Knight Dunlap

“ When age withers, through the absorption of the adipose tissue, primary beauty is on the decline, and unless it be replaced by the secondary beauty appropriate to advancing years, the drama of life becomes a tragedy. And indeed, the great fact that we all must face at some time, that the strength and vigor of our prime is past, and that the time when the almond tree shall flourish and the grasshopper become a burden advances upon us, is usually announced to a woman in the discovery of wrinkles due to the slipping from her of her subcutaneous robe of office. ”

“ The presumptive effect of prostitution on the average emotional constitution of woman can as reasonably be assumed to be a loss as again. If we could free ourselves from the still prevalent view of woman as property; if marriage could be put on a plan of equality; there would undoubtedly be a consensus of opinion that society loses by a repression of the emotional life of females. ”

“ The softness and roundness of contour of the female is beautiful, because it is the mark of physical fitness. The fatty layer is supposed to be an extra reserve supply of food material, laid up against the heavy demands which are made by child-bearing, and in still another way protects her in that supreme process, of whose splendid fruition beauty is the glorious blossom. ”

“ THE CONSERVATION OF BEAUTY Human beauty, we have pointed out, is a sign of fitness for parenthood: fitness to propagate children who shall be, in high degree, able to hold their own in the mental and physical struggle with nature and with their human competitors. It is the sign which is intuitively recognized by the race and upon which the process of sexual selection is based. It therefore is nothing superficial: it is the external appearance of the germinal potentiality which is the most important of all things for society. ”

“ How, then, can we elevate beauty to the rank we give it, since it satisfies our social demands only in part, and in what many consider the less essential part? We must do so, because it is the foundation on which truth and holiness are built. Only the race which is physically and mentally fit can survive and flourish long enough to develop and put in practice moral ideals. The problem after all is not one of choice between two ideals, but of having such regard for the primary ideal that it may help us to the attainment of ultimate ideals. ”

“ But the human tongue is an important instrument in the production of the most human of all attributes, language. Language is not merely the means of communicating thought; it is, as philologists have long known, and as psychologists have been forced somewhat unwillingly to admit, the principal means of thinking. While it is possible to think without language, languageless thought is primitive and inefficient in the complex conditions of civilization, and it is by no means an exaggeration to say that the development of language is a large part of the development of thought. ”

“ Prostitution has undoubtedly had some effect, and possibly a large effect, in checking the increase, if not in producing the decrease, of certain individual qualities which are deemed undesirable, either from the personal or the social point of view.
In its commenst form, prostitution is a means of limiting the sexual freedom of women, while extending the largest freedom to men compatible with such restriction upon the female. It provides, in other words, the greatest possible sexual liberty for male and the greatest possible limitation for women, which can coexist. ”

“ Moreover, the essence of civilization is the fact that it places a value on the individual where nature places value only on the species. The true type of natural valuation is illustrated by the bees, the male of which dies in the act of copulation, the female is discarded as soon as she ceases to produce eggs copiously, and the neuters are mere machines to care for the eggs and feed the queen and larvæ. ”

“ And, since the betterment of the race should be evidenced by an increase in that which is the sign of desirable qualities, the problem of racial betterment is the problem of conserving beauty, and eliminating ugliness, that beauty may more and more predominante; and the race become more and more fit, instead of declining under the influence of those factors in civilization which inhibit sexual selection and natural selection. ”

“ While the practical indications of the mouth are important, as I have pointed out, we should by no means overlook the probability of a sexual significance to the evaluation of which the consideration of other beauty characters will rapidly drive us. I need not remind you that popular theory as passed from mouth to mouth and as embodied in literature of all ages, considers both the mouth and the nose as practical indexes of the sex-organs; I should like to express the opinion that popular theory, even popular superstition, is the smoke which always indicates some fire. ”

“ Hence, the only benefit we can assume from prostitution is the reduction of reproduction by the feeble-minded. And this, in contrast with the serious racial effects of venereal disease which prostitution facilitates: with the even more serious evil of unmated women which prostitution augments: and with the psychological effects on the men who resort to prostitutes—effects which have not been given due consideration as yet—is a contribution so small that it is not worth consideration. ”

“ Human beauty is something which is perennially celebrated in poetry, in song, in romance, and in the petrified conception of the sculptor, but less frequently considered in the cold analysis of science. ”

“ War, with all its evils, has brought a freshening of the sexual interests of women, and lent its support to the natural tendency to select for the race. In the military profession in time of war, the male personal qualities which preserve the stock come once more into the prominence they possessed in less civilized societies, and from which the machine-like organization of modern industrialism has driven them. ”

“ No permanent good could conceivably result from checking the growth of industrial freedom of women. In the course of time—and not probably a long time either—the disorganization of the entire family system resulting from this freedom will render imperative sweeping industrial and social changes which, if we maintain our ideals, can be such as will reestablish family life on a higher plane, and remove many of the injustices which civilization has long tolerated. ”

“ Finally, I must refer to the popular distinction between prettiness and beauty; a distinction which at least as it applies to women rests on solid psychobiological grounds, and which offers abundant opportunity for psychological research, having practical application to some of the pressing social problems.
The pretty woman is she who possesses certain of the characters of beauty, but in such combination that they are not an indication of the general potentiality requisite for beauty. The characters of prettiness are the characters of beauty which promise least for the stamina of the race. ”

“ To some, without doubt, this procedure will seem as sacrilegious as the piercing of the anatomist’s knife into the dead human form; but where the welfare and progress of humanity are at stake, even these brutal methods must be employed. ”

“ We can conceive of a world peopled by a race of men and women of splendid physique, from which the common grades of undesirables have been eliminated: a world in which each individual seems admirably constituted for mating and creating children after his kind. Great content and happiness, and joy in the appreciation of the beauty of their mates, might obtain among this people. ”

“ Any indication, not merely of physical weakness, but even in some instances of mental or moral weakness or disease is of decided negative effect. One who looks like an imbecile or like a criminal is never beautiful; one who seems to have, or suggests, a deadly disease, is to that extent lacking in beauty. ”

“ As for the supposition of an unexplained instinct to prefer a dominant partner, I see no support for it, except in so far as the practical consideration I have advanced may itself lead to this preference as a secondary manifestation. It is true that there are women today who openly state that the mates they want are those who can completely dominate them; and that such potential masters are the only men who interest them. ”

“ The tint of the skin, of course, is largely a racial indication, but in certain respects, the tint, as well as the texture, is an index of health and vigor. The standard of beauty in complexion, whether light or dark, is that which goes with the full bloom of sexual vigor, when the human organism is at its perfect development for the perpetuation of the species. ”

“ As a psychologist, I have the psychologist’s prejudice, that ideals, intellectual analysis, and education are the fundamental forces of progress, and that laws, conventions, and customs serve to consolidate and make secure the gains achieved through these forces. ”

“ Beauty may be proud, cruel, deceitful, immoral, wicked; and yet it may still be beauty. Cleopatra was capable of almost any crime you can think of, and Thaïs was no modest violet; but history tells us that they were of wonderful beauty. “Handsome is as handsome does” is true only in a qualified way. ”

“ The second way in which civilization interferes with the conservation of the desirable human qualities, is in setting sexual values which conflict with those of beauty, and which obscure or override them. ”

“ One of the most important and desirable effects of the permanent adoption of sensible clothing by women will be the allowing of the foot to retain its natural form. Of body-form, which is by rights the fundamental consideration in beauty, I shall say nothing further, because our standards are so obscure. ”

“ The conservation of beauty is the problem of the present day and of all time. I have attempted to show that such conservation is not to be sought primarily through comprehensive governmental direction, nor legal restrictions; nor by blind adherence to the protective regulations of the past, however admirable these may have been. Laws, conventions, and economic conditions should be so shaped as to facilitate conservation, instead of hindering it ”

“ The woman who now is employed, at a living wage, may do as she likes, provided she does not make her private life public; and is yet able to continue to support herself without falling into prostitution, since her employers pay her for her work, not for her “morality.” One who understands the psychological principles which control the sexual instinct might predict from these circumstances the changes which are actually occurring. From these principles also, we can surely foretell that the revolution, having gained a little more headway, will spread far beyond the class in which it originated. ”

“ As a matter of fact, a nation on this plan would have a low chance of survival in conflict and competition with nations which had gone beyond it into a richer mental and spiritual flower and fruition. ”

“ In two ways the progress of civilization has obstructed the propagation of the fittest, and facilitated the multiplication of the unfit. The first way is by the development of humanitarianism, and the development also of efficacious tools for its use: surgery, pharmacology, and prophylaxis, with large funds and personnel to apply them. By the active influence of humanitarianism, the less resistant, less virile, have been given a greater ratio of survival, and with the increase in survival has gone an increase in propagation. ”