On the other hand, it might lead to most interesting experiments in eugenics and animal breeding.
Thru deferred impregnation, brought about by special contraceptive measures, a better human type and better breeds of animals might be evolved.
It might also sound the death knell of certain contraceptive methods which prevent the human mates from attaining the physical and mental oneness which, Goldschmidt says, is the result of life-long sexual association.
Goldschmidt's thesis is worth investigating. Thus far the unverified observations and the sayings of more or less scientific breeders do not allow us to draw positive deductions.
Modesty is not easy to define, for it varies with races, epochs and climes. As I said in the preceding chapter, in some parts of Japan and in one Arab tribe, it is almost shameful for a young woman to be married without having had sexual experience. A woman of the Western races on the other hand, regardless of her age and past, must in order to show a ladylike breeding, pretend a certain ignorance of things sexual when in the company of men, even in the company of her fifth or sixth husband.
=In Turkey=, a woman may show her eyes but must veil her mouth; in the Southern Sahara, men of the Tuareg tribes go about veiled like Turkish ladies. Certain African tribes cover their backs carefully while exposing the rest of their bodies. In other tribes, men, instead of concealing their genitals, wear sheaths which exaggerate the size of their organs. In most parts of the earth, women keep the fact of their menstruation a secret. In others, they wear a cloth of a special color proclaiming that condition when present.
=On the Modern Stage=, modesty seems satisfied if the nipples and the genitals are duly covered. In some parts of Europe entirely naked dancers have been seen in public. Until recently, an unwritten law made it more or less necessary for the male performers to wear more clothing than female ones did. The wave of homosexualism which has followed the war is probably responsible for the growing numbers of naked male actors and dancers who disport themselves nowadays on the French stage and elsewhere.
There is a normal form of modesty, however, and there are many abnormal aspects of that elusive feeling.