Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in PregnancyEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5: Erotic Symbolism; The Mechanism of Detumescence; The Psychic State in Pregnancy
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
Hypertrichosis universalis, a general hairiness of body, has been
described by Cascella in a woman with very strong sexual desires,
who eventually became insane. (_Revista Mensile di Psichiatria_,
1903, p. 408.) Bucknill and Tuke give the case of a religiously
minded girl, with very strong and repressed sexual desires, who
became insane; the only abnormal feature in her physical
development was the marked growth of hair over the body.
Brantôme refers to a great lady known to him whose body was very
hairy, and quotes a saying to the effect that hairy people are
either rich or wanton; the lady in question, he adds, was both.
(Brantôme, _Vie des Dames Galantes_, Discours II.)
De Sade, whose writings are now regarded as a treasure house of
true observations in the domain of sexual psychology, makes the
Rodin of _Justine_ dark, with much hair and thick eyebrows, while
his very sexual sister is described as dark, thin and very hairy.
(Dühren, _Der Marquis de Sade_, third edition, p. 440.)
A correspondent who has always taken a special interest in the
condition as regards hairiness of the women to whom he has been
attracted, has sent me notes concerning a series of 12 women. It
may be gathered from these notes that 5 women were neither
markedly sexual nor markedly hairy (either as regards head or
pubes), 6 cases both hairy and sexual, 1 was sexual and not
hairy, none were hairy and not sexual. My correspondent remarks:
"There may be women with scanty pubic hair possessing very strong
sexual emotions. My own experience is quite the opposite." He has
also independently reached the conclusion, arrived at by many
medical observers and clearly suggested by some of the facts here
brought together, that profuse hair frequently denotes a neurotic
temperament.
It may be added that Mirabeau, as we learn from an anecdote told
by an eyewitness and recorded by Legouvé, had a very hairy chest,
while the same is recorded of Restif de la Bretonne.
It is a very ancient and popular belief that if a hairy man is not sensual
he is strong: _vir pilosus aut libidinosus aut fortis_. The Greeks
insisted on the hairy nates of Hercules, and Ninon de l'Enclos, when the
great Condé shared her bed without touching her, remarked, on seeing his
hairy body: "Ah, Monseigneur, que vous devez être fort!" It may be doubted
whether there is any exact parallelism between muscular strength and
hairiness, for strength is largely a matter of training, but there can be
no doubt that hairiness really tends to be associated with a generally
vigorous development of the body.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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