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Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Inversion"

Hirschfeld remarks that
inverted women are not usually attracted in girlhood by the autoerotic and
homosexual vices of school-life,[179] and nearly all the women whose
histories I have recorded in this chapter felt a pronounced repugnance to
such manifestations and cherished lofty ideals of love.
Inverted women are not rarely married. Moll, from various confidences
which he has received, believes that inverted women have not the same
horror of normal coitus as inverted, men; this is probably due to the fact
that the woman under such circumstances can retain a certain passivity. In
other cases there is some degree of bisexuality, although, as among
inverted men, the homosexual instinct seems usually to give the greater
relief and gratification.
It has been stated by many observers--in America, in France, in Germany,
and in England--that homosexuality is increasing among women.[180] There
are many influences in our civilization today which encourage such
manifestations.[181] The modern movement of emancipation--the movement to
obtain the same rights and duties as men, the same freedom and
responsibility, the same education and the same work--must be regarded as,
on the whole, a wholesome and inevitable movement.


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