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

THE ART OF LOVEother. The woman has acquired habits and fallen intoroutines; her whole nervous system has been molded andhardened. Even on the physical side of sex, the organs areby no means always so ready to respond normally to theexercise of their natural functions. The difficulties of lateprimiparity are paralleled by those of the late initiationof coitus. It is a mistake to suppose that early adolescenceis an unfavorable age for coitus and involves a kind ofviolation; on the contrary, all the evidence goes to showthat the young adolescent girl is more apt for the initiationof coitus than the adult woman. The reasons for thedelay in initiating coitus are not based on natural factsbut on our civilized traditions. It is quite true that Naturehas aimed through the course of zoological evolution atthe delay of maturity, but that end iseffected by makingpuberty late, and in the human species pubertyisverylate. The demands of civilization make it desirable thatwe should postpone the relationships between the sexesto a still later period, but in so doingit is inevitable thatwe should lay up for ourselves many troubles which onlyart can redress.It is thus certainly true that we cannot regulate thesexual life of man without considering that of woman.true that if we wish to un-But it is yet more emphaticallyderstand the psychological life of the woman on the sexside we must keep one eye on the man.There are several reasons whyit is essential to understandthat the sex life of woman islargely conditioned bythe sex life of man. They have already been touched onbut we need to recall them when considering the significancein sex psychology of the art of love. In the first placewhile it has been argued and even with a measure oftruththat in this matter the woman dominates and thatthe man ismerely a plaything in her hands, that is not[335]