THE SEXUAL LIFE OF A WOMAN

Bythe sexual life of woman we understand the reciprocal action between the physiological functions and pathological states of the female genital organs on the one hand and the entire female organism in its physical and mental relations on the other; and the object of this book is to give a complete account of their influence exercised by the reproductive organs, during the time of their development, their maturity, and their involution, on the life history of woman.

The sexual life, based upon the purpose, so important to every creature, of the propagation of the species, possess in the female sex a vital significance enormously greater than sexual activity possesses in the male. From the very beginning of sexuality, when the idea of a bisexual differentiation dawns for the first time in the brain of the little girl, down to the sexual death of the withered matron, who laments the loss of her sexual potency, physical and mental activity, work and thought, function and sensation, arise for the most part, wittingly or unwittingly, from that germinal energy which is the manifestation of the unalterable law that the existing organism endeavors to reproduce its kind.

Sex and Civilization With the progress of civilization the sexual life of woman comes to exhibit its activities only within the bounds of morality and law, which in human society have replaced the crude rule of nature, and have supplied regulations adapted to the changing phases of sexual vital manifestations. The wise adaptation of these regulations requires, however, a full understanding of the mental and physical processes, an exact recognition of the bodily states and intellectual sensibilities of woman regarded as a sexual being.

Sex and Feminine Beauty Related to the sexual life of woman is another attribute, one intimately connected with the idea of the female sex, and one which since the primeval days of humanity has filled men with delight and poets with inspiration -- the attribute of beauty. The beauty of woman, a prominent sexual character, makes its first appearance at puberty...Feminine beauty continues to increase until the attainment of sexual maturity. In her third decade woman arrives at the acme of her sexual life and at the same time attains the perfection of her beauty...With the cessation of the sexual life the external secondary sexual characters disappear, and the old woman is even farther removed than the old man from our conception of beauty.

Kisch, E. Heinrich, M.D. The Sexual Life of Woman in its Physiological and Hygienic Aspect. New York: Allied Book Company, 1928.

Desire The sexual desire can be subdivided into two separate subdivisions according to the physiological procedure: 1. The ejaculation -- desire. 2. The embrace -- desire. The former is the physical necessity, (desire) of emptying certain fluids especially secreted for the purpose, and the latter is the sympathetic desire to come within closest contact; to fondle and embrace the other sex.

Nystrom, Anton. The Natural Laws of Sexual Life: Medical-Sociological Researches. Kansas City: The Burton Company, 1906.

Woman is love's umpire. Hence, if she wants to be made love to, the man who has a right to should make it. If she wishes to caress and be caressed, he should help, not hinder her. She is the more loving; then should not man pattern after her and follow suit? A normally-sexed woman loves to be loved and caressed by him who has her heart, and "that before folks," except that custom frowns thereon. Women, tell the world in general, and your own husbands in special, just how you desire them to comport themselves towards you.

Itis manly for a man to love his wife. He was created a man expressly for this. Then is it not as manly to express this love, and equally feminine in her both to tenderly love her husband and manifest her outgushing tenderness? Is love loathsome, that is must be stifled? It is the purest of emotions. Only when it is perverted is it indelicate. And if husbands and wives would but manifest more love in purity, they would experience far less of its animal aspect.

Conjugal duties are more obligatory than pecuniary, benevolent, neighborly, or filial. As those who solemnly promise to pay promptly for goods delivers are bound faithfully to fulfil, so when woman has delivered her whole being to a man, under his solemn promises, implied and expressed in secret and public, that he will repay her in and by bestowing his own on her, does not every human obligation demand his fulfillment of his vow to "love and cherish her till parted by death?" What human duties are as strong or lasting? Does a monetary protest disgrace you as tithe as much as woman's love protest?

True, your creditor requires his pay much; but your wife needs her heart-pay most. He would be injured, perhaps made a bankrupt, by your non-payment; but will not your non-payment to her render her a love-bankrupt for life? He might recover, she never can. Your love renders her a thousand fold happier, and is more necessary to her whole future life, than your dollars to him. IT is her all. When it perishes, all perishes. Or, is she survives, her life is only automatic. What infinite damage your non-payment of this heart-debt does her!

Besides, law, "society" and the very nature of love, prevent her getting its adequate supply except from you. It is as much a part of her soul-being as her heart is of her body, and this want is as imperious.

Allen, Monfort B. and Amelia C. McGregor. The Glory of Woman or Love, Marriage and Maternity. Philadelphia: Elliot Publishing Co., 1896.

Last Updated: 6/27/22