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
Woman is only sexual, man is partly sexual, and this difference reveals
itself in various ways. The parts of the male body by stimulation of
which sexuality is excited are limited in area, and are strongly
localised, whilst in the case of the woman, they are diffused over her
whole body, so that stimulation may take place almost from any part.
When in the second chapter of Part I., I explained that sexuality is
distributed over the whole body in both sexes, I did not mean that,
therefore, the sense organs, through which the definite impulses are
stimulated, were equally distributed. There are, certainly, areas of
greater excitability, even in the case of the woman, but there is not,
as in the man, a sharp division between the sexual areas and the body
generally.
The morphological isolation of the sexual area from the rest of the body
in the case of man, may be taken as symbolical of the relation of sex to
his whole nature. Just as there is a contrast between the sexual and the
sexless parts of a man’s body, so there is a time-change in his
sexuality. The female is always sexual, the male is sexual only
intermittently. The sexual instinct is always active in woman (as to the
apparent exceptions to this sexuality of women, I shall have to speak
later on), whilst in man it is at rest from time to time. And thus it
happens that the sexual impulse of the male is eruptive in character and
so appears stronger. The real difference between the sexes is that in
the male the desire is periodical, in the female continuous.
This exclusive and persisting sexuality of the female has important
physical and psychical consequences. As the sexuality of the male is an
adjunct to his life, it is possible for him to keep it in the
physiological background, and out of his consciousness. And so a man
can lay aside his sexuality and not have to reckon with it. A woman has
not her sexuality limited to periods of time, nor to localised organs.
And so it happens that a man can know about his sexuality, whilst a
woman is unconscious of it and can in all good faith deny it, because
she is nothing but sexuality, because she is sexuality itself.
It is impossible for women, because they are only sexual, to recognise
their sexuality, because recognition of anything requires duality. With
man it is not only that he is not merely sexual, but anatomically and
physiologically he can “detach” himself from it. That is why he has the
power to enter into whatever sexual relations he desires; if he likes he
can limit or increase such relations; he can refuse or assent to them.
He can play the part of a Don Juan or a monk. He can assume which he
will. To put it bluntly, man possesses sexual organs; her sexual organs
possess woman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account