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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXfemale alternately approaches and runs away from themile, or runs away from him in a circle. While modestyisprimarily the gesture of sexual refusal it speedily combineswith other impulses and may finally in man be saidto combine the following constituents: (i) the primitiveanimal gestureof sexual refusal on the part of the female,when she is not at that moment of her generativelife atwhich she desires die male's advances; (2) the fear ofarousing disgust, a fear primarily due to the close proximityof the sexual center to the points of exit of thoseexcretions which are useless and unpleasant, even in manycases to animals; (3) the fear of the magic influence ofsexual phenomena,and the ceremonial and ritual practicesprimarily based on this fear, and ultimately passinginto simple rules of decorum which are signsand guardiansof modesty; (4) the development of ornament andclothing, concomitantly fostering alike the modesty whichwhich seeks*represses male sexual desire and the coquetryto allure it; (5) the conception of women as property,imparting a new and powerful sanction to an emotionalready based on more natural and primitive facts.Thus constituted, modesty is a very powerful motiveeven amongst the lowest savages although the forms itassumes vary widely and it remains powerful also inbarbarism. At no stage of culture does modesty necessarilyinvolve the use of garments. Some savages, who arehabitually almost or completely naked, stillexhibit modesty,while in modern life new customs of completenakedness "nudism/* sun-bathing, the popular GermanNackt-Kultur, etc. leave modesty intact. In civilization,however, itspotency is attenuated. It persists, in part as aritual and in part as a grace, but it no longer has theirresistible force which it usually possesses among thelower races. Still,in any case, modesty remains from first[36]