TABOO AND GENETICS 233 



reason, is denied the normal functioning of the 

 love life in marriage, is forced to find some other 

 expression for her erotic emotions, and it is only 

 natural that she should find it in an affection for 

 other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy 

 of a large class of modern women, who prefer 

 to retain their economic independence rather 

 than to enter into family life, also necessitates 

 finding vicarious emotional activities. When- 

 ever their work throws a number of these women 

 into constant association, it is almost inevitable 

 that homosexual attachments will spring up. 

 We meet all these types of homosexual 

 fixations in daily life. The college girl who is 

 isolated from men for four years has her sworn 

 comrade among the girls, and is sure that she 

 will never marry but will love her chum always. 

 Very often it is some time after she leaves 

 college before she begins to take an interest in 

 male companionship. The young professional 

 woman looks up to the older woman in her line 

 of work with the same admiration for her courage 

 and brilliancy that used to be reserved for the 

 husband alone in the days when women were 

 permitted only a strictly feminine education and 

 occupation. The business woman refuses to 

 give up her high salaried position for marriage, 

 and consoles herself with her feminine friends. 

 These are the common manifestations charac- 

 teristic of female homosexuality. As has been 



