<< Promiscuity >>
Among all peoples, everywhere in the world, it is understood that the male is more likely than the female to desire sexual relations with a variety of partners. It is pointed out that the female has a greater capacity for being faithful to a single partner, that she is more likely to consider that she has a greater responsibility than the male has in maintaining a home and in caring for the offspring of any sexual relationship, and that she is generally more inclined to consider the moral implications of her sexual behavior. But it seems probable that these characteristics depend upon the fact that the female is less often aroused, as the average male is aroused, by the idea of promiscuity.
An attempt to analyze the reason for the greater promiscuity of the male suggests that it depends upon a variety of psychologic capacities which are not so often found in the female. Several of these we have already discussed. The male is aroused at observing his potential sexual partner, as most females are not. The male is aroused because he has been conditioned by his previous experience, as most females have not. The male is aroused by anticipating new types of experience, new types of sexual partners, new levels of satisfaction that may be attained in the new relationships, new opportunities to experiment with new techniques, new opportunities to secure higher levels of satisfaction than he has ever before attained. In both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, promiscuity may depend, in many instances, upon the male’s anticipation of variation in the genital anatomy of the partner, in the techniques which may be used during the contacts, and in the physical responses of the new partner. None of these factors have such significance for the average female.
Male promiscuity often depends upon the satisfactions that may be secured from the pursuit and successful attainment of a new partner. There are some heterosexual males, and a larger proportion of the homosexual males, who may limit themselves to a single contact with any single partner. Once having demonstrated their capacities to effect sexual relations with the particular individual, they prefer to turn to the pursuit of the next partner.
The male’s greater inclination to be promiscuous shows up in the record of his petting experience, his experience in pre-marital coitus, in extra-marital coitus, and in homosexual relations. In all of these types of relationships, few females have anywhere near the number of partners that many a promiscuous male may have. The specific data are as follows:
|
Number of Partners |
|
Number of Partners | Pre-marital Petting |
Pre-marital Coitus |
Homosexual Contacts |
| Female |
Male | Female |
Male |
Female | Male |
| Percent |
Percent |
Percent |
| 1 |
10 | 6 |
53 |
27 | 51 |
35 |
| 2-5 |
32 | 20 |
34 |
33 | 38 |
35 |
| 6-10 |
23 | 16 |
7 |
17 | 7 |
8 |
| 11-20 |
16 | 21 |
4 |
11 | 3 |
6 |
| 21-30 |
8 | 10 |
1 |
4 | – |
2 |
| 31-50 |
6 | 11 |
– |
3 | – |
3 |
| 51-100 |
4 | 8 |
– |
4 | |
3 |
| 101 + |
1 |
8 | – |
1 | |
8 |
|
Number of cases | 2415 |
1237 |
1220 |
906 |
591 |
1402 |
It has sometimes been suggested that the male’s capacity to be erotically aroused by any female, and even by a physically, mentally, and aesthetically unattractive, lower level prostitute, is a demonstration of the fact that he is not as dependent as females are upon psychologic factors for the achievement of satisfactory sexual relationships. On the contrary, the capacity of many males to respond to any type of female is actually a demonstration of the fact that psychologic conditioning, rather than the physical or the psychologic stimuli that are immediately present, is a chief source of his erotic response. As far as his psychologic responses are concerned, the male in many instances may not be having coitus with the immediate sexual partner, but with all of the other girls with whom he has ever had coitus, and with the entire genus Female with which he would like to have coitus.
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