http://dl.lib.brown.edu/repository2/repoman.php?verb=render&id=116531569...

"Problems of Sex" from The New Age, published 1912, pg. 419-420.

I found this article a confusing representation of the era's views on the social legitimacy of extramarital sex.  The author openly claims the existence of widespread infidelity in marriage, and he (?) himself had previously published an article openly endorsing a hedonistic lifestyle.  The aspect I find the most interesting in this discussion of sexual liberation is the fact that women are not mentioned in it except as passing figures in a male world.  The dutiful wives, raising children at home, are given about as much (written) attention as the prostitutes their husbands frequently visit, yet while both seem to be the direct cause of the article, neither are its focus.  Instead, the article discusses marriage as "merely a licence for carnal connection" and "entirely utilitarian".  However, the article is always from a male's perspective.  The independence of women in marriage is here represented as what it had been for centuries: nonexistent.  The article does not blame women for the shortcomings of man.  The author looks on women almost as inanimate objects, incapable of any true action inspired from within.  

The idea of motherhood and child-bearing is also raised.  The article begins with the supposed quest of attempting to defend the children of so-called "illegitimate" unions, yet never truly does so.  Instead it veers away from the pain of the mother in the midst of social prejudice to instead come to the aid of the father, already glorified in society for his philandering, by relieving him of all blame.  The child and mother become again irrelevant in this situation as the author clamors for men to seek out intellectual pursuits in order to distract themselves from the vices naturally inspired by female objects.