The Intermediate Sex

A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women

Book

By: Edward Carpenter

Date: 1908

Source: Carpenter, Edward. The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women. 1908. Available at: 〈http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/carpenter-is.html〉 (accessed April 4, 2006).

About the Author: Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) is one of the best known of the English sexologists. A gay man and a socialist, Carpenter believed that romances that crossed class lines could break down the class barriers that plagued England. Carpenter lived with a series of working-class lovers until meeting his life partner, George Merrill, a young man from the Sheffield slums, in 1891. While he wrote widely on a range of subjects, his most influential work addressed the topic of homosexuality, especially Love's Coming-of-Age (1896) and The Intermediate Sex (1908).

INTRODUCTION

Edward Carpenter, a gay British writer, helped develop a positive sense of gay identity in the early twentieth century. At a time when Great Britain criminalized homosexual conduct, Carpenter portrayed gay men and lesbians as knowers, healers, and pioneers. He is one of the early leaders of the gay rights movement.

Carpenter is best known for his 1908 book The Intermediate Sex, which introduced the topic of "homogenic love." He coined and preferred the term "homogenic" rather than "homosexual" because of the latter's bizarre half-Greek, half-Latin derivation. Homogenic love was a spiritualized and altruistic attachment that owed much in conception to ancient Greek platonic love with its subordination of passion into finer emotions. People who engaged in homogenic love pointed the way through sexuality to a free society.

Carpenter saw the "intermediate sex" as a further state in human evolution. His conceptualization of the intermediate sex is derived from the idea of a third sex. Influenced by the "urning" (love between men with female souls) theories of German sexologist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs as well as the transgender figures of the berdache and shaman from Native American cultures, Carpenter identified some people as belonging to both genders. He argued that this double identity prepared such people to serve as reconcilers and interpreters between the two sexes.

PRIMARY SOURCE

More than thirty years ago, however, an Austrian writer, K. H. Ulrichs, drew attention in a series of pamphlets (Memnon, Ara Spei, Inclusa, etc.) to the existence of a class of people who strongly illustrate the above remarks, and with whom specially this paper is concerned. He pointed out that there were people born in such a position—as it were on the dividing line between the sexes—that while belonging distinctly to one sex as far as their bodies are concerned they may be said to belong mentally and emotionally to the other; that there were men, for instance, who might be described as of feminine soul enclosed in a male body (anima muliebris in corpore virili inclusa), or in other cases, women whose definition would be just the reverse. And he maintained that this doubleness of nature was to a great extent proved by the special direction of their love-sentiment. For in such cases, as indeed might be expected, the (apparently) masculine person instead of forming a love-union with a female tended to contract romantic friendships with one of his own sex; while the apparently feminine would, instead of marrying in the usual way, devote herself to the love of another feminine.

People of this kind (i.e., having this special variation of the love-sentiment) he called Urnings; [Note: From Uranos, heaven; his idea being that the Uranian love was of a higher order than the ordinary attachment. For further about Ulrichs and his theories see Appendix, pp. 157-159.] and though we are not obliged to accept his theory about the crosswise connexion between "soul" and "body," since at best these words are somewhat vague and indefinite; yet his work was important because it was one of the first attempts, in modern times, to recognise the existence of what might be called an Intermediate sex, and to give at any rate some explanation of it. [Note: Charles G. Leland ("Hans Breitmann") in his book "The Alternate Sex" (Wellby, 1904), insists much on the frequent combination of the characteristics of both sexes in remarkable men and women, and has a chapter on "The Female Mind in Man," and another on "The Male Intellect in Woman."]

Since that time the subject has been widely studied and written about by scientific men and others, especially on the Continent (though in England it is still comparatively unknown), and by means of an extended observation of present-day cases, as well as the indirect testimony of the history and literature of past times, quite a body of general conclusions has been arrived at—of which I propose in the following pages to give some slight account.

Contrary to the general impression, one of the first points that emerges from this study is that "Urnings," or Uranians, are by no means so very rare; but that they form, beneath the surface of society, a large class. It remains difficult, however, to get an exact statement of their numbers; and this for more than one reason: partly because, owing to the want of any general understanding of their case, these folk tend to conceal their true feelings from all but their own kind, and indeed often deliberately act in such a manner as to lead the world astray—(whence it arises that a normal man living in a certain society will often refuse to believe that there is a single Urning in the circle of his acquaintance, while one of the latter, or one that understands the nature, living in the same society, can count perhaps a score or more)—and partly because it is indubitable that the numbers do vary very greatly, not only in different countries but even in different classes in the same country. The consequence of all this being that we have estimates differing very widely from each other. Dr. Grabowsky, a well-known writer in Germany, quotes figures (which we think must be exaggerated) as high as one man in every 22, while Dr. Albert Moll (Die Conträre Sexualempfindung, chap. 3) gives estimates varying from 1 in every 50 to as low as 1 in every 500. [Note: Some late statistical inquiries (see Statistische Untersuchungen, by Dr. M. Hirschfeld, Leipzig, 1904) yield 1.5 to 2.0 per cent as a probable ratio. See also Appendix, pp. 134-136.] These figures apply to such as are exclusively of the said nature, i.e., to those whose deepest feelings of love and friendship go out only to persons of their own sex. Of course, if in addition are included those double-natured people (of whom there is a great number) who experience the normal attachment, with the homogenic tendency in less or greater degree superadded, the estimates must be greatly higher.

In the second place it emerges (also contrary to the general impression) that men and women of the exclusively Uranian type are by no means necessarily morbid in any way—unless, indeed, their peculiar temperament be pronounced in itself morbid. Formerly it was assumed, as a matter of course, that the type was merely a result of disease and degeneration; but now with the examination of the actual facts it appears that, on the contrary, many are fine, healthy specimens of their sex, muscular and well-developed in body, of powerful brain, high standard of conduct, and with nothing abnormal or morbid of any kind observable in their physical structure or constitution. This is of course not true of all, and there still remain a certain number of cases of weakly type to support the neuropathic view. Yet it is very noticeable that this view is much less insisted on by the later writers than by the earlier. It is also worth noticing that it is now acknowledged that even in the most healthy cases the special affectional temperament of the "Intermediate" is, as a rule, ineradicable; so much so that when (as in not a few instances) such men and women, from social or other considerations, have forced themselves to marry and even have children, they have still not been able to overcome their own bias, or the leaning after all of their life-attachment to some friend of their own sex.

A few words may here be said about the legal aspect of this important question. It has to be remarked that the present state of the Law, both in Germany and Britain—arising as it does partly out of some of the misapprehensions above alluded to, and partly out of the sheer unwillingness of legislators to discuss the question—is really impracticable. While the Law rightly seeks to prevent acts of violence or public scandal, it may be argued that it is going beyond its province when it attempts to regulate the private and voluntary relations of adult persons to each other. The homogenic affection is a valuable social force, and in some cases a necessary element of noble human character—yet the Act of 1885 makes almost any familiarity in such cases the possible basis of a criminal charge. The Law has no doubt had substantial ground for previous statutes on this subject—dealing with a certain gross act; but in so severely condemning the least familiarity between male persons [Note: Though, inconsistently enough, making no mention of females.] we think it has gone too far. It has undertaken a censorship over private morals (entirely apart from social results) which is beyond its province, and which—even if it were its province—it could not possibly fulfil; [Note: Dr. Moll maintains (2nd ed., pp. 314, 315) that if familiarities between those of the same sex are made illegal, as immoral, self-abuse ought much more to be so made.] it has opened wider than ever before the door to a real, most serious social evil and crime—that of blackmailing; and it has thrown a shadow over even the simplest and most ordinary expressions of an attachment which may, as we have seen, be of great value in the national life.

That the homosexual feeling, like the heterosexual, may lead to public abuses of liberty and decency; that it needs a strict self-control; and that much teaching and instruction on the subject is needed; we of course do not deny. But as, in the case of persons of opposite sex, the law limits itself on the whole to a maintenance of public order, the protection of the weak from violence and insult, [Note: Though it is doubtful whether the marriagelaws even do this.] and of the young from their inexperience; so we think it should be here. The much-needed teaching and the true morality on the subject must be given—as it can only be given—by the spread of proper education and ideas, and not by the clumsy bludgeon of the statute-book. [Note: In France, since the adoption of the Code Napoleon, sexual inversion is tolerated under the same restrictions as normal sexuality; and according to Carlier, formerly Chief of the French Police, Paris is not more depraved in this matter than London. Italy in 1889 also adopted the principles of the Code Napoleon on this point. For further considerations with regard to the Law, see Appendix, pp. 164 and 165.]

Having thus shown the importance of the homogenic or comrade-attachment, in some form, in national life, it would seem high time now that the modern peoples should recognise this in their institutions, and endeavour at least in their public opinion and systems of education to understand this factor and give it its proper place. The undoubted evils which exist in relation to it, for instance in our public schools as well as in our public life, owe their existence largely to the fact that the whole subject is left in the gutter so to speak—in darkness and concealment. No one offers a clue of better things, nor to point a way out of the wilderness; and by this very nonrecognition the passion is perverted into its least satisfactory channels. All love, one would say, must have its responsibilities, else it is liable to degenerate, and to dissipate itself in mere sentiment or sensuality. The normal marriage between man and woman leads up to the foundation of the household and the family; the love between parents and children implies duties and cares on both sides. The homogenic attachment, left unrecognised, easily loses some of its best quality and becomes an ephemeral or corrupt thing. Yet, as we have seen, and as I am pointing out in the following chapter, it may, when occurring between an elder and younger, prove to be an immense educational force; while, as between equals, it may be turned to social and heroic uses, such as can hardly be demanded or expected from the ordinary marriage. It would seem high time, I say, that public opinion should recognise these facts; and so give to this attachment the sanction and dignity which arise from public recognition, as well as the definite form and outline which would flow from the existence of an accepted ideal or standard in the matter. It is often said how necessary for the morality of the ordinary marriage is some public recognition of the relation, and some accepted standard of conduct in it. May not, to a lesser degree, something of the same kind (as suggested in the next chapter) be true of the homogenic attachment? It has had its place as a recognised and guarded institution in the elder and more primitive societies; and it seems quite probable that a similar place will be accorded to it in the societies of the future.

SIGNIFICANCE

Nowadays largely forgotten, British sexologist Edward Carpenter had a crucial influence on early twentieth century society. He was the best-known defender of homosexuality. Instead of seeing gay men and lesbians as demonized people, Carpenter celebrated them.

Carpenter's notion of a third sex was historically an important way of conceptualizing homosexuals. It allowed an argument to be made that homosexual traits were innate and inborn and that gay identity was as fixed and normal as heterosexual identity. Therefore, there could be no justification for condemning homosexuality. Harsh legal sanctions and religious condemnation could not change biology. Carpenter was one of the first to argue that sexual orientation is biological and not a choice.

Yet as advanced as Carpenter's theories were for the Edwardian era, he promoted stereotypes of women and gay men. Although he was a feminist, Carpenter was unable to see women outside of a maternal role and did not consider them to the extent that he focused on men. He viewed heterosexual women as participating in animalistic sex rather than the superior and spiritual homosexual sex that is divorced from reproduction. His writings are essentially the exploration of an argument between heterosexual and homosexual men. Carpenter separates homosexual desire from sexual promiscuity, but simultaneously fails to rescue homosexuality from the stereotype of effeminacy and supermasculinity.

Part of a group of theorists who sought physical causes for same-sex desire, Carpenter provided emotional support to a generation of gays and lesbians. By insisting that there was nothing wrong with homosexuality, he freed many people from self-condemnation. He influenced such writers as sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) and novelist E. M. Forster (1879–1970) and helped start the movement to liberate gays from repression.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Fone, Byron R.S. A Road to Stonewall: Male Homosexuality and Homophobia in English and American Literature, 1750–1969. New York: Twayne, 1995.

Rowbotham, Sheila, and Jeffrey Weeks. Socialism and the New Life: The Personal and Sexual Politics of Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis. London: Pluto, 1977.

Rupp, Leila J. A Desired Past: A Short History of Same-Sex Love in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.