Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. 1, Sexual inversion / by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds / by Havelock Ellis.
- Havelock Ellis
- Date:
- 1897
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Studies in the psychology of sex. Vol. 1, Sexual inversion / by Havelock Ellis and John Addington Symonds / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![almost all, the cases of congenital male inverts (excluding psychosexual hermaphrodites) that I know, there has been a remarkable sensitiveness and delicacy of sentiment, sympathy, and an intuitive habit of mind, such as we generally associate with the feminine sex, even though the body might be quite masculine in its form and habit. And a distinguished invert said to Moll, We are all women ; that we do not deny.1 In inverted women a certain subtle masculinity or boyishness is equally prevalent, and it is not found in the woman to whom they are attracted. Kven in inversion the imperative need for a certain sexual opposition—the longing for something which the lover himself does not possess—still rules in furl force. It expresses itself some- times in an attraction between persons of different race and colour. I am told that in American prisons for women Lesbian relationships are specially frequent be- 1 The majority [of inverts], wrote Symomls. differ in no detail of their outward appearance, their physique, or their dress, from normal men. They are athletic, masculine in hahit. frank in manner, passing through society year after year without arousing a suspicion of their inner temperament ; were it not so society would long ago have had its eyes opened to the amount of perverted sexuality it harbours . These lines were written, not in opposition to the somewhat subtle distinctions pointed out above, but in refutation of the vulgar error which confuses the typical invert with the painted and petticoated creatures who appear in police courts from time to time, and whose portraits are presented by Lombroso, Legludic. and others. On another occasion Symonds wrote, while expres- sing general agreement with the idea of a pseudo-sexual attraction : The liaison is by no means always sought and begun by the person who is abnormally constituted. I mean that I can cite cases of decided males who have made up to inverts, and have found their happiness in the reciprocated passion. One pronounced male of this sort (a Venetian) said to me, 1 men are so much more affectionate than women.' [Precisely the same words were used by one of my subjects ] Also, the liaison springs up now and then quite accidentally through juxtaposition, when it is difficult to say whether either at the outset had an inverted tendency of any marked quality. In these cases the sexual relation seems to come on as a heightening of comradely affection, and is found to be pleasurable— some- times, I think, discovered to be safe as well as satisfying. On the other hand, so far as I know, it is extremely rare to observe a permanent liaison between two pronounced inverts.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2041996x_0142.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
