The causes of prostitution, James P. Warbasse [best non fiction books of all time .TXT] 📗

[3] See the case of Sophie Hirsch, N. Y. Call. 20 April, 1911.

The insane were once treated by throwing them in chains into a dungeon; the sick were once supposed to be bewitched and possessed of devils; criminals and prostitutes are still treated in conformity to the ancient superstitions; but a better day is to dawn when the light of science and humanity will be shed upon their misfortunes.

Besides economic and social causes of prostitution, there are causes which may be called pathologic. (17) Alcoholism and syphilis in the parents, causing physical and moral deterioration in the offspring, are important. (18) Ill health should not be overlooked. Often there is pelvic disease, producing abnormal libidinous impulses; or there may be central nervous disease; or glandular disease affecting the internal secretions; or other physical ailments making for instability. Some women have given as a reason physical inability to perform ordinary laborious work whereby to earn a livelihood.

Finally may be mentioned that peculiar, ill-defined condition, called (19) degeneracy. In this class are the women of abnormal and defective mentality. Anyone who has talked much with prostitutes recognizes this as a not inconsiderable class. The shallow intellect, the perverted points of view, and the absence of sense of responsibility, characterize many of these women. The prevalence of hysteria is well known. At Bedford, among the first thousand admissions were 137 girls who were classified as "feeble-minded." The sexual perverts and the women of abnormally lustful tendencies belong largely in this class. These are the women who actually become prostitutes because they like it. But it should not be lost sight of that their mental and physical perversions can often be traced back to hereditary and educational wrongs, often born of bad economic conditions. Heredity is undoubtedly a strong factor; mental unbalance is transmitted.

In many cases this weakened moral and mental tone makes of the girl a voluntary prostitute. Neither poverty nor alcohol nor seduction plays any rôle. She is the seducer from the beginning. Moreover, this tendency toward prostitution, displayed by these girls who are mentally deficient, enters largely into combination with the other causes. Such a girl, under the influence of the excitement of alcohol or religion, or under the stress of poverty or the promise of fine raiment, loses her sexual self-respect forever; whereas a girl of better mind, under the same circumstances, retains hers. The latter woman has a better idea of what is right and expedient; she finds some way out without the sacrifice of her chastity; and when she does give herself up to sexual love (marriage unsanctioned by society), she still retains her self-respect and is not prone to drift on to prostitution. The sexual urge alone in a woman of fair intelligence does not in America make a prostitute of her; in some European countries it may.

The women in whom the sexual urge is intense become prostitutes if mentally deficient; if mentally strong they marry--conventionally or otherwise. If they do none of these things they must plunge into absorbing work, or they are destined to become intoxicated and destroyed by their own uneliminated products.

It is to the mentally or morally weak that the arguments of the female procurer appeal. This woman tells the girl of the easy way to make money, the easy life, good clothes, good friends, and good times. The simple girl falls, particularly if she have behind her any of the other great causative factors to drive her on. Often the mental and moral weakness may be a matter of ignorance--defective education rather than heredity. These are the pathetic cases in which it is clear that the word of warning should have been a part of the girl's education.

It should be borne in mind that prostitution is recruited from those who once were sexually clean. Many of these women once cherished hopes of love and the domestic joys. Prostitution was not their ambition. Men made it easy for them to fall; and, having fallen, men and women made it difficult for them to rise. They are entitled to the same consideration as are the victims of typhoid fever. Society is guilty in both cases. Prostitution and typhoid are products of vicious social conditions; both are preventable.

Let us not with smugness deny this woman as our sister, for she is; and we have wronged her. She has a better right to reproach us than we have to scorn her. Our guilt is greater than hers. There was a great fire in a factory in New York City. One hundred girls were burned to death or hurled themselves from windows to be crushed and mangled upon the structures below. The women who ply the trade of prostitution are as guiltless of their own destruction as were these poor girls. Their blood is upon society with its greed for money, its apathy, ignorance, indifference, active participation in crime, and its exploitation of the weak.

Let us cease to cry with self-assumed virtue, Spare us from contamination by the prostitute who brazenly has come among us. Let us be honest enough and decent enough to confess: We are guilty; we have made this woman what she is; she is ours. Let us first be just to her; and then let us see to it that no more of our daughters walk in her footsteps.