Читать книгу The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization - Iwan 1872-1922 Bloch - Страница 32

Table of Contents

The individualizing influence of the sentiment of shame — Recent anthropological researches regarding the origin and nature of the erotic sense of shame — The animal and the social factor of shame — Shame as a biological sense of warding off — Coquetry — The fundamental social element of the sense of shame — Lombroso’s theory of shame — The dread of arousing repulsion — Connexion of the sense of shame with clothing — Conditions among the indigens of Central Brazil — Nudity as a natural condition — The coverings of the genital organs among the primitive races have a protective function, and are not portions of clothing — Origin of clothing — The original purpose of decoration and adornment — Relation of clothing to the feeling of love — Tattooing a preliminary stage to clothing — Prehistoric painting of the body — Tattooing as a sexual lure — Tattooing of the genital organs — Sexual effect of colours — Occurrence of tattooing amongst modern civilized nations — Recent anthropological researches regarding this subject — Erotic tattooing — Tattooing in women of the upper classes — The colour element in clothing — Its connexion with sexual charm — With jealousy — With sexual allurement — Sexual influence of concealment — The stimulus of the unknown — The two fundamental elements of fashion — Accentuation and display of portions of the body — Influence of partial concealment, of retroussé — The two principal forms of clothing — Accentuating and enlarging influences of clothing — H. Lotzes’s theory of the nature of clothing — Reciprocal influence between clothing and personality — “Physiognomy” of clothing — Clothing as an expression of the psyche — Denuding of portions of the body as a sexual stimulus — Fashion — Its absence in antiquity — Difference between ancient and modern clothing — Diaphanous raiment of the ancient half-world — Analysis of clothing — Upper and under clothing — The waist — Further differentiation into clothing proper and more intimate articles of dress — Dressing and undressing — Separation of the body-spheres by the waist — Beginnings of fashion in the middle ages — The corset as a witness of Christian teaching — Contest between medieval fashion and asceticism — Victory of fashion — Accentuation of the bosom — Décolleté — Views of the æsthetics on this subject — Harmfulness of the corset — A sin against æsthetics and hygiene — Its deleterious influence upon the thoracic and abdominal organs — The corset and anæmia — Atrophy of the mammary glands — Other serious consequences — Its influence on the female reproductive organs — The corset and “fluor albus” — The corset and sterility — Pre-Raphaelite flat-breastedness — Accentuation of the regions of the hips — Tournure (cul de Paris), the “crinolette” — Indication of the abdominal region and of pregnancy — The farthingale and the crinoline — Waldeyer’s views regarding the cause of the difference between men’s clothing and women’s — Greater simplicity of men’s clothing — Connexion of this with the greater mental differentiation of man — Former anomalies of men’s clothing — The breeches-flap — Feminine men’s clothing — Present predominance of the English style in men’s clothing — Influence of clothing on the skin — Venus im Pelz (Venus in fur) — Sacher-Masoch’s explanation of the sexual influence of furs — The face and clothing — Sexual differentiation of the features — The relation of clothing to the environment — Enlargement of the conception of “fashion” — Theory of fashion — The two functions of fashion — Social equalization and individual differentiation — The demi-monde and fashion — Fashion as a safeguard of personality — Economic theories of fashion — Their connexion with capitalism — The reform of women’s clothing — “Rational dress.”

The relation between the feeling of shame and nudity as a problem of modern civilization — Prudery — Natural and lascivious nakedness — Prudery is concealed lust — Schleiermacher’s talented characterization of the sexual element in prudery — Psychiatric observations — Unnatural increase in the sense of shame — Importance to civilization of the genuine, natural feeling of shame — False fig-leaf morality — Natural views regarding nudity and sexual matters the watchword for the future.