Modesty is not easy to define, for it varies with races, epochs and climes. As I said in the preceding chapter, in some parts of Japan and in one Arab tribe, it is almost shameful for a young woman to be married without having had sexual experience. A woman of the Western races on the other hand, regardless of her age and past, must in order to show a ladylike breeding, pretend a certain ignorance of things sexual when in the company of men, even in the company of her fifth or sixth husband. In Turkey, a woman may show her eyes but must veil her mouth; in the Southern Sahara, men of the Tuareg tribes go about veiled like Turkish ladies. Certain African tribes cover their backs carefully while exposing the rest of their bodies. In other tribes, men, instead of concealing their genitals, wear sheaths which exaggerate the size of their organs. In most parts of the earth, women keep the fact of their menstruation a secret. In[Pg 123] others, they wear a cloth of a special color proclaiming that condition when present.
On the Modern Stage, modesty seems satisfied if the nipples and the genitals are duly covered. In some parts of Europe entirely naked dancers have been seen in public. Until recently, an unwritten law made it more or less necessary for the male performers to wear more clothing than female ones did. The wave of homosexualism which has followed the war is probably responsible for the growing numbers of naked male actors and dancers who disport themselves nowadays on the French stage and elsewhere.
There is a normal form of modesty, however, and there are many abnormal aspects of that elusive feeling.
Many animals seek safety and seclusion when performing certain important functions of their life, nutrition, reproduction and defecation, which naturally place them at a disadvantage in emergencies requiring flight or fight. Even the boldest among the carnivorous animals, lions and tigers, drag their prey to a cave or into the depths of the bush before devouring it.
Naked and otherwise shameless and "indelicate" savages will often walk a considerable distance from[Pg 124] their village to satisfy their natural needs, and then hide behind bushes or trees.
Many birds and animals pair off and isolate themselves at mating time.
Races and nations differ greatly in their degree of modesty in relation to nutrition, reproduction and defecation. European races dine in the open, are more or less "shameless" in their love making, they talk freely on sexual topics and erect urinals and comfort stations, designated by their exact name, in many public places. Anglo-Saxons hide themselves while eating, are very silent about the processes of reproduction, seldom indulge in public kissing and designate urinals and toilets, which are very scarce in their lands, by cover names such as lavatories, smoking rooms, etc.
Normal Modesty may then be a survival of the fear which the primitive men and women experienced of being surprised and overpowered by hostile animals or tribesmen during an embrace or when unprotected by garments or armor.
In fact, modesty seems to disappear as soon as safety reigns or when no hostile element may be suspected of lurking in the environment.
A woman strips without shame to undergo a medical examination, men and women appear naked[Pg 125] in public baths where only one sex is admitted at a time, etc.
Then also normal modesty must be considered as an offgrowth of the unavoidable repressions of modern, civilised life. Like the incest taboo, it has been cultivated for reasons of convenience.
Modern community life having placed a thousand restrictions upon the age at which we can marry and the conditions under which we should marry, in other words, having delayed considerably our normal sexual gratification, an effort has been made to "repress" erotism by concealing "suggestive" parts of the human body.
This is, of course, an abortive attempt, for habit is a more potent protector against temptation than veils. The races which live practically naked are not more erotic than the fully clothed, civilised races or the Arabs who not only cover their entire body and heads but conceal even the shape of their bodies in the loose folds of their ample garments. A husband, no longer erotically aroused by his wife's naked body, may be attracted violently by the partly draped body of another woman.
Suggestive Draperies. One of the results of the policy of body-concealment has been to transform certain draperies into sexual symbols of great aphro[Pg 126]disiac power. Certain garments lend to the human body an appeal which it might not have if fully exposed. In other words, the obstacles which are meant to hold back erotism may be used neurotically as a morbid expression of erotism.
At the present day, however, that form of protection against temptation serves its purpose to some extent and cannot be discarded until mankind has been reeducated. Custom and the law uphold official modesty. The mere fact, however, that modesty has to be enforced legally is one of the best arguments against the sentimental, unscientific view that modesty is an "innate," "natural" feeling of "delicacy" based upon some "higher," "spiritual" values, etc.
Modern, official modesty is merely a compromise with sexual reality. It has been, like all inhibitory feelings, greatly overestimated and forced upon the weaker sex by egotistical men to prevent a display of their female's charms, likely to attract other women-hunters. Weak males with a sense of inferiority have called modesty the typically feminine virtue.
Excessive Modesty, in men as well as in women, is an abnormal phenomenon, a mask for unconscious lewdness and obscenity. It is a neurotic means of[Pg 127] protection against uncontrollable desires, or at times an expression of one's "sour grapes" attitude to others.
It is always the shapeless and unattractive woman who is the most vociferous champion of highneck gowns and long skirts. A sense of bodily inferiority obsesses the woman who does not allow any caresses unless the room is darkened. Her modesty yields rapidly, however, to the praise of her attractions which she hears from the mouth of her lover.
Immodest Modesty. A woman took her daughter to a specialist's office for an examination. The girl, asked to strip, complied at once with the doctor's request and s............