While doing research for a paper, I unexpectedly stumbled upon an article about American literature and the novel Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise by David Graham Phillips, which was labeled as “a prostitution novel”, grabbed my interest. I got of course distracted and couldn’t resist from entirely changing the subject of my research. I was surprised and pleased when I read this part of the introduction:

There is the third and right way of dealing with the sex relations of men and women. That is the way of simple candor and naturalness. Treat the sex question as you would any other question. Don’t treat it reverently; don’t treat it rakishly. Treat it naturally. Don’t insult your intelligence and lower your moral tone by thinking about either the decency or the indecency of matters that are familiar, undeniable, and unchangeable facts of life. Don’t look on woman as mere female, but as human being. Remember that she has a mind and a heart as well as a body. In a sentence, don’t join in the prurient clamor of “purity” hypocrites and “strong” libertines that exaggerates and distorts the most commonplace, if the most important feature of life. Let us try to be as sensible about sex as we are trying to be about all the other phenomena of the universe in this more enlightened day.

Those words were written in July 1908. In light of this tragedy, it’s about time we put them into practice.

This seems like an interesting writing, but I don’t expect to have time to read it before the holidays. For those of you that found an interest in this novel, you can read it on Gutenberg.

Back to my paper now. Or maybe not.

October 22, 2007 | Category: Entertainment, Sex Work, Thoughts