“But man is truly a passional, rather than a rational, being.”
The Fairie Boy.
VI. Thoughts Suggested by the “Hermaphroditoi” in General.
I associated with the hermaphroditoi less than a year. Paresis Hall then happened to be raided by the police and the hermaphroditoi—who happened to be the police’s chief quarry—afterward gave the resort a wide berth for fear of arrest.
The hermaphroditoi numbered about a score. All were highly cultured ultra-androgynes varying in age from eighteen to forty. Half-a-score have given me their life-story. But the careers of only two were particularly tragic. I have therefore, in PARTS FOUR and FIVE, detailed the life-stories of these two as nearly as I can remember, having of course taken no notes at the time.
In the lives of some hermaphroditoi, nothing particularly remarkable had ever transpired beyond their chronic female-impersonation sprees. For example, Roland Reeves, the most brilliant, was, in every act, moderate and sensible. He was of the type of cross-dressing androgyne that possesses little animality. He was by no means a coquette—as were most of the hermaphroditoi. People would say that he had more self-restraint and moral backbone than the coquettes. But my unusually wide observations have taught me that sexual moderation is as a rule due to weak instinct when not to lack of opportunity.
The Author at Thirty-four
(Amateur Photo)
A prime regulator of the sexual intensity of the adult androgyne—as probably of all humans—consists |Parents, Take Time for Your Children!| of the influences toward sexual expression during childhood. My own adult career had its prototype in my intense fairie-ism from two until seven. Sexual impressions of early childhood have often a powerful influence down through middle life. In large measure they determine the course to be taken by the adult sexual life. Parents can not be too watchful of the secret practices of small children, and of the influence of servants.
Androgynes, during childhood, are particularly prone to fall into bad habits (fellatio; or pathicism in pædicatio) because always confined with their sexual opposites. What would one expect of the chastity of a high-strung girl of twelve marooned for a summer on an island with merely a dozen ultra-virile youths? That is the identical situation of youthful androgynes.