The choice of a mate.

  • Ludovici, Anthony M. (Anthony Mario), 1882-1971.
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The choice of a mate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    How, morphologically, can this woman be identified, seeing that, as a rule, before marriage, we cannot know the undue importance she attaches to sexual congress ? The description in the Ratishastram is good. Generally speaking, as I have found, such women have masculine features. In addition, they are too thin for normal females, and according to Balzac—and this is a point I have also found confirmed— their mucous system, particularly of the nose and throat is very sensitive. They easily get catarrh. 1 The impression they give is one of being over-sensitized, a condition almost invariably associated with thinness in women. Above all, their eyes tend to be unusually round in external appearance and not elliptical. The upper lids droop over small spheres to assume the shape of hemispheres—a feature reminiscent of apes and monkeys. Strange to say, this is confirmed in the Ratishastram, where the sage says : “ She whose eyes . . . are circular becomes an immoral woman.” 1 2 Psychological signs are, a truculent manner with men, a tendency to laugh at the dullest joke by a male and to overlook the brightest witticism by a female, a voice slightly strident, and a tendency to logorrhea. 3 Normal passion in a girl, however, is to be desired above all things. It denotes not only health and sanity but is also a potent means of reconciling a woman to those aspects of domesticity which, at the best of times, are monotonous or actually tiresome. But this normal passion is very different from the lust of the Sankhini girl. The girl of normal passion is shy with men. She cannot stare them out as the passionless girl, or the Sankhini girl does. Particularly in the presence of one who attracts her, she cannot be bold, because her passions are too deeply stirred for her to be concerned with anything but the storm in her own breast. 4 She is, therefore, timid with men who attract her. Only when she knows she loves and is loved does she gain confidence and feel able to contemplate her man calmly. 5 Moderate in her 1 P.M., p. 102. 2 R., p. 37. 3 These characters are more or less confirmed by R., or by an earlier translation of it. (Madras, 1905.) See also Gustav Frenssen’s Otto Babendiek for an excellent portrayal of the type in Frau Hellebek. 4 This is confirmed in S.E., p. 146. In A.R. (p. 131), where we are told that when a passionate girl is drawn to a man, “ her face, feet and hands break out into perspiration as soon as she sees him ”, and by Stendhal, who speaks of “ la timidité, preuve de l'amour ” (D.A., p. 13). 5 A.R., p. 130 : “ Une femme aime un homme premièrement lorsqu’elle n’a pas bonté de le regarder,”