study of initial men and women

  

The Intermediate Sex

Edward Carpenter

A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women

1908

"There are transitional forms between the metals and non-metals; between chemical combinations and simple

mixtures, between animals and plants, between phanerogams and cryptogams, and between mammals and

birds. . . . The improbability may henceforth be taken for granted of finding in Nature a sharp cleavage

between all that is masculine on the one side and all that is feminine on the other; or that any living being is so

simple in this respect that it can be put wholly on one side, or wholly on the other, of the line."

O. WEININGER.

PREFATORY NOTE

The following papers, now collected in book-form, have been written-- and some of them published--on

various occasions during the last twelve or fourteen years, and in the intervals of other work; and this must be

my excuse for occasional repetitions or overlapping of matter, which may be observable among them. I have

thought it best, however, to leave them as they stand, as in this way each is more complete in itself. The

second essay, which gives its title to the book, has already appeared in my "Love's Coming-of-Age" (edition

1906), but is reprinted here as belonging more properly to this volume. A collection of quotations from

responsible writers, who touch on various sides of the subject, is added at the end, to form an

Appendix--which the author thinks will prove helpful, though he does not necessarily endorse all the opinions

presented.

1

INTRODUCTORY
The subject dealt with in this book is one of great, and one may say growing, importance. Whether it is that
the present period is one of large increase in the numbers of men and women of an intermediate or mixed
temperament, or whether it merely is that it is a period in which more than usual attention happens to be
accorded to them, the fact certainly remains that the subject has great actuality and is pressing upon us from
all sides. It is recognised that anyhow the number of persons occupying an intermediate position between the
two sexes is very great, that they play a considerable part in general society, and that they necessarily present
and embody many problems which, both for their own sakes and that of society, demand solution. The
literature of the question has in consequence already grown to be very extensive, especially on the Continent,
and includes a great quantity of scientific works, medical treatises, literary essays, romances, historical novels,
poetry, etc. And it is now generally admitted that some knowledge and enlightened understanding of the
subject is greatly needed for the use of certain classes--as, for instance, medical men, teachers, parents,
magistrates, judges, and the like.
That there are distinctions and gradations of Soul-material in relation to Sex--that the inner psychical
affections and affinities shade off and graduate, in a vast number of instances, most subtly from male to
female, and not always in obvious correspondence with the outer bodily sex--is a thing evident enough to
anyone who considers the subject; nor could any good purpose well be served by ignoring this fact--even if it
were possible to do so. It is easy of course (as some do) to classify all these mixed or intermediate types as
BAD. It is also easy (as some do) to argue that just because they combine opposite qualities they are likely to
be GOOD and valuable. But the subtleties and complexities of Nature cannot be despatched in this off-hand
manner. The great probability is that, as in any other class of human beings, there will be among these too,
good and bad, high and low, worthy and unworthy-- some perhaps exhibiting through their double
temperament a rare and beautiful flower of humanity, others a perverse and tangled ruin.
Before the facts of Nature we have to preserve a certain humility and reverence; nor rush in with our
preconceived and obstinate assumptions. Though these gradations of human type have always, and among all
peoples, been more or less known and recognised, yet their frequency to-day, or even the concentration of
attention on them, may be the indication of some important change actually in progress. We do NOT know, in
fact, what possible evolutions are to come, or what new forms, of permanent place and value, are being
already slowly differentiated from the surrounding mass of humanity. It may be that, as at some past period of
evolution the worker-bee was without doubt differentiated from the two ordinary bee-sexes, so at the present
time certain new types of human kind may be emerging, which will have an important part to play in the
societies of the future--even though for the moment their appearance is attended by a good deal of confusion
and misapprehension. It may be so; or it may not. We do not know; and the best attitude we can adopt is one
of sincere and dispassionate observation of facts.
Of course wherever this subject touches on the domain of love we may expect difficult queries to arise. Yet it
is here probably that the noblest work of the intermediate sex or sexes will be accomplished, as well as the
greatest errors committed. It seems almost a law of Nature that new and important movements should be
misunderstood and vilified--even though afterwards they may be widely approved or admitted to honour.
Such movements are always envisaged first from whatever aspect they may possibly present, of ludicrous or
contemptible. The early Christians, in the eyes of Romans, were chiefly known as the perpetrators of obscure
rites and crimes in the darkness of the catacombs. Modern Socialism was for a long time supposed to be an
affair of daggers and dynamite; and even now there are thousands of good people ignorant enough to believe
that it simply means "divide up all round, and each take his threepenny bit." Vegetarians were supposed to be
a feeble and brainless set of cabbage-eaters. The Women's movement, so vast in its scope and importance