SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited by Deborah Madsen):

In this article, Marietta Stow proposes that the immorality of sexual desire is provoked by meat eating and general intemperance. The moral depravity of the contemporary world  is both displayed and fueled by carnist habits of eating. Chastity is rare “in this world of flesh-eaters and wine drinkers” (col. 3). The institution of marriage is required to curb sexual desire and promiscuity, and to prevent women and children from falling into poverty: “So long as the procreative function is prostituted to pleasure, must the ordinance of marriage be the one divine fetter, that holds the homes of the world in equipoise; that keeps women from the gutter and children from the poor house” (col. 3). Stow concedes that marriage is not necessary to sustain a fulfilled romantic relationship but she insists that, until humanity reaches a more developed level of morality, the institution of marriage is necessary. Stow's stance towards "free love" and marriage is thus diametrically opposed to that of activists such as Mary Sargeant Gove Nichols.