The male feeling is called sadism, after an infamous nobleman who
wrote on the subject. It is a delight in power, especially in
cruelty, and shows itself in a desire for the subjection of the
female. In its pathological forms it substitutes cruelty for the
sexual relation, and we have thus the horrible Jack the Rippers,
etc. The Freudians go to the extreme of seeing in all love of
power a sadism, but the truth is that the sadistic impulse is the
love of power, cruelly or roughly expressed in sex. The cave man
of the stories is a sadist of a type, and one generally approved
of, at least in theory. A little of sadism is shown in the
delight in pinching and biting so often seen; and the expression
"I'd like to eat you up" has a playful sadism in it.
The opposite of sadism is masochism. This is a delight in being
roughly used, in being the victim of aggression. The typical
female is supposed to rejoice in the power and strength of the
male as exerted on her. The admiration women often give to the
uncouthly strong, their praise of virility, is masochistic in its
origin. The desire of the peasant woman to be beaten as a mark of
man's love is supposed to be masochistic, a pleasure in pain,
which is held to be a primitive female reaction.
Sex psychopathology discloses innumerable cases where extreme
sadism and masochism exist in both sexes; that is, not only males
but females are sadistic, and so not only females but males are
masochistic. Undoubtedly in minor degree both qualities express
themselves in male and female; undoubtedly the male is more
frequently a sadist than is the female. Though the majority of
women may thrill in the strength and power of the lover, there
are relatively few American women who will tolerate real
roughness or cruelty. As a matter of fact the basic feelings in
sex love, aside from the sexual urge itself, are tenderness and
admiration. Naturally men desire to protect, and this becomes
part of their tenderness; they admire and love the beauty of
women and are attracted by the essential (or supposed essential)
feminine qualities. And as naturally women desire to be
protected; this enhances their tenderness, and their admiration
is elicited by the peculiar male characters of strength,
hardihood and aggressiveness, as well as by beauty and human
qualities generally. Though the love of conquest is a part of sex
feeling, it is neither male nor female, but is that feeling of
superiority and power so longed for in all relations. Men like to
conquer the proud, reserved, haughty woman because she piques
them, and women often set out to "win" the reserved "woman hater"
for the same reason. Thus tenderness and sex passion, with sadism
and masochism in lesser degree, are basic in sex feeling, but
other qualities enter so largely that any complete analysis is
almost impossible. The belief, engendered by romance and
teaching, that happiness lies in love, spurs youth on. Admiration
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