Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 Sexual Inversion

[166] An interesting ancient example of a woman with an irresistible impulse to adopt men's clothing and lead a man's life, but who did not, so far as is known, possess any sexual impulses, is that of Mary Frith, commonly called Moll Cutpurse, who lived in London at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Life and Death of Mrs. Mary Frith appeared in 1662; Middleton and Rowley also made her the heroine of their delightful comedy, The Roaring Girl (Mermaid Series, Middleton's Plays, volume ii), somewhat idealizing her, however. She seems to have belonged to a neurotic and eccentric stock; "each of the family," her biographer says, "had his peculiar freak." As a child she only cared for boys' games, and could never adapt herself to any woman's avocations. "She had a natural abhorrence to the tending of children." Her disposition was altogether masculine; "she was not for mincing obscenity, but would talk freely, whatever came uppermost." She never had any children, and was not taxed with debauchery: "No man can say or affirm that ever she had a sweetheart or any such fond thing to dally with her;" a mastiff was the only living thing she cared for. Her life was not altogether honest, but not so much from any organic tendency to crime, it seems, as because her abnormal nature and restlessness made her an outcast. She was too fond of drink, and is said to have been the first woman who smoked tobacco. Nothing is said or suggested of any homosexual practices, but we see clearly here what may be termed the homosexual diathesis.

[173] The term "cunnilinctus" was suggested to me by the late Dr. J. Bonus, and I have ever since used it; the Latin authors commonly used "cunnilingus" for the actor, but had no corresponding term for the action. Hirschfeld has lately used the term "cunnilinctio" in the same sense, but such a formation is quite inadmissible. For information on the classic terms for this perversion, see, e.g., Iwan Bloch, Ursprung der Syphilis, vol. ii, p. 612 et seq.

[175] Hirschfeld deals in a full and authoritative manner with the differential diagnosis of inversion and the other groups of transitional sexuality in Die Homosexualität, ch. ii; also in his fully illustrated book Geschlechtsübergänge, 1905.

[176] Havelock Ellis, "Auto-erotism," in vol. i of these Studies; Iwan Bloch, Ursprung der Syphilis, vol. ii, p. 589; ib., Die Prostitution, vol, i, pp. 385-6; for early references, Crusius, Untersuchungen zu den Mimiamben der Herondas, pp. 129-30.

[177] I have found a notice of a similar case in France, during the sixteenth century, in Montaigne's Journal du Voyage en Italie en 1850 (written by his secretary); it took place near Vitry le François. Seven or eight girls belonging to Chaumont, we are told, resolved to dress and to work as men; one of these came to Vitry to work as a weaver, and was looked upon as a well-conditioned young man, and liked by everyone. At Vitry she became betrothed to a woman, but, a quarrel arising, no marriage took place. Afterward "she fell in love with a woman whom she married, and with whom she lived for four or five months, to the wife's great contentment, it is said; but, having been recognized by some one from Chaumont, and brought to justice, she was condemned to be hanged. She said she would even prefer this to living again as a girl, and was hanged for using illicit inventions to supply the defects of her sex" (Journal, ed. by d'Ancona, 1889, p. 11).

[180] There are few traces of feminine homosexuality in English social history of the past. In Charles the Second's Court, the Mémoires de Ghrammont tell us, Miss Hobart was credited with Lesbian tendencies. "Soon the rumor, true or false, of this singularity spread through the court. They were gross enough there never to have heard of that refinement of ancient Greece in the tastes of tenderness, and the idea came into their heads that the illustrious Hobart, who seemed so affectionate to pretty women, must be different from what she appeared." This passage is interesting because it shows us how rare was the exception. A century later, however, homosexuality among English women seems to have been regarded by the French as common, and Bacchaumont, on January 1, 1773, when recording that Mlle. Heinel of the Opera was settling in England, added: "Her taste for women will there find attractive satisfaction, for though Paris furnishes many tribades it is said that London is herein superior."

[181] "I believe," writes a well-informed American correspondent, "that sexual inversion is increasing among Americans—both men and women—and the obvious reasons are: first, the growing independence of the women, their lessening need for marriage; secondly, the nervous strain that business competition has brought upon the whole nation. In a word, the rapidly increasing masculinity in women and the unhealthy nervous systems of the men offer the ideal factors for the production of sexual inversion in their children."

[182] Homosexual women, like homosexual men, now insert advertisements in the newspapers, seeking a "friend." Näcke ("Zeitungsannoncen von weiblichen Homosexuellen," Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie, 1902, p. 225) brought together from Munich newspapers a collection of such advertisements, most of which were fairly unambiguous: "Actress with modern ideas desires to know rich lady with similar views, for the sake of friendly relations, etc.;" "Young lady of 19, a pretty blonde, seeks another like herself for walks, theatre, etc.," and so on.