ity.=--What is the
origin of the fact that man is ashamed of his genital organs? Nothing
of the kind occurs in animals. The psychologist, Wundt, maintains that
man has always had a sexual sentiment of modesty. This is not correct,
for many races present no trace of it, and sometimes cover all parts
of their body except the genital organs. In some, the men, and in
others the women go absolutely naked. Originally, clothes were only
worn for adornment or for protection against the cold. The Massais
would be ashamed to hide their penis, and it is their custom to
exhibit it. Other savages cover the glans penis only with a small cap;
they retire to pass water, but regard themselves as fully dressed so
long as the glans penis is covered. The girdles and other garments of
savage women are intended for ornament, and as a means of attraction;
they have nothing to do with modesty. In a society where every one
goes naked, nudity seems quite natural, and provokes neither shame nor
eroticism. The custom of adorning the sexual organs then serves as a
means of attraction, both in men and women. The short transparent
skirts of a ballet dancer are in reality much more immodest than the
nudity of the female savages. A great naturalist has said that veiled
forms provoke the sexual appetite more than nudity. Snow remarks that
association with naked savages excites much less sensuality than the
society of fashionably dressed women in our salons. Read also remarks
"Nothing is more moral or less calculated to excite the passions than
nudity." It is needless to say that this statement is only correct
when nudity is a matter of custom, for in sexual matters it is always
novelty which attracts. Pious persons have tried to make savages
modest by clothing them, but have only produced the contrary effect.
Savage women regard it as shameful to cover their sexual organs. The
naturalist, Wallace, found in one tribe a young girl who possessed a
dress, but who was quite as much ashamed of clothing herself with it
as one of our ladies would be of undressing before strangers.

It is only owing to the custom of wearing clothes that nudity provokes
the sexual appetite. This custom develops artificially a sentiment of
modesty with regard to nudity, which increases progressively in
intensity and is especially marked in aged women. It is not so much
habit, as to the feeling of progressive deterioration of their charms,
which leads the latter to cover themselves