He cried out through the letter of Dr. Markland, that a young mother lacerated by unskillful surgery in the birth of her babe, but recovering from a subsequent successful operation, had been stabbed, remorselessly, cruelly, brutally stabbed, not with a knife, but with the procreative organ of her husband, stabbed to the doors of death, and yet there was no redress! And because he called a spade a spade, because he named that organ by its own name, so given in Webster's dictionary and in every medical journal in the country, because of this Moses Harman walks to and fro in his cell tonight. He gave a concrete example of the effect of sex slavery, and for it he is imprisoned. It remains for us now to carry on the battle, and lift the standard where they struck him down, to scatter broadcast the knowledge of this crime of society against a man and the reason for it; to inquire into this vast system of licensed crime, its cause and its effect, broadly upon the race.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Harman was imprisoned for openly describing a woman's sexual assault by her husband using precise medical language.
- In plain terms
- He went to jail for calling a sexual assault by its true name.
- What can you take from it?
- Speaking truth about sexual violence can lead to imprisonment under current laws.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What defines obscenity in legal terms?
- How should society respond to victims' testimony?
Another view
The quote assumes medical terminology is universally accepted as non-obscene.
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