Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in WomenEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
In the same way it is a mistake to suppose that the very feminine
woman is not capable of sadistic tendencies. Even if we take into
account the primitive animal conditions of combat, the male must
suffer as well as inflict pain, and the female must not only
experience subjection to the male, but also share in the emotions
of her partner's victory over his rivals. As bearing on these
points, I may quote the following remarks written by a lady: "It
is said that, the weaker and more feminine a woman is, the
greater the subjection she likes. I don't think it has anything
at all to do with the general character, but depends entirely on
whether the feeling of constraint and helplessness affects her
sexually. In men I have several times noticed that those who were
most desirous of subjection to the women they loved had, in
ordinary life, very strong and determined characters. I know of
others, too, who with very weak characters are very imperious
toward the women they care for. Among women I have often been
surprised to see how a strong, determined woman will give way to
a man she loves, and how tenacious of her own will may be some
fragile, clinging creature who in daily life seems quite unable
to act on her own responsibility. A certain amount of passivity,
a desire to have their emotions worked on, seems to me, so far as
my small experience goes, very common among ordinary, presumably
normal men. A good deal of stress is laid on femininity as an
attraction in a woman, and this may be so to very strong natures,
but, so far as I have seen, the women who obtain extraordinary
empire over men are those with a certain _virility_ in their
character and passions. If with this virility they combine a
fragility or childishness of appearance which appeals to a man in
another way at the same time, they appear to be irresistible."
I have noted some of the feminine traits in De Sade's temperament
and appearance. The same may often be noted in sadists whose
crimes were very much more serious and brutal than those of De
Sade. A man who stabbed women in the streets at St. Louis was a
waiter with a high-pitched, effeminate voice and boyish
appearance. Reidel, the sadistic murderer, was timid, modest, and
delicate; he was too shy to urinate in the presence of other
people. A sadistic zoöphilist, described by A. Marie, who
attempted to strangle a woman fellow-worker, had always been very
timid, blushed with much facility, could not look even children
in the eyes, or urinate in the presence of another person, or
make sexual advances to women.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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