,local bill-board advertisements of moving pictures have recently shown a ball-room in which an irate gentleman in evening-dress grasped the shoulder of another gentleman who looked crushed and crest-fallen4 ,with an inimitable gesture of moral indignation the first gentleman pointed to a quivering female on the other side of the room4 ,the caption of this stirring lithograph was 8,his ,forgotten ,wife40 ,the exquisite absurdity of this picture is clear4 ,it is significant of the way in which we are all brow-beaten by the sodden nonsense of the tribe that it took me some minutes of reflection to come upon the unreason of the thing4 ,if the crushed looking gentleman had forgotten the lady1 she was not1 of course1 his wife and could never have truly been4 ,if we are dealing with a euphemism and are to understand that he wanted to forget her1 she may once have been his wife1 but had1 quite obviously1 ceased to be4 ,in this moving picture there is illustrated what ,i call the insane view of monogamic marriage1 namely1 that it is put on like a shirt or a coat and must be kept on however ill-fitting1 comfortless1 unclean1 or dangerous1 and that in this mere keeping on there is virtue4 ,there is the further implication that marriage has nothing to do with good behavior1 which is rewarded even in penitentiaries1 or with ill2 that it is1 indeed1 an abstract kind of fate1 a magical or infernal machine1 a metaphysical trap4 ,once you are caught in it1 you must stay caught4 ,to wriggle is sin4 ,do ,i seem to be discussing the matter on too low a plane8 ,i wish ,i were4 ,the truth is that cultivated and liberal people have not yet freed their minds from the concepts with which that amusing picture deals4 ,it is in action1 not in fireside talk that these things are tested4 ,and it is true that even such people will pay an uninhibited respect to a depraved character1 cruel1 treacherous1 stupid1 who practices that moving-picture theory of marriage which1 in ways no less real for being subtle and but half-conscious1 they will be tempted to withhold from a person of the utmost spiritual grace and charm who practices that kind of marriage of which1 theoretically and outspokenly1 they so eloquently approve4 ,this very tentative argument1 then1 is not directed against marriage4 ,i am not even ready to plead--that would be ,utopian--that the relations of the sexes be withdrawn from social control4 ,our first step1 at least in ,america1 must be an attempt to sanitate marriage4 ,this can be done--if it can be done at all--by relating marriage and its practice to certain notions of good and decency and honor that already have a tenure1 however feeble1 upon the public consciousness4 ,marriage1 in brief1 should be held to be created by love and sustained by love4 ,i shall1 of course1 be accused of meaning passion4 ,i mean that precise blending of passion and spiritual harmony and solid friendship without which1 as even those who will not admit it know1 the close association of a man and a woman is as disgusting as it is degrading4 ,and marriage should be dependent1 though this matter is included in the first1 on good behavior4 ,i will not keep a man or a woman as my friend whom ,i discover to be a liar1 slanderer1 thief4 ,much less ought one to keep such a person as husband or wife4 ,who is to judge1 it will be asked8 ,no objective judgment is needed4 ,a subjective conviction of this sort suffices to reduce the union in question to dust and ashes4 ,here is the one practical point2 here the one possibility of hope4 ,to frame a rational theory of the relations of men and women is easy and agreeable4 ,the very fashioners of such theories1 being human1 will be brought1 under the discomforts of social pressure1 to seem to assent to all that their minds most passionately deny4 ,a man or a woman of the highest philosophic insight will struggle through the ignominy of the divorce courts not so much in order to dissolve a meaningless legal bond as to save some one whom he or she loves and reveres from the criticism of the vulgar4 ,for we live in a vulgar world4 ,there is no safe and ultimate escape2 its vulgarity in precisely these matters will often affront us where we least expected it4 ,to mitigate that vulgarity must be our first task4 ,i do not know whether it can be done at all4 ,but if so1 then it must be done by making an unhappy union disgraceful4 ,people who are always bickering with each other1 who are obviously unhappy in each other's presence1 who always hold opinions acridly opposed1 who are always trying either subtly or obviously to escape from each other--such couples must fall under social disapproval4 ,and this disapproval must apply even though one of the two prefers possessiveness to either happiness or decency or self-respect4 ,similarly those who are deliberately unfaithful should be disgraced--not for the act of unfaith but for the hypocrisy of remaining in a union which that very act1 which the temptation to that very act1 shows to have lost its purpose and its meaning4 ,this sort of social control is not my ideal4 ,love is like religion1 a matter for the individual soul4 ,to change partners in love is very much like changing one's opinion on some deep and vital matter4 ,the spirit must bear its own inherent witness4 ,but ,i promised myself not to be ,utopian4 ,and may it not conceivably be brought home to a few people to begin with that the men who laugh so spontaneously when the song-and-dance man sings 8,my wife's gone to the country1 hurray1 hurray60 are leading immoral lives and reducing their partners to the rle of disagreeable prostitutes and unsatisfactory servants8 ,i am not prepared to stress the point unendurably4 ,true marriage1 the true and lovely union of a man and a woman1 body and spirit1 is rare4 ,but to-day it is not even an ideal1 not even something admired and striven for4 ,love in itself is rare and married love is perhaps as rare as beauty or genius4 ,happiness1 too1 is rare1 happiness in any relation4 ,but even as a man or a woman has made an obvious and shattering mistake if his or her chosen work does not produce a reasonable minimum of lasting inner satisfaction1 so may marriage also be tested by a reasonable minimum of lasting--let us say1 preference and blessedness4 ,to fall below that minimum is to cheat both the self and society1 both the present and posterity1 to sacrifice honor to a fetish and vitality to decay4 ,communist ,puritans ,by ,louis ,fischer ,louis ,fischer is ,moscow correspondent of the ,new ,york ,nation4 ,,communist ,,puritans ,,by ,,louis ,,fischer ,the ,soviet state is omnipotent and omnipresent4 ,bukharin1 the arch-theorist1 contends that this is a transitional phase in the development of ,communism toward perfection4 ,the ,bolsheviks' professed aim is the reductio ad administratum of the functions of the state2 they would make government the traffic cop of the nation but not the all-pervading busybody and touch-everybody-everywhere which it is now in ,russia4 ,the transitional period1 however1 may last long4 ,in default of a world revolution it may project itself beyond the present generation and even beyond the next4 ,and in the meantime it is good ,communist doctrine to maintain an ,argus-eyed1 ,herculanean-clubbed state4 ,the ,soviet ,government is alike an administrator1 politician1 statesman1 merchant1 manufacturer1 banker1 shipbuilder1 newspaper publisher1 school-teacher1 and preacher4 ,such a state is the highest expression of the anti-individualism of socialist philosophy4 ,the single simian erectus is nothing2 it is the class1 the nation which counts4 ,the citizen lives for the state4 ,mind and muscle must ever be at its service4 ,a ,communist who is a loose liver is an anomaly4 ,there is virtue even in a grain of asceticism and in 8morality10 not1 it is important to note1 because luxury and license are sinful and lead to damnation and hell but because the excessive gratification of physical desires1 be they for sex or for alcohol1 and any over-indulgence of one's selfish mental weaknesses reduce the energy and attention which the individual can offer to the state and to society4 ,the ,bolsheviks do not believe in evolution in the realm of politics2 they are revolutionists4 ,eighteenth and nineteenth-century liberalism tended toward the survival of the fittest4 ,but the essence of the ,russian revolution is the protection of the under dog1 of the proletarian and peasant who1 unaided1 would not survive in the unequal struggle with the capitalist and landowner4 ,the function of the ,soviet state is to support the oppressed majority against the vested and acquired interests of the economically powerful minority4 ,the doctrine of the survival of the fittest1 translated into every-day life1 permits freedom of action1 as little restraint as possible1 the freest play for nature and human nature4 ,communist doctrine involves the negation of individual freedom2 human nature is discounted in the socialist scale of weights and measures2 laissez-faire is replaced by discipline1 if need be1 by force4 ,only once did the ,communists reveal a liberal vein4 ,it was in their treatment of conscientious objectors during the civil wars4 ,russia has many sects such as the ,dukhobors who are opposed to violence on grounds of conscience4 ,though the ,government was engaged in a death struggle1 it respected these sentiments4 ,but in all else1 whenever its own interests have been at stake1 the state has disregarded the wishes and inclinations of the human unit4 ,liberty of the individual is not as sacred an ikon as it is in the ,west4 ,to give economic freedom to the mass is a nobler aim4 ,thus the ,communists would explain and justify 7but in my opinion this does not justify7 the absence of a free press in ,russia and the activities of the ,g4 ,p4 ,u4 ,the aim of the ,bolsheviks was not merely to overthrow one government and to establish their own4 ,this was a means toward creating a new society4 ,to that extent the ,bolsheviks are as presumptuous as most reformers4 ,in #aiag they must have argued to themselves much to this effect3 8,we are a minority4 ,the majority has not invited us to rule it4 ,but we know better than the majority what is good for it40 ,in the interest of the new society a powerful state was set up4 ,the powerful state was privileged to ride roughshod over the individual4 ,the ,bolsheviks presume to tell the individual how to act and how to live4 ,this is the 8superiority complex0 which is one of the most essential characteristics of puritanism4 8,i am perfect4 ,watch me4 ,go thou and do likewise40 ,the ,russian ,communists are puritans without religion4 ,in matters of morals the ,communists advocate and agitate but do not use force4 ,only in the case of members of the ,communist ,party do they interfere if the individual's actions are likely 8directly or indirectly to discredit the party40 7,such a phrase permits of the widest interpretation and misinterpretation47 ,thus in an article in the ,pravda on ,the ,party and ,personal ,life1 ,o4 ,zortzeva1 an official of the ,central ,control ,committee1 writes that 8not long ago one of the representatives of the ,control ,committee in the ,south asked for instructions to combat the evil of divorce40 ,she cites an instance 7and there must be many more such instances7 where a ,communist was required to explain why he left his wife4 ,he replied he could not live with her because she was unfit to mingle in the society of his new friends and acquaintances4 ,the reply was regarded as unsatisfactory4 ,the ,soviet state enforces a most liberal divorce law4 ,but the ,communists discourage divorce4 ,within the party it is looked upon with disfavor4 ,the war1 the revolution1 the civil wars have worked havoc with the ,russian family4 ,it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that family life is crumbling4 ,trotzky1 who has given more active attention to these questions of personal behavior than any other ,communist leader1 seeks to renforce the collapsing buttresses of the family4 7,it will be recalled that ,engels1 the author with ,marx of the 8,communist ,manifesto10 wrote the 8,origin of the ,family0 to prove that the family was a new1 unnecessary1 and reactionary institution47 ,trotzky urges the 8communalization of the family household0 so as to 8disencumber the family of kitchen and laundry40 ,take the burden of washing1 cooking1 sewing1 child-raising from the family and 8the relation between husband and wife will be cleansed of all that is external1 foreign1 forced1 accidental4 ,each would cease to spoil the life of the other44440 ,the family life of most ,communist leaders would probably find favor in the eyes of the ,bishop of ,new ,york1 and we can imagine that ,cotton ,mather1 if he returned to the flesh and visited ,moscow1 would hurry to ,trotzky1 slap him untheologically on the back1 and say1 8,thou art a man40 ,there was something ascetic and impersonal in the way ,lenin used to live4 ,there is something reminiscent of ,christian self-abnegation in ,chicherin's1 ,bukharin's1 ,radek's disdain for good clothes4 ,a ,communist is required to contribute to the party treasury all the salary he earns above #ie a month4 ,and even if his writings bring him a supplementary income he must not spend it for luxuries4 ,the ,communists are the shock troops of the ,soviet rgime4 ,they must be like athletes in training4 ,they must not consume mental and spiritual ice creams and pastries4 ,alexandra ,kollontai1 now ,soviet ambassador in ,christiania1 stands for the utmost freedom in sexual relations4 ,but a review in the official press of her book1 8,love ,among ,laboring ,bees10 stigmatizes her views on the subject as 8prostitution0 and 8intellectual tomfoolery40 8,it is imperative10 reads the last sentence of the criticism1 8to guard against the harmful influence of ,comrade ,kollontai40 ,this is the attitude which in other countries leads to the appointment of vice censors4 ,russia1 fortunately1 is too advanced to subject itself to such a humiliation4 ,only the lives of ,communists are censored4 ,in respect to the great mass of the people the ,bolsheviks content themselves with preaching4 ,trotzky's sermons will certainly do the people no harm4 ,russians have barely a trace of puritanism4 ,take the instance of their famous1 many-ply 8mother0 oaths4 ,beside them the worst product of the ,british navvy looks pale4 ,says ,trotzky3 8,one would have to consult philologists1 linguists1 and folk-lore experts to find out whether any other people has such unrestrained1 filthy1 and disgusting oaths as we have4 ,as far as ,i know1 there is no other40 ,the ,communists have initiated an anti-swearing campaign4 ,in some factories the workers themselves decided to fine any one who used an 8expression40 ,wherever one goes1 in industrial plants1 in beer saloons1 in clubs1 one sees the colored 8,don't ,swear0 poster4 ,even in the army1 where curses once found their most fertile field1 they are becoming increasingly rare4 ,a ,communist should not play cards4 ,a member of the party will not1 if he is a good ,communist1 enter a gambling casino4 7,the ,moscow gambling casinos1 incidentally1 have been closed by order of the ,government47 ,newly initiated ,communists ask their instructors whether they are to permit their wives to powder their faces4 ,a ,communist would hardly come to her office with her lips rouged and even non-,communist workers in many ,soviet commissariats feel that it is bad form to use the lipstick4 ,certainly very few if any women ,communists dress to fashion4 ,most of them dress badly4 ,there are more serious things to do than to mind the clothes on one's back4 ,it is unworthy of a ,communist1 and ,communists think it is unworthy of all ,russians1 to give too much thought to the flesh4 ,i know a non-,communist ,soviet official who likes to carry a cane1 but he leaves it home when he goes to work4 ,there can be no let-up1 says ,trotzky1 in the war against alcohol4 ,the ,government has abolished vodka1 but the bootleg 8samogonka0 has replaced it4 ,the police arrest men and women 7in ,russia most of the apprehended bootleggers are women7 but force removes as little of the evil here as it does in the ,united ,states4 ,so strong is the drink tradition in ,russia that even many ,communists indulge in the permissible wines and light beers4 ,but the party reminds its members that they must inhibit such desires4 ,it will not do for the best soldiers of the state and the master-builders of a new society to become inebriated1 or lose their heads and time in the pursuit of women1 or play cards1 or stop to adjust their neckties while the foundations of the structure are being laid4 ,stereotypes ,by ,florence ,guy ,seabury ,florence ,guy ,seabury is a frequent contributor to the ,new ,republic and to various popular magazines4 ,,stereotypes ,,by ,,florence ,,guy ,,seabury ,if ,clarissa ,harlow could have stepped out of her pre-,victorian world to witness some of the women stevedores and 8longshoremen0 now at work along the ,new ,york water front1 she would certainly have fainted so abruptly that no masculine aid could have restored consciousness4 ,if we can believe the #aibj census1 a goodly number of ,clarissa's timid and delicate sex are toiling gloriously in the most dangerous and violent occupations4 ,nor are they only engaged in handling steel beams and freight1 running trucks and donkey engines1 but as miners and steeplejacks1 aviators and divers1 sheriffs and explorers--everything1 in fact that man ever did or thought of doing4 ,they have proved1 moreover1 as successful in such a new occupation as capturing jungle tigers as in the old one of hunting husbands1 as deft in managing big business as in running a little household4 ,but the census bureau1 compiling all the facts of feminine industry1 forgot to note that woman might perform these amazingly varied operations1 outside the home1 without changing in any measurable degree the rooted conception of her nature and activities4 ,she may step out of skirts into knickers1 cut her hair in a dozen short shapes and even beat a man in a prize fight1 but old ideas as to her place and qualities endure4 ,she changes nothing as set as the stereotyped image of her sex which has persisted since ,eve4 ,the ,inquiring ,reporter of the ,new ,york ,sun recently asked five persons whether they would prefer to be tried by a jury of men or women4 8,of men10 cried they all--two women and three men4 8,women would be too likely to overlook the technical points of the law40 8,women are too sentimental40 8,they are too easily swayed by an eloquent address40 8,women are by nature sentimental40 ,almost anybody could complete the list4 ,ancient opinions of women's characteristics have been so widely advertised that the youngest child in the kindergarten can chirp the whole story4 ,billy1 aged ten1 hopes fervently that this country may never have a woman president4 8,women haven't the brains--it's a man's job40 ,a4 ,s4 ,m4 ,hutchinson1 considerably older than ,billy1 has equally juvenile fears3 that the new freedom for women may endanger her functions in the home4 ,whatever and wherever the debate1 the status and attributes of women are settled by neat and handy generalizations1 passed down from father to son1 and mother to daughter4 ,for so far1 most women accept the patterns made for them and are as likely as not to consider themselves the weaker vessel1 the more emotional sex1 a lay figure of biological functioning4 ,optimists are heralding a changed state in the relationship of men and women4 ,they point to modern activities and interests as evidence of a different position in the world4 ,they say that customs and traditions of past days are yielding to something freer and finer4 ,the old order1 as far as home life is concerned1 has been turned topsy-turvy4 ,out of this chaos1 interpreters of the coming morality declare that already better and happier ways have been established between man and maid4 ,it sounds plausible enough1 but the trouble remains1 that1 so far1 it isn't true4 ,the intimate relationship of men and women is about as it was in the days of ,cleopatra or ,xanthippe4 ,the most brawny stevedorette leaves her freight in the air when the whistle blows and rushes home to husband as if she were his most sheltered possession4 ,following the tradition of the centuries1 the business woman1 whose salary may double that of her mate1 hands him her pay envelope and asks permission to buy a new hat4 ,busts and bustles are out1 flat chests and orthopedic shoes are in1 while the waist line moves steadily toward the thigh--but what of it8 ,actualities of present days leave the ancient phantasies unchanged4 ,current patterns for women1 as formulated by the man in the street1 by the movies1 in the women's clubs and lecture halls can be boiled down to one general cut4 ,whatever she actually is or does1 in the stereotype she is a creature specialized to function4 ,the girl on the magazine cover is her symbol4 ,she holds a mirror1 a fan1 a flower and--at ,christmas--a baby4 ,without variety1 activity1 or individuality her sugary smile pictures satisfying femininity4 ,men are allowed diversity4 ,some are libertines1 others are husbands2 a few are lawyers1 many are clerks4 ,they wear no insignia of masculinity or badge of paternity and they are never expected to live up to being ,man or ,mankind4 ,but every woman has the whole weight of formulated ,womanhood upon her shoulders4 ,even in new times1 she must carry forward the design of the ages4 ,one of the quaint hang-overs of the past is that men are the chief interpreters of even the modern woman4 ,it may be that the conquest of varied fields and the strain of establishing the right to individuality has taken all her time and energy4 ,or it may be that the habit of vicarious expression has left her inarticulate4 ,whatever it is1 in the voluminous literature of the changing order1 from the earnest tracts on 8,how ,it ,feels to ,be a ,woman10 by a leading male educator to the tawdry and flippant syndicated views of ,w4 ,l4 ,george1 masculine understanders take the lead4 ,and the strange part of their interpretations is that they run true to ancient form4 ,old adages are put in a more racy vernacular1 the ,x-ray is turned on with less delicacy1 but when the froth of their engaging frankness disappears1 hoary old ideas remain thickly in the tumbler4 ,take the intimate life story of a girl of the younger generation--,janet ,march--written by that good friend of women1 ,floyd ,dell4 ,the blurb on the jacket of the book announces that she moves toward 8not a happy ending but an intelligent one40 ,and the end8 ,janet finds her mate and the curtain falls to the soft music of maternity4 8,one has to risk something10 ,janet cries4 8,all my life ,i've wanted to do something with myself4 ,something exciting4 ,and this is the one thing ,i can do4 ,i can0--she hesitated4 8,i can create a breed of fierce and athletic girls1 new artists1 musicians1 and singers40 ,as a conclusion this is acceptable to any one with a heart1 but wherein is it intellectual and not happy8 ,queen ,victoria1 the ,honorable ,herbert ,asquith1 or the ,reverend ,lyman ,abbott would be equally pleased by its one hundred per cent womanliness4 ,and how does it differ from our cherished slogan1 8,woman's place is in the home08 ,only because ,floyd ,dell cuts ,janet in a large1 free-hand design4 ,the advance pattern calls for a wealth of biological and gynecological explanation1 pictures the girl as a healthy young animal who 8smoked but drew the line on grounds of health at inhaling10 and1 following the fashion of peasants in foreign countries1 consummated the marriage before it was celebrated4 ,yet ,janet1 who claimed her right to all experience and experiment1 finally raises her banner on the platform of fireside and nursery4 ,despite its unquestionable orthodoxy1 ,janet ,march was retired from circulation4 ,but no one has successfully dammed the flowing tide of ,w4 ,l4 ,george4 ,he draws with somewhat futuristic effect1 at times1 but his conclusions are those of the old masters4 8,no woman10 he enunciates authoritatively1 8values her freedom until she is married and then she is proud to surrender it to the man she has won40 ,or take this3 8,all women are courtesans at heart1 living only to please the other sex40 ,wherein does this differ from the sentiment of ,alexander ,pope who1 one hundred and fifty or more years before the birth of ,w4 ,l4 ,george1 declared3 ,men1 some to business1 some to pleasures take1 ,but every woman is at heart a rake4 ,h4 ,l4 ,mencken1 stirred by debates about the intelligence of woman and her newer activities1 essayed 8,in ,defense of ,women10 to put his old wine in a fancy bottle1 but it was the same home brew4 ,generously conceding brains to women1 he proves his point on the evidence that they are used to ensnare men1 who weak-minded and feeble in flight are usually bowled over in the battle of wits4 8,marriage10 he says1 8is the best career a woman can reasonably aspire to--and in the case of very many women1 the only one that actually offers a livelihood40444 8,a childless woman remains more than a little ridiculous and ill at ease40444 8,no sane woman has ever actually muffed a chance40444 8,the majority of inflammatory suffragettes of the sex hygiene and birth control species are simply those who have done their best to snare a man and failed40 ,in ,h4 ,l4 ,mencken's favor is his absence of the usual gush about feminine beauty4 ,he declares with refreshing honesty that in contrast to the female body a milk jug or even a cuspidor is a thing of intelligent and gratifying design4 ,of woman's superior mental ability he says1 8,a cave man is all muscle and mush4 ,without a woman to think for him1 he is truly a lamentable spectacle1 a baby with whiskers1 a rabbit with the frame of an aurochs1 a feeble and preposterous caricature of ,god40 ,what a pity that women use all these advantages of superior mentality and ability only in the age-old game of man-hunting4 ,but do they8 ,d4 ,h4 ,lawrence shares this philosophy of the chief business of women1 and he is much more gloomy about it4 ,in fact1 he is decidedly neurotic in his fear of the ultimate absorption of man4 ,woman he describes perpetually as a great1 magnetic womb1 fecund1 powerful1 drawing1 engulfing4 ,man he sees as a pitiful1 struggling creature1 ultimately devoured by fierce maternal force4 8,you absorb1 absorb10 cries ,paul to ,miriam in 8,sons and ,lovers10 8as if you must fill yourself up with love because you've got a shortage somewhere40 ,the ,lawrence model1 madly1 fiercely possessive1 differs from older forms in the abundance of physiological and pathological trimming4 ,his conclusion1 as voiced again by ,paul to ,miriam is1 8,a woman only works with part of herself2 the real and vital part is covered up40 ,and this hidden reality is her terrific1 destructive1 fervid determination to drown man in her embrace4 ,so it goes4 ,to ,floyd ,dell woman is a ,mother1 to ,h4 ,l4 ,mencken a ,wife1 to ,w4 ,l4 ,george a ,courtesan1 and to ,d4 ,h4 ,lawrence a ,matrix--always specialized to sex4 ,there may be men who are able to think of woman apart from the pattern of function1 but they are inarticulate4 ,most of them spend their lives associating with a symbol4 ,the set pieces they call ,mary1 ,martha1 ,elaine1 or ,marguerite may follow the standardized design of grandmother1 mother1 or aunt4 ,or in more advanced circles1 the pattern may call for bobbed hair1 knickers1 and cigarette case4 ,under any form of radicalism or conservatism the stereotype remains4 ,the old morality was built upon this body of folk-lore about women4 ,whether pictured as a chaste and beautiful angel1 remote and untainted by life's realities1 or more cynically regarded as a devil and the source of sin1 the notion was always according to pattern4 ,naturally1 the relationship of men and women has been built upon the design1 and a great many of our social ideals and customs follow it4 ,the angel concept led1 of course1 to the so-called double standard which provides for a class of ,victorian dolls who personify goodness1 while their sisters1 the prostitutes1 serve as sacrificial offerings to the wicked ways of men4 ,the new morality1 as yet rather nebulous and somewhat mythical1 has fewer class distinctions4 ,the angel picture1 for instance1 has had some rude blows4 ,as portrayed by the vanguard of radicals and interpreters1 however1 the changing conventions have their roots in the old generalizations and phantasies4 ,perhaps this is only to be expected1 for the man or woman does not exist whose mind has not become so filled with accepted ideas of human beings and relationships before maturity1 or even adolescence1 that what is seen thereafter is chiefly a fog of creeds and patterns4 ,if several hundred babies1 children of good inherited backgrounds1 could be brought up on an isolated island1 without a taint of superimposed custom and never hearing generalizations about themselves--never having standardized characteristics laid heavily upon their shoulders1 perhaps a different type of relationship founded upon actualities1 would be evolved4 ,without a mythology of attributes1 based chiefly upon biological functions1 real human beings might discover each other and create new and honest ways of comradeship and association4 ,as it is to-day1 we do not know what the pristine reactions of individuals1 free from the modifications of stereotype1 would be like4 ,it was the development of means by which beliefs could be separated from actual facts which brought modern science into being and freed the world from the quaint superstitions of the ages4 ,not until the nature of substance could be proved and classified in contrast with the mass of ignorant notions which clogged ancient thought was the amazing mechanical1 economic1 and scientific advance of the last century possible4 ,the world of antiquity had standardized life and tied thought down to speculative creeds4 ,empirical science discarded all supposition and centered itself upon building up another picture--life as an examination of its actual nature proved it to be4 ,in the creating of a new order which will bring with it a different type of social and personal contact1 something similar must take place4 ,for most of our ideas1 even those classified as liberal and advanced1 are built upon the reactions of an alleged1 not an actual human being4 ,men have suffered from pattern-making1 but never have they been burdened with the mass of generalizations that are heaped upon women from birth4 ,nobody knows what women are really like because our minds are so filled with the stereotype of ,woman4 ,and this picture1 even in the interpretations of those who claim to understand the modern woman1 is chiefly of function1 not character4 ,it is impossible to create a satisfying relationship between a red-blooded individual and a symbol4 ,a changed morality cannot successfully emerge when half of those who participate are regarded not as people but functions4 ,as long as women are pictured chiefly as wife1 mother1 courtesan--or what not--defining merely a relationship to men--nothing new or strange or interesting is likely to happen4 ,the old order is safe4 ,women and the ,new ,morality ,by ,beatrice ,m4 ,hinkle ,beatrice ,m4 ,hinkle is a physician and psycho-analyst who follows in general the beliefs of ,jung4 ,she is the author of 8,recreating the ,individual40 ,,women ,,and ,,the ,,new ,,morality ,,by ,,beatrice ,m4 ,,hinkle1 ,m4,d4 ,in the general discussions of morality which are the fashion just now1 sex morality seems to occupy the chief place4 ,indeed1 judging from the amount of talk on this subject one would be inclined to think it the outstanding problem of our time4 ,certainly the whole of humanity is concerned in and vitally affected by the sexual aspect of life4 ,sexuality in its capacity as an agent of transformation is the source of power underlying the creativeness of man4 ,in its direct expression1 including its influence upon human relationships in general1 it is woman's particular concern4 ,the position of importance it is assuming seems1 therefore1 to be justified1 regardless of the protests of the intellect and the wish of the ego to minimize its significance4 ,a general weakening of traditional standards of ethics and morals and their gradual loss of control over the conduct of individuals have long been observed in other activities--in business affairs and in the world of men's relations with each other4 ,this has taken place so quietly and with so much specious rationalizing that sharp practices and shady conduct which formerly would have produced scandals1 shame1 and social taboos now scarcely cause a protest from society4 ,these aspects of morality belong to the masculine world in particular and produce little agitation1 while the upheaval in sex morals particularly affects the feminine world and by many people can scarcely be considered calmly enough for an examination4 ,the changes in this field are the most recent and are being produced by women2 they are taking place in full view of all with no apologies and with little hesitation4 ,they appear1 therefore1 most striking and disturbing4 ,it can be said that in the general disintegration of old standards1 women are the active agents in the field of sexual morality and men the passive1 almost bewildered accessories to the overthrow of their long and firmly organized control of women's sexual conduct4 ,the old sex morality1 with its double standard1 has for years been criticized and attacked by fair-minded persons of both sexes4 ,it has been recognized that this unequal condition produced effects as unfortunate for the favored sex as for the restricted one1 and that because of this it could not be maintained indefinitely by a psychologically developing people4 ,as a matter of course1 whenever the single standard was mentioned1 the standard governing women was invariably meant1 and the fact was ignored that it is easier to break down restrictions than to force them upon those who have hitherto enjoyed comparative freedom4 ,furthermore1 it was not realized that a sex morality imposed by repression and the power of custom creates artificial conceptions and will eventually break down4 ,this forced morality is in fact at the present time quite obviously disintegrating4 ,we see women assuming the right to act as their impulses dictate with much the same freedom that men have enjoyed for so long4 ,the single standard is rapidly becoming a fait accompli1 but instead of the standard identified with women it is nearer the standard associated with men4 ,according to a universal psychological law1 actual reality eventually overtakes and replaces the cultural ideal4 ,although this overthrow of old customs and sex ideals must be chiefly attributed to the economic independence of women brought about through the industrialism of our age1 it is safe to say that no man thought ahead far enough or understood the psychology of women sufficiently to anticipate the fruit of this economic emancipation4 ,as long as women were dependent upon men for the support of themselves and their children there could be no development of a real morality1 for the love and feelings of the woman were so intermingled with her economic necessities that the higher love impulse was largely undifferentiated from the impulse of self-preservation4 ,true morality can only develop when the object or situation is considered for itself1 not when it is bound up with ulterior and extraneous elements which vitiate the whole4 ,the old morality has failed and is disintegrating fast1 because it was imposed from without instead of evolving from within4 ,a morality which has value for all time and is not dependent upon custom or external cultural fashions can arise only from a high development of the psychological functions of thinking and feeling1 with the developed individual as the determiner of values instead of general custom or some one else's opinion4 ,the function of feeling and the realm of the emotions have been universally regarded as woman's special province2 therefore it is women who are specially concerned with testing out moral values involving sexual behavior4 ,women have been reproached by men again and again as being only sexual creatures1 and they have meekly accepted the reproach4 ,now1 instead of examining the statement1 they have accepted the sexual problem of men as though it were their own1 and with it the weight of man's conflict and his articulateness4 ,for sexuality as a problem and a conflict definitely belongs to man's psychology2 it is he primarily who has been ashamed of his domination by this power and has struggled valiantly to free himself2 his egotistic and sexual impulses have always been at war with each other4 ,but whoever heard of women being ashamed of yielding to the power of love8 ,instead they gloried in the surrender of themselves and counted themselves blessed when love ruled4 ,it is this need of man to escape from the power of the sensual appeal that has made him scorn sex and look upon the great creative power of life as something shameful and inferior1 and in modern days treat it as a joke or with the indifferent superficiality which betrays emasculation and inadequacy4 ,one has only to 8listen in0 where any large group of men1 young or old1 are gathered together in easy familiarity 7the army camps were recent examples on a large scale7 to discover the degree to which sexuality still dominates the minds of men1 even though its expression is confined so largely to the jocose and the obscene4 ,many men can corroborate this report from a military camp--8we have sexuality in all its dirty and infantile forms served daily for breakfast1 lunch1 and dinner40 ,it is the inferior and inadequate aspect of masculine sexuality that has made it necessary for man to conceive it as something shameful and unclean1 and to insist that woman must carry his purity for him and live the restrictions and suppression that rightly belonged to him4 ,woman on her part became an easy victim of his ideas and convictions1 because of the very fact that the function of feeling and the emotions so largely dominate her psychology4 ,the translation of feeling into thought-forms has been slow and difficult4 ,about herself woman has been quite inarticulate and largely unconscious4 ,this inarticulateness inevitably made her accept man's standards and values for her1 for little directed thinking is achieved without form and words4 ,because of her sexual fertility and fruitfulness woman had no sexual conflict2 therefore1 man easily unloaded his psychological burden upon her1 and claimed freedom for the satisfaction of his own desires4 ,thus1 woman was made a symbol or personification of man's morality4 ,she had to live for him that which he was unable to live for himself4 ,this was the reason for his indignation at moral transgressions on her part4 ,she had injured the symbol and revealed his weakness to him4 ,however1 with the discovery by women that they could be economically independent of men1 they commenced to find themselves interesting4 ,as they have gradually come to think for themselves about fundamental questions1 there has begun a tremendous activity and busyness in regard to the very subject which was previously taboo4 ,a recent writer boasts that men have changed their attitude regarding sexual problems very little and are not much concerned in the new interest of women4 ,this is probably true1 for man has contributed all he has to give to the subject4 ,he has laid down his taboos and externalized his restrictions1 chiefly applicable to the other sex1 and he is finished with the subject--bored by having it thrust forward as an unfinished problem needing reconsideration4 ,all of his knowledge or understanding of the sexual aspect of life--the aspect underlying human creativeness1 the faulty development of which is responsible for a large part of his woes1 8can be told in two hours to any intelligent sixteen year old boy10 another writer recently stated4 ,it is this youthful ignorance and assurance that the last word has been spoken on this subject that has awakened women1 no longer dependent economically1 to the fact that they must also become independent of men intellectually if they wish to gain expression for their knowledge or to form their own rules of conduct based on their psychology4 ,in the true scientific spirit of the age they are now experimenting and using nature's method of trial and error to find out for themselves by conscious living experience what feeling has vaguely told them4 ,this is the first step towards objectifying and clarifying woman's intuitive knowledge4 ,with the revolt of women against the old restrictions and the demand for freedom to experience for themselves1 there has appeared a most significant phase of the changed morality--the new relation of women toward each other4 ,the significance of this enormous change which has been taking place very quietly and yet very rapidly is scarcely appreciated4 ,however1 when one realizes that only a generation ago the newspapers were still publishing their funny paragraphs at the expense of women 78,the dear creatures2 how they love one another071 the great difference in their relations today becomes evident4 ,the generally accepted distinction between the personal loyalties of the sexes can be summed up in the statement that women are loyal in love and disloyal in friendship1 while men are loyal in friendship and disloyal in love4 ,it is this attitude of women that is gradually disappearing with the awakening of a new sense of themselves as individuals4 ,their changed attitude towards each other--the recognition of their own values1 and the growing realization that only in solidarity can any permanent impression be made on the old conception of woman as an inferior1 dependent creature1 useful for one purpose only--constitutes the most marked difference between their present social condition and that of the past4 ,as long as women remained psychologically unawakened1 their individual values were swallowed up in their biological value for the race4 ,they were under the unconscious domination of their sexual fruitfulness and an enemy of themselves as individuals4 ,weininger gives as the chief difference between the masculine and feminine creeds that 8,man's religion consists in a supreme belief in himself--woman's in a supreme belief in other people40 ,these other people being men1 the sex rivalry among women that has so long stood in the way of their further development is easily understood4 ,it has been a vicious circle which could only be broken by women's gaining another significance in the eyes of the world and in their own eyes4 ,this other significance is the economic importance which they have acquired in the world of men4 ,it makes little difference within the social structure how many individual women exist who have forged a position for themselves and have won a freedom and independence equal to that possessed by the ordinary man1 so long as they are isolated phenomena having little understanding of the peculiar difficulties and problems of women as a whole1 and no relation with each other4 ,these women have always existed in all culture periods1 but they have produced little effect upon the social condition or psychology of women in general4 ,there was no group action because the majority of women were inarticulate4 ,the woman who was different became abnormal in the eyes of the world4 ,this lack of an adequate self-consciousness among women1 their general inability to translate feeling into form capable of being understood by the masculine mind1 accounts for their acceptance of the statements made about them by men in an effort to understand creatures apparently so different from themselves4 ,there is no doubt that woman's inarticulateness about herself1 even when her feelings were very different from those she was told were normal1 has been responsible for a vast amount of the nonsense written about her4 ,this passive acceptance of the opinions of others has been most disastrous for woman's development4 ,her superior psychological processes consist of feelings and intuitions1 and when these are stultified or violated by being forced into a false relation1 or are inhibited from development1 the entire personality is crippled4 ,the inadequate development of the function of thought and the dominating rle played by the function of feeling in the psychology of woman have produced an obviously one-sided effect and have caused men to postulate theories about her1 which are given forth as though they were the last word to be said--fixed and unchangeable4 ,indeed the statement that women are incapable of change and that no growth is possible for them is one of the favorite assertions of the masculine writers upon the subject of women's psychology4 ,as the present is the first time in our historical period in which there has been any general opportunity for women as a whole to think for themselves and to develop in new ways1 the basis for this assertion does not exist1 and it obviously conceals an unconscious wish that women should not change4 ,the effect of collective ideas and cultural traditions upon the personality is immeasurable4 ,the greatest general change that is taking place today is the weakening of these ideas and the refusal of women to be bound by them4 ,women are for the first time demanding to live the forbidden experiences directly and draw conclusions on this basis4 ,i do not mean to imply that traditional moral standards controlling woman's sexual conduct have never been transgressed in the past4 ,they have very frequently been transgressed1 but secretly and without inner justification4 ,the great difference today lies in the open defiance of these customs with feelings of entire justification1 or even a non-recognition of a necessity for justification4 ,in other words1 there has arisen a feeling of moral rightness in the present conduct1 and wrongness in the former morality4 ,actually the condition is one in which natural1 long-restrained desire is being substituted for collective moral rules1 and individuals are largely becoming a law unto themselves4 ,it is difficult to predict what will be the result of the revolt1 but it is certain that this is the preceding condition which renders it possible for a new morality in the real sense to be born within the individual4 ,it has already produced the first condition of all conscious psychic development--a moral conflict--and woman has gained a problem4 ,in the general chaos of conflicting feelings she is losing her instinctive adaptation to her biological rle as race bearer1 and is attempting adaptation to man's reality4 ,she is making the effort to win for herself some differentiation and development of the ego function apart from her instinctive processes4 ,this is the great problem confronting woman today2 how can she gain a relation to both racial and individual obligations1 instead of possessing one to the exclusion of the other8 ,must she lose that which has been and still is her greatest strength and value8 ,i for one do not think so1 although ,i am fully conscious of the tremendous psychic effort and responsibility involved in the changing standards4 ,it is necessary that women learn to accept themselves and to value themselves as beings possessing a worth at least equal to that of the other sex1 instead of unthinkingly accepting standards based on masculine psychology4 ,then women will recognize the necessity of developing their total psychic capacities just as it is necessary for men to do1 but they will see that this does not involve imitation of men or repudiation of their most valuable psychic functioning4 ,the real truth is that it has at last become apparent to many women that men cannot redeem them4 ,it is not the purpose of this article to deal with the practical issues involved in the new moral freedom4 ,one thing however is clearly evident3 ,women are demanding a reality in their relations with men that heretofore has been lacking1 and they refuse longer to cater to the traditional notions of them created by men1 in which their true feelings and personalities were disregarded and denied4 ,this is the first result of the new morality4 ,transcriber's ,notes ,a few minor errors in punctuation have been corrected4