Four Booklets in the Series Entitled Sex Problems - What A Lady About to Marry Should Know to Gonorrhea, Clap and Bubo
Great Britain: 1923. This grouping contains four booklets from the series entitled "Sex Problems", and provides sexual education on a variety of topics. The booklets are eight pages long and were written by a "T. P. S." in 1923, and promote a "Clean Sex Life both before and after marriage". The author, in his own words is not a "medical man" but rather an ordinary one who has "been through the mill, fooled for a time by the old Stone Age lies and ignorance on Sex matters." Throughout the booklets, he promotes sexual education, and how it should be available to all ages. The booklets also have a religious tone to them, often claiming that certain acts, like masturbation, are evil (and result in men and women who are weak in mind and body), while also asserting that if you go against nature, like using birth control, you will be punished for it. The booklets also clearly have a gender bias, inherent to the times. For example, though it stresses that there shouldn't be sex before marriage, it clearly takes a different tone between men and women who don't follow such tenets. Women are ruined if they have sex before marriage, but men, while they shouldn't, is generally accepted that most men will "sow their wild oats" prior to marriage. The booklets includes statistics on Sexually Transmitted Diseases post WWI, not to trying to prevent men from engaging in sexual intercourse, but to scare them with the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and shame them with the fact that if they do contract one they will inevitably pass it to their wives and have disease ridden, weak children.
1) "An Unanswerable Argument, The Aim of Sex Truth, Sex Knowledge the Great Need of the Age, The Nation's Peril Sex Diseases".
This booklet serves as our introduction to the series and it attempts to convince the reader of a " 'conspiracy of silence' that has made a mystery of the most sacred and beautiful thing of life: The Human Body and its functions." It emphasizes that parents in particular should teach their children sex education at the appropriate age, as while "most boys and girls are clean minded", they have curious minds, and if the proper facts are not taught to them first, they will learn the "evil" way from their older peers who have already been led astray. It provides talking points for how these can be discussed with children, in particular, how to discuss the 'evil' act of masturbation. It then uses the the statistics of 'sex diseases' and 'defects' found in young children (passed to them by their parents who had these 'sex diseases'), as reason one should not let their children be ignorant of sexual education. It ends with, "The Santa Claus story is harmless and it does not fool children very long. But the 'stork brought [the] baby' or, 'Doctor brought [the] baby in a basket' story is criminal. Don't tell them to children."
2) "What a Lady About to Marry Should Know, What a Man About to Marry Should Know, Rules for Wife and Husband."
This booklet focuses on the relationship between a man and a wife, and how one can prepare for it. There are two separate sections addressing the first future bride and then the groom. Both stress that they should be examined by a doctor to ensure neither have a disease, but while the man's section stresses that this is to ensure there is no hereditary disease that might effect their future children, the women's section also places a heavy weight on ensuring the man is clean of sexual diseases. The book also has a clear standpoint on children in general, "If you are adverse to having children, don't marry. You will be committing a sin against Nature, that Nature will punish you for. Preventatives of pregnancy are the causes of great many female ailments." It takes this even further to state that abortion is murder, and that anyone party to it, wife, husband, or the doctor performing it, is evil and a murderer. The book then continues on to discusses the relations between a man and women after marriage and that they should "practice continence in the married state. Excessive indulgence is wicked." Also, that men and women have different levels of 'vitality', and as such, men should be aware that "to a woman the sexual act is torture when she does not desire it. And it fills her with disgust. When the sexual act is not mutual, it is nothing more nor less than masturbation, and fully as harmful."
3) "A Young Ladies' Problem to Keep Pure, White Slavers and 'He Vampires', The Cash Value of White Slaves, The Truth About Prostitutes and 'Easy; Girls".
This booklet deals with prostitution, and talks about both the prostitutes themselves and the individuals who frequent them. The majority of the booklet is directed toward young girls and how to avoid 'white slavers'. It starts by stating that a girl is told to guard her virtue by any means, but, as this booklet points out, they are rarely told exactly what to guard against. The booklet details the various ways white slavers deceive their victims. Such as picking them up at public dance halls with lies about courtship and marriage, fake theatrical ads for chorus girls or other similar jobs, 'he vamps' who are men who offer women rides (apparently most of all taxi drivers are this, and women should only enter a taxi if a policeman has directed her to it and assured her of its safety), and, lastly, middle age women who approach traveling young girls and invite them home afterwards. After a girl is tricked and taken, she "may find herself a prisoner in a bawdy house; deprived of her street clothing, and guarded so closely; communication with friends is impossible until the girl's spirit is broken, after which she will not care to make her condition known to any one at home," and if a girl fights back she "is often rendered unconscious, and later awakens in a position which will so thoroughly disgust her with herself, she will not care what happens afterwards." The last segment of the booklet is directed more towards men, about the type of women who are prostitutes and their dangers. "Girls or women who give or sell the use of their bodies for money, are almost without exception persons who are defective mentally; in other words, lunatics. No well-balanced woman or girl will give herself up to a life of shame and disgrace." It continues on to state that anyone that goes to see a prostitute "should bear in mind that all of them are diseased most of the time... they [prostitutes] feel revengeful towards all mankind; and feel that they are only getting a sort of revenge when they pass their gonorrhea or syphilis on to others." This segment directed towards men appears to be in direct conflict with the previous one directed towards women. In the first segment prostitutes are fallen women, who either through their own folly or trickery have been forced into prostitution, and should be pitied for their lot in life and used as a cautionary tale for others. In the last segment, prostitutes are evil or insane, and are actively seeking revenge on mankind through disease.
4) "Gonorrhea - Clap, Syphilis - Pox, Chancroids and Bubo, Instructions to Gonorrhea Victims, Advice to Syphilitics, Dangers of Self Doctoring, Miscellaneous Information".
This last booklet takes a relatively scientific approach to the various sexual diseases, though the majority of the information provided is about gonorrhea and syphilis. It provides some rather strait forward advice, "Don't try to doctor yourself. Don't use patent medicines. Don't go to a Quack Doctor," as well as simple instructions to follow along with the course of regiment provided by your doctor. Some of the information is false, such as the booklet states that is is possible to contract gonorrhea from a toilet seat or towel (you can't), but whether the author didn't know better or was deliberately sowing misinformation is unknown. However he does later claim that syphilis was curable. This, at the time of publication, was definitely known to be false. The cure for syphilis, penicillin, was discovered in 1943 at a US Marine Hospital while attempting cure several marines of the early stages of the disease. (Penicillin itself was discovered in 1928, but its effectiveness on syphilis wasn't known until 1943). The author even states that after an individual had contract syphilis,
"Don't marry until two years have passed since you were pronounced cured. Syphilis has a way of coming back occasionally. If it does, and you have married, you will surely infect your wife and children." Syphilis came back because it wasn't cured, the visible symptoms just went away for awhile. Towards the end of the booklet he also brings up the possibility of catching some of these diseases at work and that "If you know of anyone with a venereal disease, it is your duty to urge him to take treatment. You might become infected if you are in social or business contact with diseased persons." This is again something that we know now to be false (unless under very specific conditions), but it does appear as though the author believed these falsehoods.
It is unknown if this is the complete series or a partial collection. The booklets have the following statement printed at the end, "This educational Course in Sex Knowledge is approved by the National Association for Disease Prevention." Each booklet is 8 pgs. (including printed wrappers). Staple binding. OCLC 0 (Apr. 2020). Measures 7 1/2" x 5".
To view the collection, please click on the following link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jbsXNoS1Ma8vcAgW9. General wear. Minor stains. Some staples are damaged.
Price: $200.00
Item #29001881