Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXness which has been commonly regarded as so frequent inwomen. For it is by the recognition of these characteristicsthat the art of love has been stimulated, and that the elementaryfact becomes clear that throughout the animalworld courtship tends to be an art.Sexual frigidity,it has become recognized, producesdomesticinfelicity, suffering to the wife, and disappointmentto the husband who istempted to seek more congenialrelationships elsewhere. In such cases there is either defectivedesire for sexual union or defective pleasure inunion, and commonly both, and either may callfor theexercise of art in love.In the biological game of sex the female normally playsthe more passive part,and in civilized women this relativepassivity is reinforced not only by Nature but by our conventions.It is true that the doctrine alike of the sexual activityof the male and the sexual passivity of the femaleneeds to be qualified.It is fundamental, and constitutes,as is too often forgotten, the deep foundation for far^reaching psychologicaldifferences between men andwomen. As Douglas Bryan points out, sexual tension inthe two sexes, being opposite and complemental, cannotfail to lead to different feelings and reactions in each sex:the excitablepenis producing impulses of propulsivity,activity, mastery, etc., and the excitable vagina impulsesof receptivity, passive submission, etc. That is to say wehave here the essence of what we call "masculinity," andthe essence of what we call "femininity." But, as DouglasBryan also points out, before this stage is reached, in theearlier phase of courtship,the parts are in some degreereversed; the male must be to some extent submissive, andthe female to some extent active. The sexual centers aremore numerous and more diffused in women, so that theimpulse is more easily dispersed and gratified in remote[33*]