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

THE BIOLOGY OF SEXsensitive to estheticsupposed to have made him especiallybeauty, is yet able to find beauty among even the womenof savage races, indicates that, whatever modifying influencesmay have to be admitted, beauty is to a largeextent an objective matter. This is confirmed by the factthat the men of the lower races sometimes admire Europeanwomen more than women of their own race.It isprobably a significant fact, indeed, that we mayfind a similar element throughout the whole animatedworld. The things that to man are most beautiful throughoutNature are those that are intimately associated with,or dependent upon, the sexual processand the sexual instinct.This is the case in the plant world. It is so throughoutmost of the animal world, and, as Poulton, in referringto this often unexplained and indeed unnoticed fact,remarks, "the song or plume which excites the matingimpulse in the hen is also in a high proportion of casesmost pleasing to man himself."In the constitution of our ideals of masculine and femininebeauty it was inevitable that the sexual charactersshould from an early period in the history of Man forman important element. From a primitive point of viewa sexually desirable and attractive woman is one whosesexual characters are either naturally prominent or artificiallyrendered so; that is to say, she is the womanobviously best fitted to bear children and to suckle them.Similarly, masculine beauty for a woman embodies thequalities best fitted for an effective mate and protector.To a certain extent the primary sexual characters are thusobjects of admiration among savage peoples. In the primitivedances of many peoples, often of sexual significance,the display of the sexual organs on the part of both menand women is sometimes a prominent feature. Even downto medieval times in Europe the garments of men some-[65]