Both polygamous and polyandric nations and civilisations have gradually
receded as far as numerical importance and world prestige go and both
institutions are bound to disappear.
The development of the human ego, both in men and women, will not
permit much longer of the enslavement of one sex to gratify the
pleasures of the other. Nor can any group, male or female, enforce its
domination over individuals of the opposite sex and make them accept
the dogma of an inferior sex by embodying that dogma in any religious
creed of the mormon or mohammedan type.
=Infidelity.= Plural love is passing but infidelity has taken its
place in every possible respect as a sexual and an egotistical form of
gratification.
When dealing with infidelity we must establish a careful distinction
between forms of infidelity due to "normal" causes and other forms
due to unconscious complexes. On the other hand we should beware of
admitting, as many unscientific writers do, that there is a distinct
difference of attitude to infidelity in the two sexes.
That shortsighted viewpoint has been unfortunately voiced in hundreds
of popular sayings which represent man as the great examplary of
infidelity and woman as faithfulness incarnate.
Economic conditions, not sexual differences, are at the bottom of the
levity with which men treat their heart affairs and of the gravity with
which women, officially at least, consider the marriage relationship.
Financial dependence and the fear of motherhood compel the
domesticated, parasitic type of woman to secure the services of a
breadwinner, and after achieving that object, to avoid hurting his
susceptibilities.
Independent and professional women, especially the sterile or
sterilised ones, are frankly "masculine" in their love habits.
But I insist on considering certain forms of infidelity as normal and
others as abnormal, independently from the question as to whether they
are socially desirable or undesirable.
The human type which is so perfectly normal that it has no fixation
and no definite fetishes, except species fetishes, and which weaklings
and puritans designate as "animal," is not likely to be faithful to any
mate. Like every strong and healthy animal at rutting time, he or she
is sexually aroused by every individual of the opposite sex. No safety
complex restrains him as far as sexuality is concerned. The only fears
which restrain his search for gratification are fear of exposure and
ostracism within his herd, fear of pregnancy or infection and fear of
final complications, not to mention of course the fear of inflicting
suffering upon a lifemate of whom he may be extremely fond.
For we must never forget the fact, unpleasant as it may appear to
unscientific hypocrites, that lasting love is a matter of fixation and
fetishism, hence, always slightly tainted with neurosis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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