Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German EditionWeininger, Otto
Philosophy
Sex & Character: Authorised Translation from the Sixth German Edition
Weininger, Otto
Character; Sex; Sex (Psychology); Sexual ethics
The doctrine of the existence of different degrees of masculinity and
femininity may be treated, in the first place, on purely anatomical
lines. Not only the anatomical form, but the anatomical position of
male and female characters must be discussed. The examples already given
of sexual differences in other parts of the body showed that sexuality
is not limited to the genital organs and glands. But where are the
limits to be placed? Do they not reach beyond the primary and secondary
sexual characters? In other words, where does sex display itself, and
where is it without influence?
Many points came to light in the last decade, which bring fresh support
to a theory first put forward in 1840, but which at the time found
little support since it appeared to be in direct opposition to facts
held as established alike by the author of the theory and by his
opponents. The theory in question, first suggested by the zoologist J.
J. S. Steenstrup, of Copenhagen, but since supported by many others, is
that sexual characters are present in every part of the body.
Ellis has collected the results of investigations on almost every tissue
of the body, which serve to show the universal presence of sexual
differences. It is plain that there is a striking difference in the
coloration of the typical male and female. This fact establishes the
existence of sexual differences in the skin (cutis) and in the
blood-vessels, and also in the bulk of the colouring-matter in the blood
and in the number of red corpuscles to the cubic centimetre of the blood
fluid. Bischoff and Rudinger have proved the existence of sexual
differences in brain weight, and more recently Justus and Alice Gaule
have obtained a similar result with regard to such vegetative organs as
the liver, lungs and spleen. In fact, all parts of a woman, although in
different degrees in different zones, have a sexual stimulus for the
male organism, and similarly all parts of the male have their effect on
the female.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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