Page:Personal Beauty and Racial Betterment.djvu/93

 Rh necessities of guaranteeing paternity, and partly from the universal consideration of women as property, is dissolving at a rate faster than casual observation reveals. So long as woman had but one means of providing for herself, namely: the sale of her person; the double standard was easily maintained. The woman who once “sinned” (and was found out) could no longer command a price as a wife, and was obliged to sell herself as a harlot. The woman who now is employed, at a living wage, may do as she likes, provided she does not make her private life public; and is yet able to continue to support herself without falling into prostitution, since her employers pay her for her work, not for her “morality.” One who understands the psychological principles which control the sexual instinct might predict from these circumstances the changes which are actually occurring. From these principles also, we can surely foretell that the revolution, having gained a little more headway, will spread far beyond the class in which it originated.

The abolition of the “double standard” may be set down, as a revolution which, though not accomplished, is so far along that there is no possibility of checking it, whether we would like to do so or not. The proximate effects will doubtless be appalling, and yet there is little reason to fear