n all civilized countries and
ranges from ten years' imprisonment to life imprisonment, while in
some States in this Union the punishment is death.

It is not my intention to go into an exhaustive discussion of this
painful subject. In this brief chapter I merely wish to bring out two
facts.

First, that it is the almost unanimous opinion of all experts that it
is practically impossible for a man to commit rape on a normal adult
girl or woman if she really offers all the resistance of which she is
capable. Of course, if the man knocks the woman down with a blow,
rendering her unconscious, that is a different matter. But where no
brutality is used by the man, and the woman offers all the resistance
she is capable of, rape is practically impossible. It is, however,
possible that in some cases the girl may be so paralyzed by fear as to
be incapable of offering any resistance. When the man threatens her
with death or severe bodily injury, then it is rape even if she offers
no resistance.

The second point is that it has been established that of the many
accusations of rape brought before the courts _most_ are false. Out of
a hundred cases only about ten are true. The rest are false. This
false accusation of rape is due to a peculiar perversion with which
some women suffer. Some of the cases are due to hysteria, to
imagination, the women really believing that rape or an attempt at
rape was committed on them, while investigation shows the accusation
to be entirely false. Many accusations of rape are due to a desire
for revenge or merely to motives of blackmail.

Careful doctors and dentists will refuse to give laughing gas or
another anesthetic to women except in the presence of others, because,
as is well known, an anesthetic often causes in women erotic dreams
and sensations and makes them believe that the doctor was committing
or about to commit an indecent assault on them, and when they come out
of the anesthetic they may be so sure of the reality of their dream
that they will bring a complaint against the doctor. Many men have
suffered disgrace and imprisonment and have had their lives ruined or
even paid the death penalty on account of false accusations against
them by either pervert, hysterical, revengeful or blackmailing women.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

THE SINGLE STANDARD OF SEXUAL MORALITY

Chastity--Double Standard of Morality--Attempt to Abolish Double
Standard--Late Marriages and Chastity in Men--Har