Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of SexThomas, William Isaac
Science
Sex and Society: Studies in the Social Psychology of Sex
Thomas, William Isaac
Sex; Women -- Social and moral questions; Women -- Social conditions
There are also certain conditions in the development of the individual
and of society where the sexual type of reaction is so near the
surface that it shows through in connection with political, moral, and
other essentially non-sexual activities. Passing over the fact that
the period of adolescence is noticeably a period of "susceptibility"
and personal vanity, we may take as an example of the intrusion or
persistence of the sexual element in conditions of a non-sexual kind
the frequent association of sexual with religious excitement.[164]
The appeal made during a religious revival to an unconverted person
has psychologically some resemblance to the attempt of the male to
overcome the hesitancy of the female. In each case the will has to be
set aside, and strong suggestive means are used; and in both cases the
appeal is not of the conflict type, but of an intimate, sympathetic,
and pleading kind. In the effort to make a moral adjustment, it
consequently turns out that a technique is used which was derived
originally from sexual life, and the use, so to speak, of the sexual
machinery for a moral adjustment involves, in some cases, the carrying
over into the general process of some sexual manifestations. The
emotional forms used and the emotional states aroused are not entirely
stripped of their sexual content.
On the race side, also, there is a stage in development where the
sexual pattern is transferred almost unmodified to public affairs. The
following extracts from a lengthy description given by Mr. Bowdich
of his reception by the king of Ashanti, in the year 1817, will
illustrate sufficiently the employment of the turkey-cock pattern of
activity in political relations:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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