FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305  
306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   >>   >|  
boy's. She does not carry an umbrella or sunshade, and walks out alone, refusing the company of men; or she is accompanied by a woman, as she prefers, offering her arm and carrying the other hand at her waist, with the air of a fine gentleman. In a carriage her bearing is peculiar and unlike that habitual with women. Seated in the middle of the double seat, her knees being crossed or else the legs well separated, with a virile air and careless easy movements she turns her head in every direction, finding an acquaintance here and there with her eye, saluting men and women with a large gesture of the hand as a business man would. In conversation her pose is similar; she gesticulates much, is vivacious in speech, with much power of mimicry, and while talking she arches the inner angles of her eyebrow, making vertical wrinkles at the center of her forehead. Her laugh is open and explosive and uncovers her white rows of teeth. With men she is on terms of careless equality." ("Inversione congenita dell'istinto sessuale in una donna," _L'Anomalo_, February, 1889.) "The inverted woman," Hirschfeld truly remarks (_Die Homosexualitaet_, p. 158), "is more full of life, of enterprise, of practical energy, more aggressive, more heroic, more apt for adventure, than either the heterosexual woman or the homosexual man." Sometimes, he adds, her mannishness may approach reckless brutality, and her courage becomes rashness. This author observes, however, in another place (p. 272) that, in addition to this group of inverted women with masculine traits there is another group, "not less large," of equally inverted women who are outwardly as thoroughly feminine as are normal women. This is not an observation which I am able to confirm. It appears to me that the great majority of inverted women possess some masculine or boyish traits, even though only as slight as those which may occasionally be revealed by normal women. Extreme femininity, in my observation, is much more likely to be found in bisexual than in homosexual women, just as extreme masculinity is much more likely to be found in bisexual than in homosexual men. While inverted women frequently, though not always, convey an impression of mannishness or boyishness, there are no invariable anatomical characteristics associated with this impressio
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295   296   297   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305  
306   307   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
inverted
 

homosexual

 

normal

 

observation

 

traits

 

mannishness

 
masculine
 
careless
 

bisexual

 
Sometimes

boyishness

 

brutality

 
author
 

observes

 

impression

 

rashness

 

reckless

 

courage

 
approach
 
heterosexual

characteristics

 

Homosexualitaet

 
impressio
 
remarks
 

enterprise

 

practical

 

adventure

 
anatomical
 

convey

 

energy


aggressive

 

heroic

 

invariable

 

frequently

 
majority
 

possess

 
appears
 

confirm

 
boyish
 

slight


occasionally

 

Extreme

 

femininity

 
masculinity
 

extreme

 

revealed

 

addition

 

feminine

 

outwardly

 
equally