Sex and social health; a manuel for the study of social hygiene

Foreword

This manual has grown out of an effort to stimulate and aid adults — community leaders — to prepare themselves to train and educate their young people to understand the meaning of sex and of successful marriage and parenthood.

The author has tried to bring into one volume some of the elementary contributions of half-a-dozen sciences to the subjects of reproduction, sex, marriage, family life, and the training of children; and to point out the practical bearing of these facts upon personal happiness, character training, and social welfare.

The experimental nature of this edition should be borne in mind. The manual has already gone through a series of mimeographed issues and is subject to still further revisions as the views and suggestions of users are received. The author has been requested to include a brief preface outlining the development of this project for broadening the campaign of serious but non-technical community education in social hygiene, and explaining the plan of organizing this varied material for ready reference, study, and discussion.

Frank comments and criticisms on the book and its usefulness will be greatly appreciated.

THE AMERICAN SOCIAL HYGIENE ASSOCIATION

Preface

A number of things about sex-character education may be con¬ sidered settled; among them, these: That sex and reproduction and the impulses connected with them introduce factors into conduct and character, which are too complex and too full of importance to be ignored or be left to instinct; that adults must therefore undertake to guide and train youth in regard to these factors ; that (such training means much more than information about the anatomical and physiological facts or than forcible repression of the normal sex impulses ; that it includes the more difficult task of developing positive character in relation to and by way of the sex qualities ; that character training in respect of sex, as all other character training, should begin in the earliest years and should be continuous and closely related to all life-relations and progress; that sporadic and emergency attacks upon this intimate educational problem are always inadequate and are often injuriously stimulating; that no single agency acting alone — whether home or church or school — is comprehensive enough in its contacts with the child to present this group of problems so as to get them accepted and solved soundly by the child for both personal char¬ acter and social welfare; that the right assimilation in character of this normal sector of life demands the best which science, social influ¬ ence, personal inspiration, idealism, sound pedagogy, and religion can do for the child.

In so far as these statements are true, three other conclusions seem indicated :

1. All the social and educative agencies in the community, which have to do with childhood and youth must take their appropriate part in this work.

2. Each agency must not merely do its best separately, but should do this best in the light of the whole need of the child and of what other cooperating agencies can or cannot do.

3. Even the leaders of these various agencies are not now generally prepared to use the facts of sex and reproduction with the fullest advantage to positive character education.

These seeming facts have led to the conviction that the following

IV

PREFACE

V are necessary first steps in preparing the way for permanent progress in handling the sex-character education of youth sanely :

1. To induce communities, including all the agencies which have part in the care, guidance, education, and training of youth, to think of character education and social education by means of sex as a community problem rather than as a home or church or club problem.

2. To induce leaders in all these community agencies to study the facts of sex in life ; to understand the principles which we must respect if we are to use these facts for high and positive ends rather than allow them to minister to gross and demoralizing ends ; and to learn for themselves what seems the best method of applying these principles to individual situations.

This manual is intended to aid community leaders to make general self-preparation for this task. It is not a full or technical treatment of any part of the subject. It will be followed by special books and pamphlets dealing more fully with particular subjects and for particular types of workers. On the other hand, it is not a simplified reading book on the whole subject for the casual or emotional reader. It is intended as a handbook, or ^‘vade mecum,'' for the studious use of intelligent and community-minded ministers, physicians, school teachers, nurses, Sunday school teachers, officers of the law and the courts, leaders of play and recreation, club women and other social workers interested in boys and girls and young men and women.

The following chief particular uses have been in mind in its prepara¬ tion:

1. As a guiding text and manual for community study and dis¬ cussion groups, composed of various kinds of leaders. The course would cover twelve to twenty assignments and meetings. These would call for advance reading of that part of the text selected, with whatever collateral reading may be possible; for reports on special topics; and for free discussion of all this at the meeting under the best available leadership. Discussion outlines and references precede each chapter to aid in this seminar type of work.

2. As a textbook for parent- teacher groups. Certain specially selected chapters involving particularly the joint problems of the home and school could be used in a manner quite similar to that described above.

3. As a textbook or collateral reference book for classes in summer schools of education, both religious and secular.

4. As a reference book in theological seminaries, normal schools, and colleges in which special courses in the subject may be building.

VI

PREFACE or where certain sex-education work is undertaken in the standard courses.

5. As a reference book for individual educators or readers of all types, who may wish to study some phase of the subject in suitable relation to the whole background.

The text has appeared in two experimental mimeographed editions. These have been used in most of the ways suggested above. In addi¬ tion copies have been widely distributed to individuals for criticism. All parts of the text have profited by these suggestions. To all who have given this aid, and particularly to my colleague, Mr. Newell W. Edson, who gave most painstaking criticism to every page of the manuscript, the author desires to extend the warmest thanks. The thanks of the public, as well as those of the author, are due the writers of the special chapters in Part III.

T. W. G.

Part I. Sex In Life Chapter Page

The Meaning and Necessity of Sex Education . 3

II. The Biological Place of Reproduction and Sex , 15

III. Psychological Elements in Reproduction and Sex

AND Their Effects on Human Life ... 26

-^ IV. Sound and Unsound Use of Appetites, Including

Those of Sex . 40

'V. Sex and Character . 54

VI. Individual and Social Results of Failure to Con¬ trol THE Sex Impulses . 68

"‘"A/'II. The Spirit and Method of Securing Sex Control 84 ---VIII. The Home as the Center of Sex-social Health . 103

Part II. Education Of Young People In Respect To Sex

IX. The Nature, Aims, Scope, and Problems of Sex

Education . . . 125

X. The Spirit, Resources, and Manner of Sex Educa¬ tion . 139

XI. The Method and the Grading of Sex Education 159 XH. The Early Home Period of Sex Education . .168

XHI. The Period of the Early School Grades . . .186

XIV. The Time of Puberty and of the Junior High

SctiooL . 197

XV. The Post-pubertal Period of Adolescence . . 207

XVI. The Period of Maturity, Marriage, and Parent¬ hood . 225

XVH. Graded Projects in Sex Education .... 241

Vll

Vlll

CONTENTS

Part III. The Community As Environment Chapter Page

Introduction . 295

XVIII. Graded Play and Social Hygiene .... 297

XIX. Law Enforcement in Social Hygiene . . .316

XX. Medical Measures in Social Hygiene . . . 329

XXI. Protective Measures . 341

Index . 354

Chapter I The Meaning and Necessity of Sex Education

1. The importance of sex and reproduction in human life: in the develop¬ ment of the body of the individual; in influencing the mind and emotions; in organizing the family; in developing tenderness and sympathy; in determining social structure and motives.

2. The importance, therefore, of sex education as a part of character edu¬ cation. Why necessary for the young? Why necessary for adults? Informal versus formal sex education.

3. Factors in the past which have worked against such sex education. Those which are now working for it.

4. Aspects of adult preparation necessary as a first step: about the environ¬ ment; about education of youth. There are difficulties; but these in no sense insuperable.

5. The necessity and advantages of the community moving together in this. Methods of securing cooperative action: general; local.

Bigelow, Sex Education, Chs. 1-3.

Galloway, Biology of Sex for Parents and Teachers, Chs. i, 2.

Gruenberg, High Schools and Sex Education, Ch. i.

An Appreciation of the Place of Sex in Life. — The functions and impulses of sex, mating, and reproduction are basic in animals and in human beings alike. About these powers have grown up keen passions, satisfactions, and devotions, ranging from the most physical to the most psychical, and from the wholly selfish to the self-denying and refining. Probably more than any other of our functions — in¬ cluding even nutrition and hunger for food — sex and reproduction have kindled emotions, molded thought and imagination, determined conduct, modified individual development, influenced relations, organ¬ ized society, and colored all the philosophies and moralities which have cramped or inspired human behavior and character. ISpecifically, sex and reproduction produce the individuals of which society is made and by which it is perpetually renewed; sex and reproduction directly originate all the differences and the consequent attractions that draw boys and girls and men and women together. But for them, there could be no such realities as lovers and courtship, husband and wife, marriage, fatherhood and motherhood, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, families and home life; nor any of the fine sentiments and devotions which are natural to these relations. ] In so far as human society is based upon the family and on the spirit which produces and is fostered by the family, sex and reproduction have done much to give its fundamental form to human society itself at every stage.

Even though sex is thus natural and fundamental, it by no means follows that its various expressions are of the same grade and value. Both ideally and practically, human sex phenomena are of extreme range. They include, at one extreme, the most immediate, selfish, and irrational use of the physical, accompanied by no thought of the psychical and esthetic and social ; and which is indicated in such results as masturbation, rape, promiscuity, commercialized prostitution, il¬ legitimacy, and the venereal diseases. At the other extreme is the harmonious blending of the physical and the psychic, of the individual and the social, as seen in the high friendships and affections between the sexes; in mutual consideration and faithfulness of lovers and mates; in love, marriage, parenthood; and in the sacrificing spirit of the family. Endowments which inspire such diverse and such far-reaching manifestations are necessarily full of importance in any rational view of human life and relations.

We Have Expurgated Our Education of Character. Why? — The sex impulses are so powerful and have so been abused and per¬ verted that our thoughts about sex have for ages been peculiarly directed to these perversions. There has been in consequence a grow¬ ing reticence about the whole matter of sex, as our morality and social sense have increased. This reticence of decent people has left the field open to those who, for commercial reasons or for love of the vulgar, would exploit sex; and they have made full and fatal use of it! The result is a vicious circle. Our very delicacy has insured that a coarse and vulgar interpretation of sex shall first come to our young people. When they discover the fine and high meanings of sex, if they ever do, they are already full of complexes and embarrass¬ ments on the subject, which again make them deal unnaturally and evasively with it to their own children.

THE MEANING AND NECESSITY OP SEX EDUCATION

This, of course, should not be. Sex should be emphasized neither more nor less than its tremendous place in life demands. Neither teachers nor children should set it apart from the other great factors that determine conduct and character.) It may aid us to readjust our¬ selves more intelligently to this important educational problem if we examine briefly how well-meaning adults have reacted to this task of helping youth to make wholesome sex adjustments, and by what devices we have justified our reticence and failure.

The Tendency to Recognize Sex and Meet its Problems Con¬ structively. — The systematic movement to bring the facts of sex and reproduction into the open for positive social evolutionary pur¬ poses is recent. |fhe reformers, working largely through law and law enforcement, have sought to check the abuses and exploitations of sex, such as commercialized vice, promiscuity, white slavery, illegitimacy, obscenity and vulgarity in print, in pictures, in shows, etc., and have led in the publicity.)

The physicians and other health agencies have stressed during the last fifteen years, as never before, the causes, the spread, the cure, and the prevention of the venereal diseases which are peculiarly the result of irregular sex intercourse. More recently still, the psycho¬ pathologists and mental hygienists are popularizing the fact that much of the mental strain and unbalance, hysteria, and even insanity, com¬ mon among human beings, is based on unsound and avoidable sexcomplexes, just as really as the venereal diseases have spread from unsocial and avoidable sex relations. The eugenists, seeking to better the racial stock by selective breeding in accordance with the known laws of inheritance, even as has been done for the domestic plants and animals, have focussed popular attention upon the tabooed but basic questions of sex and reproduction.

/Finally, scientific educators, whether parents, teachers, or religious leaders, are coming to admit that sex influences everything we do and are; that this influence may be used measurably to build as well as to tear down personality and happiness; that it is the duty of adults actively to study and to understand how to lead the young to make the most intelligent use of their whole sex and reproductive endow¬ ment for individual development and for social betterment. The educator equally with the reformer, the physician, and the eugenist, insists upon a frank banishing of ignorance, upon introducing knowl¬ edge, interpreting values, inspiring ideals, and training positive atti¬ tudes about sex.)

Thus every modern movement of social science, — whether of reform, of health, of racial breeding, or of psychology, education, and sociology — calls us to put aside reticence and embarrassment and to use all our resources in aiding the young to solve their sex-social problems with open eyes and rationally, and not by instinct and chance alone.

the Sexed Environment Complicates the Problem. — Atten¬ tion should be called to the fact that this sex-endowed child finds himself at all times and everywhere in an environment which is full of sex. The very family in which he is born is brought together through these sex impulses; and its organization, its spirit, and its intimate daily performance are, to a much larger degree than we realize, directly or indirectly determined by the facts of sex and reproduction and the sentiments that attend them. The compan¬ ions of his early years are beginning to learn of sex and his curi¬ osity is incited by theirs, and he is soon deluged by their partial and furtive discoveries and interpretations. In spite of our mature reticence and effort at concealment, he comes gradually to sense something both of the normal and of the unwholesome tendencies and expressions of sex — more certainly of the unwholesome.

Hence at birth a young being, in whom already sex is per¬ sistently at work as one of the most creative and exciting of his functions, is plunged into a set of surroundings upon which for thousands of years sex has been setting its stamp. This human social environment is sophisticated in all the expressions of sex. It is organized by means of sex. It is full of all grades of whole¬ some and destructive uses and interpretations and products of sex. There are selfish and degenerate persons in every community, giving their whole energy to exploiting sex interest in degrading ways, just as there are others trying to improve sex relations.

Is it reasonable to expect this sex-animated child to meet these outer conditions and, unguided, to develop the wisest and most effec¬ tive use of his own inner sex capacities? The movement for sex education consists in discovering and applying that aid which will enable the sexed child to meet this sexed environment with the greatest success, and to inspire in him such behavior as will bring the best development, happiness, and character and, through him, the fullest welfare to society.

Some Necessary Phases of Sex Adjustment. — If the youth is to get a vigorous and hopeful enjoyment of his sex development and sex relations in their finest phases, he must find a constructive adjustment at least to these things : To the best meaning of the

THE MEANING AND NECESSITY OP SEX EDUCATION whole home drama which so influences his life because of its domi¬ nance in the early years; to the over-developed and yet halfconcealed curiosity about sex among the children a little older and more sophisticated; to the almost universally vulgarized interpre¬ tations and revelations which come from these; to his own inner lively curiosity about these subjects; to the bodily satisfaction in experimenting with his own genitals ; to the sex attraction ("'gang'’ spirit) which binds boys to boys and girls to girls of their own age, during puberty and early adolescence; to the prevailing un¬ sound and unsocial sex standards of youth, both in speech and 3,ction^ vulgarised and made funny largely because of the false atti* tude of reticence and repression on the part of adults;^ to his own urges and desires for physical sex expression during adolescence and after; to the degradingly stimulating pictures and shows, and to the allurements of the underworld; to the awakening of psychical love between the sexes; and, by no means least, to the haphazard, inci¬ dental opportunities and temptations arising from contacts with the other sex which normally set off the powerful, instinctive sex mechan¬ ism. Merely to list these real conditions — and few youths come to maturity without meeting them all more or less acutely — ^^certainly should convince us that it is not reasonable to expect our boys and girls to come successfully through this jungle of sex incitement and probable sex error without the most intelligent and specific guidance and stimulus which the mind and heart of humanity can furnish.

Some Fallacious Reactions to Sex. — i. Many people have held that the whole subject is so complex and so intrinsically bad and dangerous that ignorance of the whole scope of it gives the onl}^ chance to secure cleanness and innocence in our children. These have felt that any definite information on the subject only excites curiosity and interest, and thus makes more difficult the individual problems both of adults and children. In taking this position, three sets of facts are ignored. In the first place, the vital problems of human life are never finally solved by ignorance of facts and by falsehood; but only by the suitable use of truth. Second, the sex phenomena are so insistent, both within the normal individual and in the environment, that the child’s interest will be aroused in some phase of the subject anyway, and some knowledge of sex is almost certain to come to him — always partial, distorted, precocious, and over¬ emphasized, and usually coarse, vulgar, exciting, and with degrading connotations. Finally, such half knowledge as the child gets, coupled with our own studied reticence and subterfuge, is much more exciting to morbid interest than a rightly interpreted statement of facts; and in addition, it is essentially misleading.

2. Some have felt that the spirit and example of a well-ordered home, without explicit emphasis or interpretation of its sex phenomena, will gradually reveal to the child all that is needful for his guidance. Such example is fundamental, certainly, since the home and family is the basal sex institution and incorporates in its theory the present best solution of the sex and reproductive relationships. In matter of less vitality — as in table manners and other superficial social customs — this kind of treatment may be sufficient. But in an influence as per¬ vasive and as urgent as sex, such example can serve only as the neces¬ sary foundation for the more specific instruction and interpretation and motivation which the child needs to order suitably his own atti¬ tudes and life.

3. Most parents reinforce the above with isolated commands and exhortations and threats intended to build up habits of repression and control within the child (which we misname “obedience’’). But most educators to-day reckon this an unscientific and inadequate sub¬ stitute for a conscious and rational development of the child’s own understanding and choice and satisfaction as the basis for the necessary obedience and conformity. Guidance of sex to its best outcome calls for motives more constructive than conformity and fear.

4. Reference has already been made to the views of those at the other extreme, who seemingly hold that the young can be induced to avoid the gross and to seek the right and fine in sex only by personal experience of degrading indulgence, followed by the surfeit, the after-penalties of unwholesome conduct, and the emotional regrets and revulsions. On the contrary, it is entirely possible for most normal children to learn by satisfying experience of the better alter¬ natives, coupled with the observation of other peoples’ mistakes, if only both these are adequately interpreted to them. They thus escape gross indulgence and its degrading consequences through positive rather than negative motives.

5. Very many, particularly those who magnify the mystical ele¬ ments in religion, feel they are dealing sufficiently with such particular facts as sex, if they stress a general principle which includes it. They make broad social, moral, and religious appeals for goodness, for character, and the like, and invariably overrate the power of these general ideals to solve the specific problems. As a matter of fact, the child does not go regularly or wholesomely from the abstract ideas

THE MEANING AND NECESSITY OF SEX EDUCATION of morals and religion, which he understands poorly even if he accepts them, down to the desirable particular sex choices and conduct, unless we give him along with the general motives a satisfying appreciation of the particulars. “pTo attempt to force the child over this road is to invite hypocrisyJ ^he child should, on the contrary, achieve character chiefly by enlightened and satisfied choice and conduct in particulars — > as in truthfulness, honesty, consideration, and sex cleanness — gradually worked into general conclusions and ideals by wise interpretation of his experiences and observations and satisfactions j In other words, we cannot escape the need of specific sex education of our children merely by including sex conduct in some hazy way under ideals of character, religion, duty, and goodness, however valuable these may be in their proper place.

How May Human Beings Be Improved? — Assuming then that the best human progress calls for a more wfisely controlled and guided expression of the sex impulses than is now generally found, there seem to be only three possible ways to secure this end: (i) By inheritance, and by breeding a better race; (2) by changing for the better, the environment of growing individuals; and (3) by con¬ sciously educating the individuals. By breeding we may eventually change the blood, the race, permanently. On the contrary, changes brought about in the individual by improving the environment or by training are probably not permanent so far as the race is concerned. We have no convincing evidence that any individual can transmit to the next generation any of the results of his training. The education must be repeated for each new individual, and each individual must be given anew the most suitable environment we can supply, in order that the education may have its chance.

Can We Breed a Cleaner Race, Sexually? — There is no ques¬ tion that the various native physical and mental and social char¬ acteristics of human beings are inherited just as are those of animals. Doubtless, if human mating and reproduction were con¬ trolled as in the domestic animals, we could by generations of selective breeding secure pure races of men well endowed with any desired quality of body, or capacity, or disposition now found among us. We could ultimately eliminate those with or without dark skin, those with or without musical ability, those who are generous and those who are miserly, those who are imbecile or those highly intelligent, those who naturally incline to be honest or those dishonest, those who can and those who cannot control their sex behavior in the interest of society. Our ability to do any lO of this, however, is entirely academic. There is no probability that mankind, in the large, will ever submit to such radical control. We may ultimately cut off some of the most undesirable strains in such way; but that is about all.

Can We Improve the Sex Situation by Changing the Environ¬ ment ?-^Probably few people will doubt that much of the gross and destructive sex behavior grows out of excitements and temp¬ tations v/hich our ^ complex and highly artificial human society throws about youtiy This does not refer to the difficult and com¬ plex choices whicn inevitably inhere in all social life ; such are necessary for any development of character. As a matter of fact, however, we allow and even encourage, in every community to¬ day, entirely unnecessary conditions which are as disastrous to our children as it would be to place our farm animals in infected pens or stables. We have no right to charge up the moral delin¬ quencies of our children to heredity or to accident so long as we are senseless enough to permit their environment to be full of immoral contagion which inhibits everything we should like to see in them.

Environment influences profoundly all individual life and char¬ acter. In the long run it actively guides the course of the devel¬ opment which inheritance makes possible. There is no question that any community, which really desires it, can make an environ¬ ment that v/ill inspire and aid sound sex living and character and discourage the reverse. ^Environment does not give the original powers and tendencies ; hut it does largely determine how these will express themselves and may thus work into characteih^

Can We Really Change Human Nature dnd Character by Edu¬ cation. — This question will be examined much more closely in later chapters, but it is urgent that we touch upon it here, as related to heredity and environment. Of course, the informal work of the environment upon the individual is educative; but we are limiting the term now to the more formal and conscious efforts of the mature to train the inexperienced.

There are those who insist that we cannot greatly change by education that nature with which we are born. It appears to the writer that this view belies all the results of our experiments both with animals and man. There is this much of truth in the nega¬ tive view: The inherited endowment of each individual does set limits upon what any one of us may become. But this range in normal people is rather generous. Within these limits character

THE MEANING AND NECESSITY OP SEX EDUCATION

II depends upon education, both formal and informal, f Character is made up of many elements as: Knowledgej desires, impulses, feelings, tastes, prejudices, habits, motives, standards, ideals, attitudes, and purposes. This combination is achieved, not inherited]

Knowledge we know can be changed; but knowledge is not so important in character as are some of the warmer and more moving elements. It is equally certain that tastes, prejudices, standards, habits, and ideals are the outcome of our early experience and observation and training. There is increasing evidence that the impulsive and emotional elements in character are just as educable as are those that involve merely intelligence and habit. Indeed no one can at present set any limit to the degree to which these can be cultured, as limits are set to the culture of intelligence and skill. Furthermore these emotional elements in character, while important in all religious motives, are in no sense supernatural or mystical qualities, and do not call for mystical treatment. It is true that we do not yet under¬ stand the psychology and pedagogy of the emotions even as well as those of learning and of habit-formation. This, however, does not argue that we should either ignore these essential factors in character or treat them as supernatural. It only signifies that the education of them calls, all the more, for all the knowledge, common sense, understanding, tact, and devotion which we can bring to it.

The above remarks gain importance from the fact that sex and the mechanism of its control and inhibition and guidance are pecu¬ liarly tied up with impulses, emotions, tastes, and satisfactions, much more than with knowledge and ideas.

Practical Corollaries: The First Task.^ — If, then, we cannot expect greatly to modify sex conditions through change of heredi¬ tary characters, but must trust rather to develop individual char¬ acter anew in every generation of our children by way of the envi¬ ronment we furnish them and by the direct training we give them, then surely the primary problem is for adults to overcome their reticence about the whole sex-social situation, and to master the elements involved: (i) In improving the sex environment so that sound sex tastes and expression will be encouraged and de¬ grading sex expression be made more difficult; and (2) in success¬ ful individual character-education, so that our children will be fitted to make the best use of the improved surroundings.