The Sexual Question Part 29

=Prost.i.tution and s.e.xual Perversion.=--If it is true that many prost.i.tutes have a pathological heredity, it is still more sure that they often have to submit to the fancies of pathological clients. The numerous s.e.xual anomalies, of which we have spoken in Chapter VIII, are closely connected with prost.i.tution. The refinement of modern civilization is so complete that it supplies localities and women for the special use of each pathological form of the s.e.xual appet.i.te.

So far we have only spoken of female prost.i.tutes, and we have seen how they conform to the customs of s.a.d.i.s.ts, m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.ts, etc. They allow themselves to be maltreated by the former, and maltreat the latter; or else they play at exhibitions symbolical of cruelty or humiliation.

For male inverts, on the other hand, there exist male brothels, in which young boys practice pederasty for money. For certain rich _roues_, or for those affected with pederosis, children are kept. This last cla.s.s of goods is very dear, for there is always a risk of the law intervening. Young virgins also fetch a high price; and they even try to sew up the hymen after their defloration, so as to offer them several times as virgins!

With what we have said in Chapter VIII, these indications will suffice to show that modern prost.i.tution and proxenetism const.i.tute a public disgrace, intended to exploit the unbridled desires of men for profit.

This system has been defended on the grounds of hygiene and the protection of virtuous women against the a.s.saults of men, etc. In reality, it has resulted in corrupting and effeminating men; in restricting the normal s.e.xual intercourse of youth in its natural a.s.sociation with an inconsiderate love; in degrading love itself; in debarring a great number of capable and virtuous women from marriage, from love, and from s.e.xual intercourse in general; lastly, in causing complete aberration of the whole s.e.xual life of modern society.

Contemporary literature has begun to consider the psychology of prost.i.tution. We have already mentioned _La Maison Tellier_ by de Maupa.s.sant; Zola's _Nana_ is the history of a high-cla.s.s prost.i.tute related in the well-known realistic manner of the celebrated novelist, in which he describes the s.e.xual depravity existing in certain Parisian circles of the Second Empire.

I will now make a few remarks concerning a social movement organized against the regulation of prost.i.tution, called abolitionism.

=Abolitionism and Regulation.=--An Englishwoman, Mrs. Josephine Butler, undertook, in the name of liberty, a campaign against proxenetism, white slavery and the State regulation of prost.i.tution.

She also attacked the injustice of the Code Napoleon toward women, especially the prohibition of inquiry into paternity, which throws girls who have been seduced into the arms of prost.i.tution. The abolitionists contest the right of police inscription of prost.i.tutes under the pretext of hygiene, of submitting them against their will to medical inspection, and of keeping them in brothels. They claim severe laws against proxenetism and oppose toleration.

In medical circles the system of regulation has generally been defended. It is urged that society has the right to protect itself against dangerous infection, and that, with this object, it has as much right to treat infected prost.i.tutes compulsorily, as those affected with smallpox or cholera. Owing to their shameful trade, they maintain that these women have lost all claim to special consideration.

This argument appears very reasonable at first sight, but it takes quite a different aspect when the facts are examined more thoroughly.

First of all the comparison with smallpox and cholera is illogical, for these diseases endanger the innocent public, while the man who makes use of prost.i.tution is quite aware of the danger he runs.

Society is under no obligation to provide healthy prost.i.tutes for the use of Don Juan.

Against this it is stated that innocent wives are often infected and made to suffer for the sins of their husbands. But such an extensive blending of the State with family life does not appear to be admissible, and would lead to crying abuses. Society has neither the right nor the duty to facilitate the dangerous or injurious acts of certain individuals at the expense of others, by rendering them less dangerous, so that certain third parties may be less liable to suffer.

This is an absurd sophism. The duty of society is to make responsible the one who has committed the dangerous or injurious act, and to punish him if he has done harm. Here, on the contrary, one only of the culprits (the prost.i.tute) is compelled to keep to her vile trade, while the man who makes use of her, and often infects her, is free from any responsibility. Moreover, the State has no right to act against responsible persons under the pretext that their future sentiments or actions would have dangerous consequences for others; this would lead to arbitrary abuse of power. The insane, and habitual criminals make the only exceptions, for their abnormal and irresponsible cerebral organization is a perpetual danger to society.

There is one question, however, which arises: Can prost.i.tution in itself be regarded as a misdemeanor punishable by law? If this were the case, the client would have to be punished as well as the prost.i.tute; or both of them be sent to reformatories. This is the only logical consequence, for in such cases the two contractors are equally guilty, and also equally dangerous as regards infection.

How, therefore, can the system be justified which brands and inscribes the prost.i.tute only; which is not content with tolerating her vile trade instead of punis.h.i.+ng it, but gives it official sanction, causing her to fall lower and lower; which finally, to crown the work, licenses the proxenetism which exploits her vice? It is difficult to imagine more complete hypocrisy, or a more contradictory system.

In former times when slavery was allowed, men's will and pleasure were sufficient to justify such measures, which created for their profit a cla.s.s of female pariahs; and this was frankly and openly admitted.

Nowadays, the equal rights of women which are officially recognized in civilized countries no longer allow it, and hygienic arguments only can give such modern barbarity the hypocritical appearance of justification. Lunatics and criminals are only locked up as a measure of safety, and to attempt to improve them; but their bodies are not allowed to become an object of commerce for the pleasure of other members of society.

But the results of honestly interpreted statistics contradict the apparent justification of the regulation of prost.i.tution, in the name of hygiene. It is intended to furnish men with a means of coitus free from danger; but the facts prove that venereal disease has not been diminished by this means. The false security given to men officially by regulation makes them all the more careless. The multiplication of the s.e.xual connections of each prost.i.tute increases the danger of infection at least as much as the elimination of a few diseased persons diminishes it.

The corruption of the State and its officials, especially the police and the medical inspectors of brothels, the general depravity which results from official toleration, and the perversion of ideas of morality among the public, increase habits of prost.i.tution, and with it the danger of infection. a.s.sured of impunity the pimps and their acolytes become more and more audacious and extend their business, while the prost.i.tutes, whose number is increased by this system, seek to escape the police and practice their trade clandestinely. It is no wonder that the swamp to be purified becomes more and more infectious.

Can it be conscientiously said that hygiene has benefited? This is well seen in Geneva and in France. It is enough to compare the number of cases of venereal disease and of prost.i.tutes in countries where regulation is in force, with those which do not employ it, to show the complete fiasco of the system from the hygienic point of view. On the average, the number of infectious cases is nearly the same with or without regulation and depends on many other causes. I cannot enter into the details here and must refer to the statistics and to the works published by the Abolitionist Federation (6 Rue St. Leger, Geneva).

Of all that has been published, nothing appears to me more conclusive than the masterly statistics of Mounier, for Holland, in 1889. Even among medical men, the originators of regulation, the abolitionist point of view is steadily gaining ground. It is beginning to be understood that the toleration of proxenetism, and even the inscription and medical inspection of prost.i.tutes, are vicious methods of social sanitation against venereal infection.

But by the suppression of official toleration and regulation, the question of prost.i.tution is in no way settled. This has only a negative action, important for the tactics of those who wish to upset a scandalous abuse, but which does not respond to the higher task of extirpating the root of the evil. The positive work will only begin when the State is relieved of its shameful compact with proxenetism and prost.i.tution.

In the following chapters we shall examine the remedies which must be applied to our s.e.xual anarchy, the result of masculine autocracy, as Russian anarchy is the result of Tsarism. I will first make a few observations from the medical and hygienic point of view, to the partisans of regulation. They exclaim that the abolitionists are fanatics, who, from their absence of scientific spirit, will deluge society with venereal disease. This bogy has no sound foundation. The State regulation of prost.i.tution applied to certain women has not diminished the amount of venereal disease, because it does not reach it. The State concession of an unnatural vice cannot be hygienic.

Moreover, it is impossible to completely disinfect prost.i.tutes, this disinfection is quite illusory, unless it is also applied to their clients, which is impracticable.

In France, where the system of regulation has existed for a long time in its strictest form, venereal diseases are extremely prevalent; while in Switzerland, where it only exists at Geneva, having been suppressed for some years in the Canton of Zurich, they are less frequent. Geneva is not less contaminated than other towns in Switzerland, in spite of its model brothels, and Zurich has lately, by popular vote, confirmed abolition by a crus.h.i.+ng majority, in opposition to a few interested persons who wished to reestablish the brothels under futile and fallacious pretexts. Some clandestine brothels still exist in towns where the authorities shut their eyes.

It has also been maintained that the number of s.e.xual misdemeanors would increase with the suppression of brothels. This is another illusion. The majority of s.e.xual misdemeanors are due to psychic anomalies (Chapter VIII) or to the effects of alcoholic intoxication.

If they have any relation to prost.i.tution, it is rather that of being favored by its orgies.

=Remedies for the Evil.=--What is wanted first of all are severe laws against proxenetism. It is indisputable that commerce made with the body of one's neighbor is illegal, even when the latter gives consent. It is a crime or misdemeanor which should be prosecuted like negro slavery or usury. We should not wait for a complaint to be lodged, but prosecute proxenetism officially, for the victims are hindered by shame from coming forward. The pimps of proxenetism are recruited from the dregs of society. In this domain, as in the others, penal law should not be put in force; the object should be the protection of society and the improvement of the criminal.

As regards prost.i.tution itself, it cannot be made a misdemeanor without opening the door too widely to complete arbitrariness. The State cannot prevent a responsible adult from disposing of his own body, without introducing religion and metaphysics into legislation; but the State can require those who practice prost.i.tution not to molest the public. It has, therefore, the right to punish solicitation in the streets by fine or imprisonment, especially in often repeated offenses. It can also give persons of both s.e.xes, who are victims of venereal disease, the right of claiming damages by civil law. The legality of this right of indemnity has been much contested. In my opinion it is legitimate when the State no longer tolerates or regulates prost.i.tution; but so long as it does this, and submits prost.i.tutes to obligatory medical treatment, the States takes the responsibility of their health. Under the regime of regulation, an infected person could logically claim damages from the State, or, at any rate from the pimps of licensed proxenetism.

The question of responsibility is quite different when prost.i.tution is free. The s.e.xual intercourse of a free prost.i.tute with a man may be regarded as a private contract in which each party has the same rights and obligations. If one of the two contractors deceives the other by concealing venereal disease, the latter has the right to claim damages, if there is sufficient proof of infection from this source.

The right of indemnity does not, however, const.i.tute the princ.i.p.al point. In order to successfully combat prost.i.tution and venereal disease, fundamental social reforms are necessary.

(1). First of all the system of exploitation of the poor by the rich should be put an end to, the work of the poor being remunerated at its true value. This requires a social transformation of the relations between capital and labor.

(2). The use of narcotics, and especially alcohol, should be suppressed.

(3). The false modesty concerning s.e.xual intercourse should be done away with.

(4). The public should be instructed in the dangers of venereal disease and in the means of preventing contamination. The only certain means of curing them consists in not contracting them.

(5). Cleanliness should be universally encouraged, especially in s.e.xual intercourse.

(6). Preventive measures should be employed in every coitus, the object of which is not procreation.

(7). The treatment of venereal diseases in hospitals should be carried out in a decent and humane manner, so as not to shock the modesty of either s.e.x, especially women, and so that patients need not be ashamed of submitting to medical treatment. Nowadays the venereal divisions of hospitals often more resemble brothels. This state of things makes it impossible for any woman with a particle of modesty to stay in these places. It is evident that women who are more or less virtuous, and even the better cla.s.s of prost.i.tutes, will avoid such hospital treatment as much as possible, and will thereby become the worst sources of infection.

By treating venereal disease in hospital with more regard for decency and modesty, by abolis.h.i.+ng the brand of shame, and by separating patients according to their behavior, we might succeed in improving a state of things which is often unbearable. Patients with venereal diseases would then more willingly submit to hospital treatment and would be more easily cured. In Italy much progress has already been made in this direction.

In conclusion, I am convinced that if we should be contented for the present with damming up prost.i.tution and suppressing the causes which render prost.i.tutes more and more abject, without yet being able to abolish the whole evil, a transformation of our social life, and especially the suppression of the reign of capital as a means of exploitation of the work of others, and suppression of the use of alcoholic drinks, would eventually succeed in the gradual extinction of prost.i.tution and the subst.i.tution of concubinage, which has much less evil results.

VENAL CONCUBINAGE

Venal concubinage occupies an intermediate position between prost.i.tution and concubinage. It is distinguished from the latter by the fact that it is remunerated; but the distinction is very fine.

=Lorettes.=--This is an old term which may be applied to paid women who are not regular prost.i.tutes. It is hardly possible to distinguish them from clandestine prost.i.tutes (not on the police inscription).

They are women who do not practice solicitation or sell themselves to the first comer, but generally keep to one man for a time.

=Grisettes.=--The Parisian grisette, whose type has become cla.s.sic, is a higher cla.s.s of woman who, at any rate in her primitive simplicity, was not wanting in romance. Relations with a grisette may be compared to limited and free marriage, in which there is comparative fidelity.

Like some of the free prost.i.tutes, the grisette does not live only on the support of her lover. She is often a dressmaker or a shop-girl, and makes arrangements with a lover so as to live more comfortably.

When the grisette acts as her lover's housekeeper and lives with him on terms of the closest intimacy, the _liaison_ takes a more serious character and there is a certain degree of affection or even love.

However, all these concubinages are generally limited to a few weeks or months, so that the natural love of the woman becomes blunted by successive polyandry. It is always more or less a question of "an accessory business."

There are all kinds of lorettes and grisettes, but as a rule they are generally attached to small tradesmen, students, workingmen, etc., rather than to rich men. It is a kind of contract for a limited period. This system is very widespread in large towns, where the inhabitants do not interfere with each other's affairs; but is difficult to manage in small towns, where every one knows everybody.

=Mistresses.=--These may be called the aristocrats of the species.

Here we see more distinctly the transition from venal love to free concubinage based on mutual love. The _hetaira_ of the ancient Greeks (vide Chapter VI) corresponded more or less to the modern mistresses, especially to the intelligent mistresses of men in high positions. In certain respects we may say that George Sand, for example, was a _hetaira_ from pure love, while among the Greek _hetaira_ money played a great part. Some mistresses are paid; others live on terms of equality with their lovers; others again maintain their lovers. We must also distinguish between mistresses who live with married men, and those who live with bachelors.

The most typical case is that where a bachelor who wishes to remain free takes a mistress, whom he also makes mistress of his house, and who thus becomes an illegitimate wife who may separate from him when it pleases her. Some women contract this kind of union without being actually paid, simply for their maintenance, in return for which they do the housework. Here there is no actual sale of the body. The contract may be indefinite or limited. In such cases the effect of money on the att.i.tude of the man toward his mistress is evident; his tone is generally less respectful toward paid mistresses than toward those who are not paid. The love of the paid mistress is little more durable or more intense than that of the grisette, the situation being almost the same.

Zola's _Nana_ prost.i.tuted herself regularly with rich men: secondly, she was the mistress of Fontan, who plays the part of a high-cla.s.s protector; thirdly, she fell in love with Georges in quite an idyllic fas.h.i.+on. Bordenave, the manager, had good reason in wis.h.i.+ng his theater to be called a brothel, as he was more of a pimp than a theatrical manager. This example, a little far-fetched, shows how ideas pa.s.s from one to another in this elastic domain.