THE ETHICS OF SEX 191 



other hand, to the fact that woman's greater 

 control over her passions for organic, ethical, 

 and social reasons, and for fear of consequences 

 may lead man to conclude quite erroneously 

 that these passions are much less strong than 

 his. 



The view of not a few experts is forcibly 

 expressed by Mr. Heape (1913) : " It is 

 the fashion to talk glibly of the need for the 

 suppression of brutal sexual instincts, of the 

 control of sexual passion, and so forth. Such 

 demands are made by woman and addressed 

 to man as a perverted creature, as an abnor- 

 mal product of civilisation. The fact is that 

 woman's sexuality is on quite a different 

 plane to that of man; she is wholly ignorant 

 as a rule of man's normal requirements, and 

 her virtuous demands, essentially designed for 

 her own benefit as she conceives, are opposed 

 to natural law." 



It is evident enough from our book that we 

 do not regard the sexual instincts as " brutal," 

 yet we are inclined to think that women have 

 considerable justification for being more than 

 a little hard on men. What does Mr. Heape or 

 any one else know of man's "normal require- 

 ments " ? Can any one seriously doubt that 

 most men are the better for the aids to sexual 

 temperance ? 



Our view of the matter is that sexual 

 desire is quietened in most women because 

 they are more moralised than men; because 

 they are in the direction of sexuality more 

 controlled, because they do not relinquish 

 their first line of defence so readily as man does, 

 and so on : but that there is also a physiological 



