THE NUDE IN STEREOGRAPHY 155absurd that they should be ignored were it not for the fact that
these two groups are numerically so great.
The first is perhaps the more excusable. True, it is difficult to
conceive of the unwholesomeness of the mind which can possibly
perceive anything offensive in the human figure; but that is still
more easily understood than the mind which believes that while
the nude is offensive, it must be made use of by a restricted ele-
ment of society for artistic purposes. The latter group prates of
idealisms and neutral attitudes, which is sheer nonsense. The very
ones who use the statements disbelieve them. They are excuses,
not reasons.
The whole situation arises from the fact that as a nation we
are incredibly adolescent. The question of sex is involved, of
course. But the whole trouble lies in the general unwholesome
attitude toward sex. After all what is it really? It is the sole force
which is responsible, of course, for the population of the world;
but more than that it is the sole force which has resulted in our
progress, which is directly responsible for every great accomplish-
ment of man, of all great art, music and literature, of all inven-
tion and discovery. It is a scientific fact that it is the factor which
prevents man from stagnating, from becoming dull, stupid, mean,
treacherous and generally repulsive.
The origin of our national fear of sex is difficult to discover.
Of course it all stems from the older eras when a woman was a
chattel, a thing purchased and owned purely as a plaything for
man. But while we have progressed in every other way, we still
make the degradation of sex a principle of social progress! We
permit the most disgusting abuses of eating and drinking, a man
may take to drugs or dissipate his whole substance in gambling
and we are indulgent, but if he is “guilty” of the most natural sex
activity he is condemned. It is simply beyond any intelligent logic.
Yet those who are most bitter against any idea of sex refer to it
constantly throughout their lives. Such words as “he” and “she,”
“man” and “woman,” even “boy” and “girl,” or “king” and
“queen,” “horse” and “mare” and so on through hundreds, yes
thousands of words, are differenced only by sex. These very people
are the ones who would rebel most strongly against becoming
asexual. In fact, the psychologists inform us that those who are