"
In support of this view the authoress proceeds to point out that
the _decollete_ constantly reappears in feminine clothing, never
in male; that missionaries experience great difficulty in
persuading women to cover themselves; that, while women accept
with facility an examination by male doctors, men cannot force
themselves to accept examination by a woman doctor, etc. (These
and similar points had already been independently brought forward
by Sergi, _Archivio di Psichiatria_, vol. xiii, 1892.)
It cannot be said that Madame Renooz's arguments will all bear
examination, if only on the ground that nakedness by no means
involves absence of modesty, but the point of view which she
expresses is one which usually fails to gain recognition, though
it probably contains an important element of truth. It is quite
true, as Stendhal said, that modesty is very largely taught; from
the earliest years, a girl child is trained to show a modesty
which she quickly begins really to feel. This fact cannot fail to
strike any one who reads the histories of pseudo-hermaphroditic
persons, really males, who have from infancy been brought up in
the belief that they are girls, and who show, and feel, all the
shrinking reticence and blushing modesty of their supposed sex.
But when the error is discovered, and they are restored to their
proper sex, this is quickly changed, and they exhibit all the
boldness of masculinity.
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