Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In ManEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In Man
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
While we have these various and to some extent conflicting elements in a
man's ideal of feminine beauty, the question is still further complicated
by the fact that sexual selection in the human species is not merely the
choice of the woman by the man, but also the choice of the man by the
woman. And when we come to consider this we find that the standard is
altogether different, that many of the elements of beauty as it exists in
woman for man have here fallen away altogether, while a new and
preponderant element has to be recognized in the shape of a regard for
strength and vigor. This, as I have pointed out, is not a purely visual
character, but a tactile pressure character translated into visual terms.
When we have stated the sexual ideal we have not yet, however, by any
means stated the complete problem of human sexual selection. The ideal
that is desired and sought is, in a large measure, not the outcome of
experience; it is not even necessarily the expression of the individual's
temperament and idiosyncrasy. It may be largely the result of fortuitous
circumstances, of slight chance attractions in childhood, of accepted
traditions consecrated by romance. In the actual contacts of life the
individual may find that his sexual impulse is stirred by sensory stimuli
which are other than those of the ideal he had cherished and may even be
the reverse of them.
Beyond this, also, we have reason for believing that factors of a still
more fundamentally biological character, to some extent deeper even than
all these psychic elements, enter into the problem of sexual selection.
Certain individuals, apart altogether from the question of whether they
are either ideally or practically the most fit mates, display a greater
energy and achieve a greater success than others in securing partners.
These individuals possess a greater constitutional vigor, physical or
mental, which conduces to their success in practical affairs generally,
and probably also heightens their specifically philogamic activities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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