Sexual ornamentation

“ It is evident, as might be proved by more numerous and detailed references than it has been possible to adduce above, that precisely such bodily deformations, such systems of distinguishing ornament, and such conspicuous articles of clothing and decoration as are most generally found among both the primitive and the cultivated tribes of mankind have been of especial importance as means of sexual attraction. ”

“ The following morning Finnur was enthroned beside the queen and a magnificent wedding celebrated.
The last quoted portion shows how rich in imagery the fairy-tale sexuality is. Garden and flowers are in general preferred figures in the fairy tales, for representing or concealing, to indicate the human sexual organs. ”

“ Artistic and literary activities may be mentioned as particular forms of sublimation in which the sexual impulses often play a powerful determining rôle. The sexual motive is unquestionably the principal determiner in these important fields. The artistic conception is realized if the interest is turned from the genital zone to the form of the body as a whole ”

“ A noteworthy symbol of the female genital is also the jewel-casket; jewels and treasure are also representatives of the beloved person in the dream; sweets frequently occur as representatives of sexual delights. ”

“ When, in the enormously increased sexual resistance of the present day, women emphasize the secondary signs of sex and their erotic charm by specially designed clothing, that is a phenomenon which belongs in the same general scheme for the heightening of allurement. ”

“ WE have seen that according to a widespread belief, which is not without a foundation in fact, plants reproduce their kinds through the sexual union of male and female elements, and that on the principle of homoeopathic or imitative magic this reproduction is supposed to be stimulated by the real or mock marriage of men and women, who masquerade for the time being as spirits of vegetation. ”

“ To a certain extent—and, as we shall see, to a certain extent only—the primary sexual characters are objects of admiration among primitive peoples. In the primitive dances of many peoples, often of sexual significance, the display of the sexual organs on the part of both men and women is frequently a prominent feature. Even down to mediæval times in Europe the garments of men sometimes permitted the sexual organs to be visible. ”

“ Erotic symbolism is founded on the factor of individual taste in beauty; it arises as a specialized development of that factor, but it is, nevertheless, incorrect to merge it in sexual selection. The attractive characteristics of a beloved woman or man, from the point of view of sexual selection, are a complex but harmonious whole leading up to a desire for the complete possession of the person who displays them. ”

“ Chastity varies inversely as the amount of clothing." It is now indeed generally held that one of the chief primary objects of ornament and clothing was the stimulation of sexual desire, and artists' models are well aware that when they are completely unclothed, they are most safe from undesired masculine advances. ”

“ The Fetich is an Article of Female Attire.—The great importance of adornment, ornament, and dress, in the normal vita sexualis of man, is very generally recognized. Culture and fashion [97] have, to a certain extent, endowed woman with artificial sexual characteristics, the removal of which, when woman is seen unattired, in spite of the normal sensual effect of this sight, may exert an opposite influence. ”

“ These characteristics of one sex that are wanting in the other, and that are not directly connected with the sexual organs—such as the man's beard, the woman's breasts, the lion's mane, or the goat's horns—have also an æsthetic interest; they have, as Darwin showed, been acquired by sexual selection, as weapons of the male in the struggle for the female, and vice versa. ”

“ The more carefully the customs and traditions of these races are studied, the more obvious becomes the non-esthetic and non-erotic origin of their personal "decorations." In my extensive researches, for every single fact that seemed to favor the sexual selection theory I have found a hundred against it ”

“ The assumption that these “animals standing much higher in the scale” owe their weapons to the selective action of the females forms the crux of the whole Sexual Selection theory in regard to the significance of ornament. The evidence that the intensification of pigment and the eccentricities of growth in the shape of crests and frills have a fascinating effect on the female is more than under suspicion; it is discredited by the facts which have come to light in regard to behaviour during the periods of sexual exaltation. ”

“ Among birds (who in erotic development far excel all other animals, not, indeed, excepting the human species, and thus must be accepted as affording the most perfect examples of sexual development) we have seen that the cases are not few in which the female equals, or even exceeds the male in size and in strength. ”

“ It may be added that young men of the lower social classes, at all events in England, when bathing at the seaside in complete nudity, commonly grasp the sexual organs with one hand, for concealment, as they walk up from the sea.
The sexual modesty of the female animal is rooted in the sexual periodicity of the female, and is an involuntary expression of the organic fact that the time for love is not now. ”

“ Among these, in Africa, South America, Australia and so forth, where clothing is at a minimum, the men are always more elaborately ornamented than the women. At the same time it is noticeable that no cases of spinsterhood are found; celibacy, rare as it is, is confined to the male sex. It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that ornament is a stimulus to sexual selection, and this conclusion is enforced by the fact that among many comparatively nude peoples clothing is assumed at certain dances which have as their confessed object the excitation of the passions of the opposite sex. ”

“ Apart from the religions and magical properties so widely accorded to the primary sexual characters, there are other reasons why they should not often have gained or long retained any great importance as objects of sexual allurement. ”

“ In a treatment of the relation between art and sexual life the facts must necessarily be classified under two different headings, namely, the influence of artistic activity upon sexual selection and the importance of erotic motives in works of art. ”

“ The young peasant woman of the central provinces as part of her holiday raiment puts on great woolen stockings which come up to the groin and are then folded over to below the knee. To uncover the feet of a person of the opposite sex is a sexual act, and has thus become the symbol of sexual possession, so that the stocking or foot-gear became the emblem of marriage, as later the ring. ”

“ In fact, the mysteries of sex have always exercised a profound influence upon the primitive mind. The savage's conceptions of the supernatural were largely colored by sexual fancies, which, however, is a peculiarity of all primitive religions. Consequently, sex symbolism is one of the oldest of our social heritages. As far back as we are able to trace, we find evidence of man's worship of the reproductive forces of nature.
Among the more primitive peoples, sexual phenomena were sanctified in their normal forms, literally and undisguised. ”

“ We have further found that this æsthetic human ideal is modified, and very variously modified in different countries and even in the same country at different periods, by a tendency, prompted by a sexual impulse which is not necessarily in harmony with æsthetic cannons, to emphasize, or even to repress, one or other of the prominent secondary sexual characters of the body. ”

“ Whatever the real benefits, and there is no occasion for questioning them, of the sexual order thus established, it becomes clear that in certain important respects it had an unnatural and repressive influence on the erotic aspect of woman’s sexual life. ”

“ It seems probable that a form of erotic symbolism somewhat similar to exhibitionism is to be found in the rare cases in which sexual gratification is derived from throwing ink, acid or other defiling liquids on women's dresses. ”

“ Do you most admire landscapes or figures in painting, etc.? If the latter, do you feel most interested in male or female subjects—especially if they are nudes?
Have you much taste toward sculpture? If so, do you prefer male or female subjects, especially if nude? Does Greek sculpture of the male or female nude especially appeal to you?
Do you find that pictures or sculptures exert a sexual effect on you?—causing secret desires, with any physical signs?
Do you think that the male or the female human figure in general is the more attractive, symmetrical, etc. ”

“ Erotic symbolism is therefore concerned with all that is least generic, least specific, all that is most intimately personal and individual, in sexual selection. It is the final point in which the decreasing circle of sexual attractiveness is fixed. In the widest and most abstract form sexual selection in man is merely human, and we are attracted to that which bears most fully the marks of humanity; in a less abstract form it is sexual, and we are attracted to that which most vigorously presents the secondary sexual characteristics ”

“ And when, at a certain higher state of development, the males begin to practise a selection between rival females, they will undoubtedly be influenced in their choice by the same sort of inherited predilections. And there is no reason why these predilections should be restricted to anatomical qualities—why artificial adornments, perhaps even detached gems, which have only been traditional during some generations, should not influence sexual preferences in the same direct way—that is, without any intervention of an æsthetic judgment, as secondary sexual characters proper influence them. ”

“ CONCLUSION We have now traced the worship of sex, as recorded by the monuments of antiquity, through its various phases. In its simplest form, the generative organs are worshipped without disguise; the sexual act also forms a part of religious ceremonies. Later, a rude symbolism develops. As the race becomes more advanced, this becomes more elaborate, until finally a considerable degree of ingenuity and skill are evidenced. The worship of sex is not only expressed in religious usages, but comes to dominate early art as well ”

“ They give color and beauty and music to the lower orders, and all of these, as well as poetry, romance and idealism, to human life. The gorgeous feathers of the peacock, the majestic mien of the lion, the vocal excellencies of the nightingale, are all the hall-marks of sex in the marvelous handiwork of nature. ”

“ The only way in which we can account for the observed facts is, by the supposition that colour and ornament are strictly correlated with health, vigour, and general fitness to survive. We have shown that there is reason to believe that this is the case, and if so, conscious sexual selection becomes as unnecessary as it would certainly be ineffective. ”

“ It proves to be very questionable, then, how far the idea of beauty is connected with the sexual instinct, though none can doubt that the use of ornaments plays an important rôle in self-exhibition before the opposite sex. It would be hazardous to state, however, that courtship is their only end, since there are terrifying decorations which would not be useful in that capacity unless, indeed, as a means of frightening away rivals, which is hardly probable. ”

“ All that we can say in a general way concerning the complex entanglement of our sentiments and instincts is that, the most deeply rooted characters in human nature are at the same time, phylogenetically speaking, the most ancient.
Among the most profound instincts of sexual life, we find moral and intellectual incongruities. Along with excitement of the sexual appetite in the male by the odor of the female genital organs, or by the sight of erotic pictures, we find the most touching conjugal love, and life-long devotion of one conjoint for the other and for the children. ”

“ But the children only learn the use of the bow, and on reaching maturity have sexual intercourse with sisters, and mothers, and women, wives and courtesans innumerable, practiced in intercourse like the wild boars. ”

“ Erotic symbolism is, however, by no means confined to the individualizing tendency to concentrate amorous attention upon some single characteristic of the adult woman or man who is normally the object of sexual love. ”

“ Sexual love is the passion which unites the sexes. The stimulating impressions produced by health, youth, and beauty, and ornaments and other artificial means of attraction, are all elements of this feeling. The antipathy to sexual intercourse with individuals of another species, and the horror of incest, belong to the same phenomenon. ”

“ While sex expression becomes more specialized in the higher animals, and more refined in human beings, unless debased in the latter by lustful degeneracy, its latent influence is nevertheless always in evidence. For instance, the child through the whole period of life is being prepared gradually by nature for the florescence which takes place at the adolescent stage and which normally culminates in the full sexual development of adulthood. ”

“ Thus we find, among most of the peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the chief continents of the world, that the large hips and buttocks of women are commonly regarded as an important feature of beauty. This secondary sexual character represents the most decided structural deviation of the feminine type from the masculine, a deviation demanded by the reproductive function of women, and in the admiration it arouses sexual selection is thus working in a line with natural selection. ”