For male inverts, on the other hand, there exist male brothels, in which young boys practice pederasty for money. For certain rich roués, or for those affected with pederosis, children are kept. This last class 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 prostitution and proxenetism constitute 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 assaults of men, etc. In reality, it has resulted in corrupting and effeminating men; in restricting the normal sexual intercourse of youth in its natural association with an inconsiderate love; in degrading love itself; in debarring a great number of capable and virtuous women from marriage, from love, and from sexual intercourse in general; lastly, in causing complete aberration of the whole sexual life of modern society.
Contemporary literature has begun to consider the psychology of prostitution. We have already mentioned La Maison Tellier by de Maupassant; Zola's Nana is the history of a high-class prostitute related in the well-known realistic manner of the celebrated novelist, in which he describes the sexual 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 prostitution, 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 prostitution. 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 prostitution. The abolitionists contest the right of police inscription of prostitutes 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 prostitutes 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 prostitution is quite aware of the danger he runs. Society is under no obligation to provide healthy prostitutes 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 prostitute) 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 prostitution 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 prostitute; 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.