Among those who are opposed to sexual freedom on theological grounds, it is customary to argue against divorce as being contrary to the interests of the children. This argument, however, when used by the theologically minded, is not a genuine one, as may be seen from the fact that such persons will not tolerate either divorce or contraceptives, even when one parent is syphilitic and the children are likely to be so also. Cases of this sort show that the appeal with a sob in the voice to the interests of little children, when pushed to an extreme, is only an excuse for cruelty. The whole question of the connection of marriage with the interests of children needs to be considered without prejudice, and with the realization that the answer is not obvious from the start. At this point, a few words of recapitulation are desirable.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM13-020.HTM
読者は,第二章と第三章において,母系家族と家父長制家族について,また,これらの制度と原始的な性道徳観との関連について考察したことを,もう(by this time)忘れてしまっているかもしれない。いまや,家族のことを改めて考察する段階である。ただ家族のみが性的自由を制限する合理的な基盤を与える(からである)。我々は,「性と罪」(注:大文字になっているので,特にキリスト教社会におけるといったニュアンスがあると思われる。)に関する長い余談(注:a long parenthesis (…)に入れた/間に挟んだ長い挿入話)を終えることとなった。「性と罪」との結びつきは,初期キリスト教徒が発明したものではなく,彼らによって最大限に利用し尽され(exploited by them),現在では,我々の大部分の(外部からの強制ではない)自発的な道徳的判断の中に具現化されているものである。私は,性そのもの(sex as such)には何か邪悪なものがあり,結婚と,子供を望む気持ちとを結びつけることによってのみそれを取り除くことができるとする神学的見解には,もうこれ以上,かかわり合わないことにする。
いま考察すべき問題は,子供の利益のためには,どの程度の性関係の安定が必要なのか,ということである。つまり(that is to say 言い換えれば),安定した結婚を求める理由としての家族を考察しなければならない。この問題は,決して簡単なものではない。家族の一員であることから子供が受ける利益は,明らかに,家族に代わるものが何であるかによっている。たとえば,大部分の家族よりも望ましいくらい,賞賛すべき捨て子の施設が存在するかもしれない。
また,父親は,家庭生活において何か必須の役割を果たしているかどうかも考察しなければならない。なぜなら,女性の貞操(virtues)が家族にとって必須と考えられてきたのは,ただ父親のため(on his account)であるからである。
また(さらに),普通の場合,両親が揃っていることが子供にとって最上の環境であることを認めるにしても,なお,どちらか一方(one or other)が親の責任を果たすのにふさわしくないとか,二人(両親/夫婦)がひどく不和なので,子供のためには別れた方が望ましい,とかいった,非常に多くの事例を考察しなければならない。
Chapter XIII: Family at present day, n.1
The reader may by this time have forgotten that in Chapters II and Ill we considered matrilineal and patriarchal families, and their bearing upon primitive views of sexual ethics. It is now time to resume the consideration of the family, which affords the only rational basis for limitations of sexual freedom. We have come to the end of a long parenthesis on Sex and Sin, a connection not invented by the early Christians, but exploited by them to the uttermost, and embodied now in the spontaneous moral judgments of most of us. I shall not trouble further with the theological view that in sex as such there is something wicked which can only be eliminated by the combination of marriage with the desire for offspring. The subject we have now to consider is the degree of stability in sex relations demanded by the interests of children. That is to say, we have to consider the family as a reason for stable marriage. This question is far from simple. It is clear that the gain which a child derives from being a member of a family depends upon what the alternative is : there might be institutions for foundlings so admirable that they would be preferable to the great majority of families. We have also to consider whether any essential part in family life is played by the father, since it is only on his account that feminine virtue has been thought essential to the family. We have to examine the effect of the family upon the individual psychology of the child – a subject dealt with in a somewhat sinister spirit by Freud. We have to consider the effect of economic systems in increasing or diminishing the importance of the father. We have to ask ourselves whether we should wish to see the State taking the place of the father, or possibly even, as Plato suggested, of both father and mother. And even supposing that we decide in favour of both father and mother as affording the best environment for the child in normal cases, we still have to consider the very numerous instances in which one or other is unfit for the responsibility of parenthood, or the two are so incompatible that separation is desirable in the interests of the child.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM13-010.HTM
私としては,友愛結婚は正しい方向への一歩であり,大きな利益をもたらすものであると固く信じているけれども,友愛結婚は(だけでは)まだ不十分であると考える。子供を伴わない(子どもが生まれない)あらゆる性関係は,純粋に私事と見なすべきであり,仮にある男女が子供を作らないで,一緒に暮らそうと決心(選択)したとしても(if = even if),それは当事者同士の問題であり,他人に関係ないことである,と私は考える(注:ラッセルの趣旨は,その場合は「結婚」という「法的制度」で縛る必要がない,ということ)。(また)男にせよ女にせよ,事前に性体験をしないままに,子供を作るつもりの(法制度としての)結婚という重大な仕事(事柄)を開始することは望ましいことではない,という考えを私は抱いている。(性の)初体験は,予備知識のある人とするほうがよいことを示す証拠は非常に多く存在している。人間の性行為は,本能的なものではないし,後背位(a tergo)から行われなくなってからは(以後は),明らかにそうではなくなっている。(注:本能であるならば、他人から一切教えてもらわなくても性行為ができるはずであるが、そうではないので、他人から教えてもらうか、本を読んだり、ビデオを見たりしないとどうしてよいかわからない、ということ。)
For my part, while I am quite convinced that companionate marriage would be a step in the right direction, and would do a great deal of good, I do not think that it goes far enough. I think that all sex relations which do not involve children should be regarded as a purely private affair, and that if a man and a woman choose to live together without having children, that should be no one’s business but their own. I should not hold it desirable that either a man or a woman should enter upon the serious business of a marriage intended to lead to children without having had previous sexual experience. There is a great mass of evidence to show that the first experience of sex should be with a person who has previous knowledge. The sexual act in human beings is not instinctive, and apparently never has been since it ceased to be performed a tergo. And apart from this argument, it seems absurd to ask people to enter upon a relation intended to be lifelong, without any previous knowledge as to their sexual compatibility. It is just as absurd as it would be if a man intending to buy a house were not allowed to view it until he had completed the purchase. The proper course, if the biological function of marriage were adequately recognized, would be to say that no marriage should be legally binding until the wife’s first pregnancy. At present a marriage is null if sexual intercourse is impossible, but children, rather than sexual intercourse, are the true purpose of marriage, which should therefore be not regarded as consummated until such time as there is a prospect of children. This view depends, at least in part, upon that separation between procreation and mere sex which has been brought about by contraceptives. Contraceptives have altered the whole aspect of sex and marriage, and have made distinctions necessary which could formerly have been ignored. People may come together for sex alone, as occurs in prostitution, or for companionship involving a sexual element, as in Judge Lindsey’s companionate marriage, or, finally, for the purpose of rearing a family. These are all different, and no morality can be adequate to modern circumstances which confounds them in one indiscriminate total.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM12-070.HTM
このようなことが全て言われてきているが,私は,そういうことを言った人びとの中で,それを本気で信じている者は一部である(一部にすぎない),と考えたい(try to think)。私は,リンゼー判事に対する数多くの罵り尻言葉(invectives)を耳にしたが,決定的とみなされる議論は二つであるという印象を受けて(米国を?)去った(came way with the impression)。 第一は,リンゼー判事の提案は,キリストによって許しを得られないもの(認められないもの)であったであろうということ,第二は,この提案は,アメリカの聖職者の(なかで)比較的リベラルな者によってさえも是認されなかった,ということである。
この議論のうち,二番目のほうがより重要で,実際正しいと考えられると思われた。前者(一番目)はまったく仮定の問題であり,実証することができないからである。私は,リンゼー判事の提案は,人間の幸福を減らすものであることを証明するようなふりをする議論さえ,誰かが展開するのを聞いたことがない。彼の提案は人間の幸福を減らすものであるかどうかという考察は(this consideration),実際,伝統的な道徳を擁護する人々からは,まったく重要でないもの(注:検討に値しないつまらないもの)と考えられている,と結論せざるをえない。
Chapter XII: Trial Marriage, n.6
Nevertheless, Judge Lindsey’s proposals were received with a howl of horror by all middle-aged persons and all newspapers throughout the length and breadth of America. It was said that he was attacking the sanctity of the home; it was said that in tolerating marriages not intended to lead at once to children he was opening the floodgates to legalized lust ; it was said that he enormously exaggerated the prevalence of extra-marital sexual relations, that he was slandering pure American womanhood, and that most business men remained cheerfully continent up to the age of thirty or thirty-five. All these things were said, and I try to think that among those who said them were some who believed them. I listened to many invectives against Judge Lindsey, but I came away with the impression that the arguments which were regarded as decisive were two. First, that Judge Lindsey’s proposals would not have been approved by Christ; and second, that they were not approved by even the more liberal of American divines. The second of these arguments appeared to be considered the more weighty, and indeed rightly, since the other is purely hypothetical, and incapable of being substantiated. I never heard any person advance any argument even pretending to show that Judge Lindsey’s proposals would diminish human happiness. This consideration, indeed, I was forced to conclude, is thought wholly unimportant by those who uphold traditional morality.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM12-060.HTM
ベン・B・リンゼー判事(裁判官)は,- 彼は,長年,(米国)デンバーの少年裁判所の裁判長をつとめ,その地位において,(諸)事実を確かめるにあたって比肩なき機会に恵まれていた- 「友愛結婚」と彼が命名した新しい制度を提案した。不幸にして,彼は公職(公的地位)を失ってしまった。というのは,その地位を利用して,若者に罪の意識を植えつけるよりも,むしろ,若者の幸福を増進しようとしたことが発覚したとき,クー・クラックス・クラン(KKK)とカトリック教徒たちがいっしょになって,彼を追放したからである。友愛結婚は,賢明な一保守主義者による提案である。友愛結婚は,若い人たちの性関係に,現在の乱交(状態)(promiscuity)の代わりに,ある程度の安定性を導入しようとする試みである。彼(リンゼー判事)は,若者の結婚を妨げているのは,お金がないことと,結婚においてお金がいるのは,ひとつには子供ができた時のためであるが,またひとつは,妻は自分で生活費をかせぐものではない(it is not the thing for the wife to earn her own living)とする考え方である,という明白な事実を指摘している。リンゼー判事の見解は,若い人たちは新しい結婚の形態に入れるようにするべきでありそれは次の三つの特徴によって普通の結婚と区別される,というものである。(即ち) 第一に,試験結婚の間(期間),子供を作ることを考えてはならず,従って,入手可能な最良の産児制限の情報(注:ここでは妊娠しないための情報)が,若いカップルに提供されなければならない。第二に,子供がなく,かつ,妻が妊娠していない場合にかぎり,相互の同意により離婚が可能でなければならない。第三に,離婚する場合は,妻に離婚手当てを受ける権利を与えてはならない。
彼は,もしも,このような制度が法律によって確立されたなら,非常に多くの若い人たち,たとえば大学生たちが,比較的永続的なパートナー関係に入れるし,そうなれば(必然的に)共同生活をすることになり(involving a common life),彼らの現在の性関係の乱交的な特徴もなくなるであろうという考えを抱いているが,私もそれは正しいと思う。彼(リンゼー判事)は,結婚している若い学生は,結婚していない学生よりも,いっそう勉強するという証拠をつけ加えている【注:成句 bring … to bear:(注意・努力などを・・・に)注ぐ;(圧力などを・・・に)加える】。確かに,学業(勉強)と性は,パーティーやアルコールの刺激という騒ぎと興奮の中でよりも,半永続的な関係の中でのほうがはるかに容易に両立しやすいことは,明らかである。二人の若者が別々に生活するよりも,一緒に生活するほうが高くつくという理由は,どこを捜しても(under the sun)見当たらない。それゆえ,現在,結婚の延期をもたらしている経済的な理由は,もはや影響を及ぼさないであろう。リンゼー判事の案は,もし法制化された場合には,非常に有益な影響を及ぼすだろうし,また,その影響は,道徳的見地から見て,全ての人が利益であると同意するようなものであることに,私はまったく疑いをもっていない。
Chapter XII: Trial Marriage, n.5
Judge Ben B. Lindsey, who was for many years in charge of the juvenile court at Denver, and in that position had unrivalled opportunities for ascertaining the facts, proposed a new institution which he calls “companionate marriage”. Unfortunately he has lost his official position, for when it became known that he used it rather to promote the happiness of the young than to give them a consciousness of sin, the Ku Klux Klan and the Catholics combined to oust him. Companionate marriage is the proposal of a wise conservative. It is an attempt to introduce some stability into the sexual relations of the young, in place of the present promiscuity. He points out the obvious fact that what prevents the young from marrying is lack of money, and that money is required in marriage partly on account of children, but partly also because it is not the thing for the wife to earn her own living. His view is that young people should be able to enter upon a new kind of marriage, distinguished from ordinary marriage by three characteristics. First, that there should be for the time being no intention of having children, and that accordingly the best available birth-control information should be given to the young couple. Second, that so long as there are no children and the wife is not pregnant, divorce should be possible by mutual consent. And third, that in the event of divorce, the wife should not be entitled to alimony. He holds, and I think rightly, that if such an institution were established by law, a very great many young people, for example students at universities, would enter upon comparatively permanent partnerships, involving a common life, and free from the Dionysiac characteristics of their present sex relations. He brings evidence to bear that young students who are married do better work than such as are unmarried. It is indeed obvious that work and sex are more easily combined in a quasi-permanent relation than in the scramble and excitement of parties and alcoholic stimulation. There is no reason under the sun why it should be more expensive for two young people to live together than to live separately, and therefore the economic reasons which at present lead to postponement of marriage would no longer operate. I have not the faintest doubt that Judge Lindsey’s plan, if embodied in the law, would have a very beneficent influence, and that this influence would be such as all might agree to be a gain from a moral point of view.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM12-050.HTM
In spite of the drawbacks we have been considering, there are great advantages in the emancipation, however partial, of young people in America, as compared with their elders. They are freer from priggery, less inhibited, less enslaved to authority devoid of rational foundation. I think also that they are likely to prove less cruel, less brutal, and less violent than their seniors. For it has been characteristic of American life to take out in violence the anarchic impulses which could not find an outlet in sex. It may also be hoped that when the generation now young reaches middle age, it will not wholly forget its behaviour in youth, and will be tolerant of sexual experiments which at present are scarcely possible because of the need of secrecy.
The state of affairs in England is more or less similar to that in America, though not so developed owing to the absence of Prohibition and the paucity of motor-cars. There is also, I think, in England, and certainly on the Continent, very much less of the practice of sexual excitement without ultimate satisfaction. And respectable people in England, with some honourable exceptions, are on the whole less filled with persecuting zeal than corresponding people in America. Nevertheless, the difference between the two countries is only one of degree.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM12-040.HTM
公認の道徳(世間の多くの人に認められている道徳)が現状のままで変わらない間の,もっと重大な問題は,時々(若者に)災いがふりかかってくる危険である。運悪く,たまたま,ひとりの若い人の行い(やったこと)がどこかの道徳の守護者の耳に入ることがあるかもしれない。(すると)その人物(道徳の守護者)は,「良心」に従って進み,(その若者の)スキャンダルをあばいて加虐的なお祭り騒ぎ( a sadistic orgy of scandal)をするであろう。 また,アメリカの若者は,産児制限の方法に関する十分な知識(a sound knowledge of birth-control)を身につけることがほとんどできないので,望まない妊娠がめずらしくない。これは通常,中絶を斡旋(procure あっせん)することで処理されているが,中絶は危険で,苦痛を伴い,違法であり,しかも,隠しておくことは決して容易ではない。 若者の道徳と年寄りの道徳との間の完全な隔たりが,現代のアメリカではごく普通に存在しており,それがもう一つの不幸な結果,即ち,しばしば,親子の間に心からの親しみや友好関係も存在しなくなっているので,両親は助言や同情心(共感)によって自分の子供を助けることができなくなっている(のである)。若者が困難に陥った時,そのことを両親に話すと,必ず,(親の感情の)爆発を引き起こす。多分,激しい憤りを,少なくとも確実にヒステリックな騒ぎを,引き起こす(であろう)。こうして,親子関係は,子供が思春期に達したあとは,有益な機能を果たす関係ではなくなってしまっている。トロブリアンド島民のほうが,どれほどか文明的であることか。トロブリアンド島では,父親は,娘の恋人にこう言うであろう。
A graver matter, while official morality remains what it is, is the risk of occasional disaster. By ill luck it may happen that some one young person’s doings come to the ears of some guardian of morality, who will proceed with a good conscience to a sadistic orgy of scandal. And since it is almost impossible for young people in America to acquire a sound knowledge of birth-control methods, unintended pregnancies are not infrequent. These are generally dealt with by procuring abortion, which is dangerous, painful, illegal, and by no means easy to keep secret. The complete gulf between the morals of the young and the morals of the old, which exists very commonly in present-day America, has another unfortunate result, namely that often there can be no real intimacy or friendship between parents and children, and that the parents are incapable of helping their children with advice or sympathy. When young people get into a difficulty, they cannot speak of it to their parents without producing an explosion – possibly scandal, certainly a hysterical upheaval. The relation of parent and child has thus ceased to be one performing any useful function after the child has reached adolescence. How much more civilized are the Trobriand Islanders, where a father will say to his daughter’s lover:
“You sleep with my child: very well, marry her.”
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM12-030.HTM
私自身は,現状を満足すべきものと見ているとは言えない。現状には,因習的な道学者(モラリスト)によって押しつけられた望ましくない特徴がいくつかあり,また,因習的な道徳が変わるまでの間は,そういった望ましくない特徴がどのようにして消えていくのか,私にはわからない。密かにされる(隠される)性は,もっとはっきり言えば(注:in fact は,前の文章を受けている。),密造・密売された酒と同様,本来のもの(what it might be)よりも,劣っている。裕福なアメリカにおいては,禁酒法を導入する前よりも,若い男性の間に非常に酒に酔う者が増えているし,若い女性の間ではなおいっそう増えていることは,誰も否定できないと思われる。法律の裏をかくこと(注: circumventing the law 法律の網にひっかかるのを回避すること)には,もちろん,ある種(一定の)の痛快さと,頭の良さ対するある種(一定の)の誇り(プライド)がある。飲酒に関する法律の裏をかいている一方で,性に関する因習の裏をかくのは当然である(自然なことである)。この場合もまた,大胆であるという意識が,媚薬として働くのである(acts 働きをする/acts を名詞ととると,動詞がなくなってしまう)。
もっと臆病な青年たちは,完全な性関係までは進まずに,性的興奮が満たされことなく先延ばしにする状態を作り出すことで満足している。これは,神経を衰弱させるものであり,後になって,性を完全に楽しむことを困難あるいは不可能にする恐れがある。アメリカの若者の間に広まっているタイプの性的興奮のもう一つの欠点は,そのために仕事ができなくなったり,睡眠不足になったりすることである。なぜなら,それは,夜半すぎまで続くパーティー(parties which continue into the small hours)とどうしても結びついているからである。
Chapter XII: Trial Marriage, n.2
I cannot say myself that I view the present state of affairs as satisfactory. It has certain undesirable features imposed upon it by conventional moralists, and until conventional morality is changed, I do not see how these undesirable features are to disappear. Bootlegged sex is in fact as inferior to what it might be as bootlegged alcohol. I do not think anybody can deny that there is enormously more drunkenness among young men, and still more among young women, in well-to-do America than there was before the introduction of Prohibition. In circumventing the law there is, of course, a certain spice and a certain pride of cleverness, and while the law about drink is being circumvented it is natural to circumvent the conventions about sex. Here, also, the sense of daring acts as an aphrodisiac. The consequence is that sex relations between young people tend to take the silliest possible form, being entered into not from affection but from bravado, and at times of intoxication. Sex, like liquor, has to be taken in forms which are concentrated and rather unpalatable, since these forms alone can escape the vigilance of the authorities. Sex relations as a dignified, rational, wholehearted activity in which the complete personality co-operates, do not often, I think, occur in America outside marriage. To this extent the moralists have been successful. They have not prevented fornication; on the contrary, if anything, their opposition, by making it spicy, has made it more common. But they have succeeded in making it almost as undesirable as they say it is, just as they have succeeded in making much of the alcohol consumed as poisonous as they assert all alcohol to be. They have compelled young people to take sex neat, divorced from daily companionship, from a common work, and from all psychological intimacy. The more timid of the young do not go so far as complete sexual relations, but content themselves with producing prolonged states of sexual excitement without satisfaction, which are nervously debilitating, and calculated to make the full enjoyment of sex at a later date difficult or impossible. Another drawback to the type of sexual excitement which prevails among the young in America is that it involves either failure to work or loss of sleep, since it is necessarily connected with parties which continue into the small hours.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM12-020.HTM
In a rational ethic, marriage would not count as such in the absence of children. A sterile marriage should be easily dissoluble, for it is through children alone that sexual relations become of importance to society, and worthy to be taken cognisance of (taken cognizance of) by a legal institution. This, of course, is not the view of the Church, which, under the influence of St. Paul, still views marriage rather as the alternative to fornication than as the means to the procreation of children. In recent years, however, even clergymen have become aware that neither men nor women invariably wait for marriage before experiencing sexual intercourse. In the case of men, provided their lapses were with prostitutes and decently concealed, they were comparatively easy to condone, but in the case of women other than professional prostitutes, the conventional moralists find what they call immorality much harder to put up with. Nevertheless, in America, in England, in Germany, in Scandinavia, a great change has taken place since the war. Very many girls of respectable families have ceased to think it worth while to preserve their “virtue”, and young men, instead of finding an outlet with prostitutes, have had affairs with girls of the kind whom, if they were richer, they would wish to marry. It seems that this process has gone farther in the United States than it has in England, owing, I think, to Prohibition and automobiles. Owing to Prohibition, it has become de rigueur at any cheerful party for everybody to get more or less drunk. Owing to the fact that a very large percentage of girls possess cars of their own, it has become easy for them to escape with a lover from the eyes of parents and neighbours. The resulting state of affairs is described in Judge Lindsey’s books. (note: The Revolt of Modern Young, I925; Compassionate Marriage, I927.) The old accuse him of exaggeration, but the young do not. As far as a casual traveller can, I took pains to test his assertions by questioning young men. I did not find them inclined to deny anything that he said as to the facts. It seems to be the case throughout America that a very large percentage of girls who subsequently marry and become of the highest respectability have sex experience, often with several lovers. And even where complete relations do not occur, there is so much “petting” and “necking” that the absence of complete intercourse can only be viewed as a perversion.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM12-010.HTM
ハヴロック・エリス(Havelock Ellis, 1859-1939: 性科学者)は,売春についての非常に興味深い研究の中で,私には妥当とは思えない,売春(制度)に賛成する,ある議論を展開している。エリスは,(その議論を)まず酒神祭(the orgy)の考察で始めている。この酒神祭(酒を飲んでの乱痴気騒ぎ)は,大部分の古代文明に存在していて,普段は(注:at other times 酒神祭の時以外)は抑えていなければならない無政府的な衝動にはけ口を与えるものである。彼によれば,売春は,酒神祭から発達したものであり,以前は酒神祭が果たしていた目的を,ある程度,果たしているという。彼によれば,多くの男は,束縛や,礼儀正しさや,因習的な結婚という上品な制限(限界)の中では,完全な満足を得ることができない。そこで,そういう男たちは,時々売春婦(娼婦)のもとを訪れることで,彼らに許された,他のいかなるはけ口よりも反社会性の少ないはけ口を見いだすのだ,と彼は考える。
Havelock Ellis, in his very interesting study of prostitution, advances an argument in its favour which I do not believe to be valid. He begins by a consideration of the orgy, which exists in most early civilizations, and affords an outlet for anarchic impulses which at other times have to be controlled. According to him, prostitution developed out of the orgy, and serves in some degree the purpose which the orgy formerly served. Many men, he says, cannot find complete satisfaction within the restraints, the decorum, and the decent limitations of a conventional marriage, and such men, he thinks, find in an occasional visit to a prostitute an outlet less anti-social than any other that is open to them. At bottom, however, this argument is the same as Lecky’s, although its form is more modern. Women whose sexual life is uninhibited are as liable as men to the impulses which Havelock Ellis is considering, and if the sexual life of women is liberated, men will be able to find satisfaction for the impulses concerned, without having to seek the company of professionals whose motive is purely pecuniary. This is indeed one of the great advantages to be hoped from the sexual liberation of women. As far as I have been able to observe, women whose opinions and feelings about sex are not subject to the old taboos are able to find and give much fuller satisfaction in marriage than was possible in Victorian days. Wherever the older morality has decayed, prostitution also has decayed. The young man who would formerly have been driven to occasional visits to prostitutes is now able to enter upon relations with girls of his own kind, relations which are on both sides free,
which have a psychological element quite as important as the purely physical, and which involve often a considerable degree of passionate love on both sides. From the point of view of any genuine morality, this is an immense advance upon the older system. Moralists regret it because it is less easy to conceal, but it is after all not the first principle of morality that lapses from virtue should not come to the ears of the moralist. The new freedom between young people is, to my mind, wholly a matter for rejoicing, and is producing a generation of men without brutality and women without finicky fastidiousness. Those who oppose the new freedom should face frankly the fact that they are find in an occasional visit to a prostitute in effect advocating the continuance of prostitution as the sole safety-valve against the pressure of an impossibly rigid code.
出典: Marriage and Morals, 1929.
詳細情報:https://russell-j.com/beginner/MM11-090.HTM