Page:The Female-Impersonators 1922 book scan.djvu/35

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Androgynes Are Aesthetes.
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art—in the widest sense of that word. They are extreme aesthetes. I quote from Edward Carpenter's Love's Coming-of-Age (published by Boni and Live-right) page 135, where he speaks of male urnings, called by myself "androgynes": "At the bottom lies the artist-nature, with the artist's sensibility and perception. Such a one is often a dreamer, of brooding reserved habits, often a musician, or a man of culture, .... almost always with a peculiar inborn refinement. De Joux .... says ....: 'They are enthusiastic for poetry and music, are often eminently skilful in the fine arts, and are overcome with emotion and sympathy at the least sad occurrence .... The nerve system of many an urning is the finest and the most complicated musical instrument in the service of the interior personality that can be imagined.' " (R. W's comment: An androgyne is usually a bundle of nerves.)

In my university course in æsthetics, the professor lamented that art tends to make its devotees immoral. He probably had in mind the notorious frequency of homosexuality among æsthetes. But he got the cart before the horse. The aesthetes affected were born bisexual and their devotion to art was a consequence.

Androgynes are clearly of two types, each of which, the author estimates, constitutes in the United States about one out of every three hundred humans possessing the male primary determinants:[1] (a) The

  1. Other authorities make them more numerous. I quote from Love's Coming of Age, page 125: "Dr. Grabowsky. . . . quotes figures.... as high as one man in every 22, while Dr. Albert Moll (Die Contraere Sexual-Empfindung, chapter 3) gives estimates varying from one in every 50 to as low as one