It remains true, however, that there may usually be traced what it is possible to call pseudosexual attraction, by which I mean a tendency for the invert to be attracted toward persons unlike himself, so that in his sexual relationships there is a certain semblance of sexual opposition. Numa Praetorius considers that in homosexuality the attraction of opposites—the attraction for soldiers and other primitive vigorous types—plays a greater part than among normal lovers.[[201]] This pseudosexual attraction is, however, as Hirschfeld points out,[[202]] and as we see by the Histories here presented, by no means invariable.
M. N. writes: "To me it appears that the female element must, of necessity, exist in the body that desires the male, and that nature keeps her law in the spirit, though she breaks it in the form. The rest is all a matter of individual temperament and environment. The female nature of the invert, hampered though it is by its disguise of flesh, is still able to exert an extraordinary influence, and calls insistently upon the male. This influence seems called into action most violently in the presence of males possessed of strong sexual magnetism of their own. Such men are generally more or less conscious of the influence, and the result is either a vague appreciation, which will make the male wonder why he gets on so well with the invert, or else the influence will be realized to be something incongruous and unnatural, and will be resented accordingly. Sometimes, indeed, the reciprocated feeling (circumstance and opportunity permitting) will prove strong enough to induce sexual relations. Reason will then generally overpower instinct, and the feeling, aroused unaware, will probably be changed into repulsion. Further, the influence reacts in the same way on women, who, particularly if they are strongly sexual, experience involuntary sensations of dislike or antagonism on association with inverts. There is, however, one terrible reality for the invert to face, no matter how much he may wish to avoid it and seek to deceive himself. There exists for him an almost absolute lack of any genuine satisfaction either in the way of the affections or desires. His whole life is passed in vainly seeking and desiring the male, the antithesis of his nature, and in consorting with inverts he must perforce be content with the male in form only, the shadow without the substance. Indeed, one invert necessarily regards another as being of the same undesired female sex as himself, and for this reason it will be found that, while friendships between inverts frequently exist (and these are characteristically feminine, unstable, and liable to betrayal), love-attachments are less common, and when they occur must naturally be based upon considerable self-deception. Venal gratifications are always, of course, as possible as they are unsatisfactory, and here perhaps some of the peculiarities of taste accompanying inversion may admit of elucidation. In considering the peculiar predilection shown by inverts for youths of inferior social position, for the wearers of uniforms, and for extreme physical development and virility not necessarily accompanied by intellectuality, regard must be had to the probable conduct of women placed in a position of complete irresponsibility combined with absolute freedom of action and every opportunity for promiscuity. It seems to me that the importance of recognizing the underlying female element in inversion cannot be too strongly insisted upon."
"The majority" [of inverts], writes "Z," "differ in no detail of their outward appearance, their physique, or their dress from normal men. They are athletic, masculine in habit, 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 harbors." These lines were written, not in opposition to the more 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, etc. On another occasion the same writer remarked, while expressing general agreement with the idea of a pseudosexual 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, again, once said to me, '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—sometimes, 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."
The tendency to pseudosexual attraction in the homosexual would thus seem to involve a preference for normal persons. How far this is the case it seems difficult to state positively. Usually, one may say, an invert falls in love (exactly as in the case of a normal person) without any intellectual calculation as to the temperamental ability to return the affection which the object of his love may possess. Naturally, however, there cannot be any adequate return of the affection in the absence of an actual or latent homosexual disposition. On this point an American correspondent (H. C.), with a wide knowledge of inversion in many lands, writes: "One of your correspondents declares that inverts long for sexual relations with normal men rather than with one another. If this be true, I have never once found it exemplified in all my wide experience of inverts; and I have submitted his assertion to more than 50. These have replied invariably that unless a man is himself homosexual, nearly all the pleasure of fellatio is absent. The fact is, the majority of inverts flock together not from exigency, but from choice. The mere sexual act is, if anything, far less the sole object between inverts than it is between normal men and women. Why should the invert sigh for intercourse with normal men, where mutual confidences and sympathies and love would be out of the question? Personally, I decline to commit fellatio with a man who is given to women; the thought of it is repugnant to me. And this is the attitude with every invert I have questioned. The nearest approach to confirmation of your correspondent's theory has been when an extremely feminine invert here and there has admitted the wish that a certain normal man were inverted. Indeed, the temperamental gamut of inversion is itself broad enough to embrace the most widely divergent ideals. As my furthest-reaching demands attain fruition in the gentle and pretty boy, so his own robuster affinity resides in me. If inverts were actually women, then indeed the normal male would be their ideal. But inverts are not women. Inverts are males capable of passionate friendship, and their ideal is the male who will give them passionate friendship in return."
In at least 24, probably many more, of my male cases there is a marked contrast, and in a still larger number a less-marked contrast, between the subject and the individuals he is attracted to; either he is of somewhat feminine and sensitive nature, and admires more simple and virile natures, or he is fairly vigorous and admires boys who are often of lower social class. Inverted women also are attracted to more clinging feminine persons.[[203]] A sexual attraction for boys is, no doubt, as Moll points out, that form of inversion which comes nearest to normal sexuality, for the subject of it usually approaches nearer to the average man in physical and mental disposition. The reason of this is obvious: boys resemble women, and therefore it requires a less profound organic twist to become sexually attracted to them. Anyone who has watched private theatricals in boys' schools will have observed how easy it is for boys to personate women successfully, and it is well known that until the middle of the seventeenth century women's parts on the stage were always taken by boys, whether or not with injury to their own or other people's morals.[[204]] It is also worthy of note that in Greece, where homosexuality flourished so extensively, and apparently with so little accompaniment of neurotic degeneration, it was often held that only boys under 18 should be loved; so that the love of boys merged into love of women. About 18 of my cases are most strongly attracted to youths,—preferably of about the age of 18 to 20,—and they are, for the most part, among the more normal and healthy of the cases. A preference for older men, or else a considerable degree of indifference to age alone, is more common, and perhaps indicates a deeper degree of perversion.
Putting aside the age of the object desired, it must be said that there is a distinctly general, though not universal, tendency for sexual inverts to approach the feminine type, either in psychic disposition or physical constitution, or both.[[205]] I cannot say how far this is explained by the irritable nervous system and delicate health which are so often associated with inversion, though this is certainly an important factor. Although the invert himself may stoutly affirm his masculinity, and although this femininity may not be very obvious, its wide prevalence may be asserted with considerable assurance, and by no means only among the small minority of inverts who take an exclusively passive rôle, though in these it is usually most marked. In this I am confirmed by Q., who writes: "In all, or certainly almost all, the cases of congenital male inverts (excluding psycho-sexual 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."[[206]] When, however, a distinguished invert said to Moll: "We are all women; that we do not deny," he put the matter in too extreme a form. The feminine traits of the homosexual are not usually of a conspicuous character. "I believe that inverts of plainly feminine nature are rare exceptions," wrote Näcke:[[207]] and that statement may be accepted even by those who emphasize the prevalence of feminine traits among inverts.
In inverted women some degree of masculinity or boyishness is equally prevalent, and it is not usually found in the women to whom they are attracted. Even in inversion the need for a certain sexual opposition—the longing for something which the lover himself does not possess—still prevails. It expresses itself sometimes in an attraction between persons of different race and color. I am told that in American prisons for women Lesbian relationships are specially frequent between white and black women.[[208]] A similar affinity is found among the Arabs, says Kocher; and if an Arab woman has a Lesbian friend the latter is usually European. In Cochin China, too, according to Lorion, while the Chinese are chiefly active pederasts, the Annamites are chiefly passive.
It must, however, be remembered that, in normal love, homogamy, the attraction of the like, prevails over heterogamy, the attraction of the unlike, which is chiefly confined to those features which belong to the sphere of the secondary sexual characters;[[209]] the same appears to be true in inversion, and the homosexual are probably, on the whole, more attracted by the traits which they seem to themselves to possess than by those which are foreign to themselves.[[210]]
PHYSICAL ABNORMALITIES.—The circumstances under which many of my cases were investigated often made information under this head difficult to obtain, or to verify. In at least 4 cases the penis is very large, while in at least 3 it is small and undeveloped, with small and flabby testes. It seems probable that variations in these two directions are both common, but it is doubtful whether they possess as much significance as the tendency to infantilism of the sexual organs in inverted women seems to possess. Hirschfeld considers that the genital organs of inverts resemble those of normal people. He finds, however, that phimosis is rather common.[[211]]
More significant, perhaps, than specifically genital peculiarities are the deviations found in the general conformation of the body.[[212]] In at least 2 cases there are well-developed breasts, in 1 the breasts swelling and becoming red.[[213]] In 1 case there are "menstrual" phenomena, physical and psychic, recurring every four weeks. In several cases the hips are broad and the arms rounded, while some are skillful in throwing a ball. One was born with a double squint. At least 2 were 7 months' children. In the previous chapter I have referred to the tendency to hypertrichosis and occasionally oligotrichosis among inverted women; among the men it is the latter condition which seems more common, and in several cases the bodies are hairless, or with but scanty hair. A few are left-handed, though not perhaps an abnormal proportion.[[214]] The sexual characters of the handwriting are in some cases clearly inverted, the men writing a feminine hand and the women a masculine hand.[[215]] A high feminine voice is sometimes found.[[216]]