Mar 11
Are women more submissive (in all ways, including sexuality), are they more dependent, are they more likely to ‘cling’, are they more likely to ask for help when facing a problem, than men? Do women require more social approval, do they prefer to work with others, rather than working independently, than do men? Do women [...] [...more]
Posted: under Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction.
Are women more submissive (in all ways, including sexuality), are they more dependent, are they more likely to ‘cling’, are they more likely to ask for help when facing a problem, than men? Do women require more social approval, do they prefer to work with others, rather than working independently, than do men? Do women withdraw from attacks (rather than counter-attacking) more often than men? In a word, are women more passive than men? Helene Deutsch, whose book The Psychology of Women has had a considerable influence on people’s attitudes to women, believes that they are. In 1944 she wrote, ‘The theory I have long supported -according to which femininity is largely associated with passivity and masochism – has been confirmed in the course of years by clinical experience … I venture to say that the fundamental identities “feminine passive” and “masculine active” assert themselves in all known authorities and races.’ Many people would still agree with her.
It is of considerable importance to both men and women to know the truth of this assertion. The evidence is that if women are passive it is because of learned behaviour, judged by society as appropriate for females, rather than due to any innate psychological feminine characteristic. In studies of infants, pre-school children, and schoolchildren, no more passivity has been found in girls than in boys, except in one area. This is that small boys engage in more rough-and-tumble play than do small girls.
It is also true that boys are more aggressive then are girls. By aggression I mean the desire of a person to frighten or to hurt another person, either for its own sake or to control and dominate others. Aggression can take several forms, some of which are not generally perceived as being aggression. Direct aggression, by hostile attacks on others, is obvious. Indirect aggression is less obvious and far more insidious and sophisticated. In this type of aggression the person gets what he or she wants by subtle means -by flattery or bribery or by deception.
Scientists who study animal behaviour have established that aggressive behaviour characterizes males rather than females in most species of mammals. In small mammals, such as rats and mice, and in sheep, the aggressive behaviour is dependent upon the effects of the male sex hormone, testosterone, imprinting on the brain cells, in the period before and just after birth, a receptiveness to specific behaviour. If a newborn male mouse or rat is castrated on the day of birth, its aggressive behaviour, when adult, is markedly reduced, but such behaviour can be restored by injections of testosterone. However, extra injections given to an uncastrated adult male rat do not increase its aggression. This implies that, in rats, testosterone given in the critical period before and just after birth imprints on brain cells a responsiveness to a pattern of behaviour and facilitates its expression in later life; but when given later after birth, the hormone does not increase aggressive behaviour.
Similar findings were obtained from studies on rhesus monkeys. Such studies are important, as monkeys and man are much closer in the evolutionary ladder. In one experiment, female rhesus foetuses were given injections of testosterone. After birth, their behaviour was indistinguishable from that of normal male monkeys, who are more active and play more mock threatening, chasing, and rough-and-tumble games than female young monkeys. In another experiment, male monkeys castrated at birth continued to show male patterns of behaviour in childhood, although they produced very little male sex hormone. These experiments suggest that, in monkeys, pre-natal brain hormonal conditioning is crucial to sex-linked behaviour in the animal’s childhood.
It would be unethical to conduct such experiments on humans, so that the relative importance of pre-natal brain imprinting is difficult to determine. By chance, an opportunity to unravel to what degree the sexual differences in behaviour in humans are due to pre-natal hormones occurred in a rather unfortunate way.
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Mar 11
Studies of adolescent sexual behaviour are limited. The best organized studies have been made in the U.S.A., in Britain, and in Scandinavian nations. As might be expected, there are considerable variations between nations, between the two sexes, between individuals in each sex, and between boys and girls in different socio-economic groups. ‘Sex’ or ‘wet dreams’ [...] [...more]
Posted: under Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction.
Studies of adolescent sexual behaviour are limited. The best organized studies have been made in the U.S.A., in Britain, and in Scandinavian nations. As might be expected, there are considerable variations between nations, between the two sexes, between individuals in each sex, and between boys and girls in different socio-economic groups.
‘Sex’ or ‘wet dreams’
One of the early sexual manifestations of male sexual puberty occurs in dreaming. The teenager dreams of some erotic fantasy, and ejaculates in his sleep. Sex dreams are independent of sexual experience, but may be related to the surge of testosterone which accompanies puberty. (Girls are less likely to experience sex dreams, and orgasm, until they have had an actual sexual experience.) ‘Wet dreams’ may be related to the supposed greater way in which erotic visual stimuli affect men. When a man fantasizes about a sexual experience, after seeing an erotic picture or a film, he is more likely to take the erotic woman in his imagination and to fantasize sexual intercourse. A woman in her sexual fantasy is more likely to want to belong to the sexually attractive man in the picture or film.
Wet dreams are normal; they occur most frequently in adolescence and less frequently as alternative sexual outlets become socially acceptable and possible. Masturbation is the earliest, the most normal, and the most universal outlet.
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Mar 11
A year or so later, about the age of 15, hair appears in his armpits and some frizzy hair starts tentatively on his upper lip. By now, too, his larynx, or voice-box, has increased in size owing to the circulating testosterone, and his vocal cords have lengthened. These changes deepen the boy’s voice, but for [...] [...more]
Posted: under Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction.
A year or so later, about the age of 15, hair appears in his armpits and some frizzy hair starts tentatively on his upper lip. By now, too, his larynx, or voice-box, has increased in size owing to the circulating testosterone, and his vocal cords have lengthened. These changes deepen the boy’s voice, but for a year or so he may have difficulty in controlling the lower register, so his voice may suddenly jump from deep tones to a high squeak.
Testosterone also has the effect (probably in association with growth hormone) of increasing the muscle mass of boys. This affects the boy’s shoulders, upper arms, and legs, particularly, so that boys become stronger than girls, and their shoulders broader.
Not all the effects of testosterone are so beneficial. The hormone acts on the sebaceous glands in the skin, leading to acne which disfigures the face and neck of many adolescent boys, causing embarrassment and dismay, and making many concerned about their attractiveness to girls.
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Mar 11
Why women perpetuate their sense of subordination is not an easy question to answer. Anthropologists have found that many repressed minority groups tend to adopt the attitudes of the stronger dominant group towards themselves. Women may do the same by accepting the submissive stereotype, and by this device are able to escape some of the [...] [...more]
Posted: under Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction.
Why women perpetuate their sense of subordination is not an easy question to answer. Anthropologists have found that many repressed minority groups tend to adopt the attitudes of the stronger dominant group towards themselves. Women may do the same by accepting the submissive stereotype, and by this device are able to escape some of the anxiety which arises if they feel themselves to be oppressed. It is easier to accept the status quo than to rebel against it, particularly if you rationalize that because of your sex you can never achieve as well as a man, but you are better at nurturant activities, and have an important role to play in caring for children and looking after your husband.
In our society, it is better to be a man if you are a person who wants status or achievement. But in other ways, it is a disadvantage to be a man. A man has a higher risk of dying prematurely. He is more likely to develop heart disease, he is more likely to become a victim of many diseases of civilization, as I describe in later chapters in this book.
While you cannot change your gender-identity, the differences between male and female gender-roles can be diminished.
There are those who fear that any reduction in the differences between how the sexes look and behave and what they do in sexual encounters, in work, or in play, will lead to a destruction of the fabric of society. This is a false fear: equality of opportunity for women in all spheres of activity will not reduce the gender-identity of women, but rather will permit women to develop as freer human beings. The reduction in a man’s competitiveness and aggression and the social permission for him to show emotion and affection will not reduce his male gender-identity but will enable him to relate more freely and equally with other human beings, irrespective of their sex.
If the stereotypical sex differences are reduced, it will not mean social chaos. That is more likely to occur if the more conservative elements in society try to prevent the increasing questioning about sexual roles, values, and behaviours which are currently conventional. In this period of rapid and unpredictable social and technological change, only societies which are sufficiently flexible to tolerate experimentation and to allow a variety of different sexual responses will survive.
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Mar 11
Theory 1 There are three main theories, none of which escapes criticism. Freud and his followers believe that the child’s gender-identity develops through various stages, all of which are characterized by the child’s desire for immediate pleasure and its other desire to avoid pain. Very small babies obtain pleasure, as well as obtaining food, from [...] [...more]
Posted: under Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction.
Theory 1
There are three main theories, none of which escapes criticism. Freud and his followers believe that the child’s gender-identity develops through various stages, all of which are characterized by the child’s desire for immediate pleasure and its other desire to avoid pain.
Very small babies obtain pleasure, as well as obtaining food, from sucking. This is the oral stage of sexual development. It is followed by a second stage. Now the small baby gets pleasure from being able to open its bowels or to prevent itself from defecating. This is the anal stage; in it the child has learnt to say Yes or No! It has learnt to give or to withhold.
Freudians believe that these two stages occupy the first two years of a child’s life. It then enters the phallic stage. It becomes aware of its genitals and of the pleasure it can obtain from manipulating them. It also becomes curious about objects around it and wants to put its finger in things. Freudians believe that in this phallic stage a child develops an erotic attachment to the parent of the opposite sex and a feeling of rivalry, perhaps of aggression, to the parent of the same sex. But the child has a problem.
For example, if the child is a boy, Freudians believe that he ‘instinctively’ wants to possess his mother sexually and at the same time feels aggressive to his father, who already possesses her and whom he sees as a rival. This puts the boy in an emotional dilemma. In the first place, he does not have the capacity (or the knowledge) to possess his mother. In the second place, although he is aggressively jealous of his father, he also loves (and fears) him. The two conflicting emotions produce guilt. He believes he deserves to be punished, and this punishment will involve him having his penis hurt, or cut off. If he has noticed that girls have no penises, his fear is confirmed – they are mutilated boys!
To resolve his guilt and escape his fear of genital damage, he gives up his erotic desire for his mother and imitates his father, so that he may obtain his love and, some day, his father’s prerogatives. Once the child has resolved his dilemma and identified with his father he has begun to develop a male-identity and has started to establish his gender-identity.
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