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There is considerable variation in the techniques which are utilized by human females and males in connection with their coitus. The choice depends in part upon the custom of the cultural group to which the individuals belong; in part upon their knowledge of and preferences for particular sexual techniques; in part upon their physical and physiologic capacities; and in part upon their age, health, energy, and psychologic state.

Marital intercourse is the one type of sexual activity which is approved by our Anglo-American mores and legal codes. For those males who are married and living with their wives, marital intercourse accounts for most of the sexual outlet; and to them, a successful sexual adjustment means sufficiently frequent and emotionally effective intercourse with their wives. It is, in consequence, inevitable in any study of human sexual behavior that especial attention be given to the nature of marital relationships.

Sociologists and anthropologists generally consider that the family is the basis of human society, and at least some students believe that the sexual attraction between the anthropoid male and female has been fundamental in the development of the human and infra-human family. Supporting data for these opinions are adduced from a study of the anthropoid family (e.g.. Miller 1928, 1931). But whatever the phylogenetic history of the human family, the evidence is clear that the sexual factor contributes materially to its maintenance today. We have already emphasized (Chapter 16) that the success or failure of a marriage usually depends upon a multiplicity of factors, of which the sexual are only a part. Nevertheless, as we have further pointed out, where the sexual adjustments are poor, marriages are maintained with difficulty.

Society is interested in the nature of marital intercourse because it is interested in the maintenance of the family. Society is interested in maintaining the family as a way for men and women to live together in partnerships that may make for more effective functioning than solitary living may allow. Society is interested in maintaining the family as a means of providing homes for children that result from coitus; and in Jewish and many Christian philosophies, this is made a prime end of marriage. Society is also interested in maintaining families as a means of providing a regular sexual outlet for adults, and as a means of controlling promiscuous sexual activity. While these latter interests are not so often formulated in the thinking of our culture, these functions of marriage are more evident in some primitive cultures. Whatever other interests are involved, the sexual factor is one which is of considerable concern to any group that is interested in the maintenance of the family.

Individual variations that occur in the frequencies of marital intercourse are matched and possibly exceeded by variations in the techniques employed in that intercourse. There are differences in the extent and the techniques of the pre-coital play. There are differences in the positions employed in the intercourse. There are differences in the duration of the coital unions. There are differences in the desire for nudity or for clothing during intercourse. There are differences in preferences for light or dark. There are differences in places and circumstances under which the intercourse is had. There are some experimental individuals who may be involved in group activities in connection with their marital intercourse.

There has been an insistence under our English-American codes that the simpler and more direct a sexual relation, the more completely it is confined to genital coitus, and the less the variation which enters into the performance of the act, the more acceptable the relationship is morally. This is the basis of much of our sex law, of a large portion of the sexual mores, and of the lower level’s frequent avoidance of any variety in sexual relations—particularly if those relations are had with marital partner.

On the other hand, the educated portion of the population, especially within more recent generations, includes a good many persons who feel that any sort of activity which contributes to the significance of an emotional relationship between spouses is justified, and that no sort of sexual act is perverse if it so contributes to the marital relationship, even though exactly the same act between two persons who were not spouses might be considered a perversion. Even persons in high church positions have defended this thesis, with restrictions in certain cases that variety is acceptable only when the techniques are not an end in themselves, but a means of increasing the possibility and probability of conception as an outcome of the marriage. In the last two decades, marriage manuals have more or less uniformly emphasized the value of variety in coital techniques, and have probably encouraged an increasing proportion of the population to experiment. It is to be noted, however, that the English-American common law under which our courts still operate, and the specific statutes of our several states, make no distinctions between acts that are “contrary to nature” in marriage, and acts that are “contrary to nature” outside of marriage.

There is, however, a considerable portion of the population, totalling perhaps a half or more of all persons, which is not interested in prolonging a sexual relationship. This is true, for the most part, of the more poorly educated portions of the population, although there are not a few upper level individuals who react similarly. It is a mistake to assume that a sophistication of techniques would be equally significant to all persons. For most of the population, the satisfaction to be secured in orgasm is the goal of the sexual act, and the more quickly that satisfaction is attained, the more effective the performance is judged to be. These attitudes among lower educational levels may depend upon their generally lower imaginative and emotional capacities, but they are probably as dependent upon a sexual philosophy which makes any departure from the direct union of genitalia a perversion.

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