It will be helpful to the beginner, therefore, to know the various disguises which serve as masks for homosexuality. As is well known, all neurotic symptoms are the results of compromise and they cover, on the one hand, as much as they disclose, on the other. The tendency to adopt compromises, which is typical of the split personality, is a subject worthy of special consideration. The most antagonistic impulses are stressed and summed up under the same symptom. This tendency to adopt compromises governs the mental life of the neurotic. It is seen in dreams as well as in political life, in artistic products no less than in neurotic symptoms. If the need to adjust opposing tendencies under some compromise is not met successfully a condition of uncertainty arises,—of vacillation and doubt. Doubt is the result and the sign of unsuccessful compromises.
This superficial building up of compromises is seen most clearly in the case of homosexuality. The neurotic endeavors to focus the most divergent tendencies of his psyche upon the same goal. His ideal is a being at once male, female, and infantile (and perhaps also beast and angel at the same time).
The neurotics always describe their ideal in a way which corresponds to this polymorphous picture. The males rave about women of a strikingly manly bearing; heavy, angular figure, flat chest, energetic, bony facial features, short hair, deep voice, traces of facial hair or of a mustache. The hidden bisexual ideal is thus partially fulfilled (Woman with penis or man with vagina!). The repressed cravings, thus partly freed, serve during sexual aggression and further the attainment of gratification.
When nature fails to meet these needs, external features, such as dress and ornaments are brought into play to enhance the illusion. The symbol is made to replace reality. Men fall in love with women who wear tights (or who sport mannish hats, officers’ coats, walking canes, etc.) and consequently they are attracted by actresses, fencers, cycle-riders, mountain-climbers, horseback-riders, or by girls whom they chance to see in under-pants. Others require of their sexual objects the adoption of various male symbols before their libido is roused. The woman, appeals to them, for instance, at best, wearing a military blouse, a mannish hat, or in some male attitude or other, capable of yielding a suggestion of something genuine.
Women display parallel tendencies. They fall in love with men who are beardless, gynecomastic, men who have a large panniculus adiposus, broad hips, delicate throat, female voice, or who wear long coats and long hair. I will quote here only a few examples: the priest, the physician in his hospital coat, particularly surgeons with graceful arms, female impersonators, beardless men, or men with high voices who perfume themselves and wear bracelets, and artists with long, flowing locks of hair are likely to prove very attractive. (Perhaps the great erotic attraction exercised by all artists is due to their pronounced bisexual character.)
Physical factors are also of great significance. Women who smoke, ride, go mountain climbing and who are generally aggressive, make a very strong impression upon the neurotic. This is true also about the influence of men with strong womanly features upon women. Many neurotic men dream of being overpowered. (The “pleasure without guilt” principle!). Energetic women fascinate them, just as delicate, sensitive men fascinate the hysterical woman.
Less known are other masks of homosexuality which I now mention. The love of old women (gerontophilia) and passion for children often covers a homosexual tendency. Persons deviating from the complete male or female type often prove irresistible for the same reason. Age eventually wipes out the typical secondary sexual characters. Man becomes like an old woman and old women acquire remarkable male features (including mustache) and male habits. Children also may figure as a strong bisexual attraction since they lack the secondary sexual characters.
A peculiar cryptic form under which male homosexuality manifests itself, is the love of prostitutes. The unconscious factor which here appeals to the homosexual component of the sexual libido is the fact that the body of the prostitute has been previously enjoyed by other men.[15]
This process,—mediation through the other sex,—plays a great role in homosexuality in various other ways. The prostitute may be enjoyed only in the presence of one or more male witnesses. The carrying out of coitus jointly in one room, looking on, or allowing onlookers, also betray this motive besides others.
In many cases the form of sexual intercourse preferred betrays a latent homosexuality. Men choose to lie underneath, or carry out coitus a posteriori, or per anum. Women show corresponding preferences. They attain supreme enjoyment only if they are on top during intercourse. Many paraphilias (fellatio, cunnilingus) betray a homosexual trend besides showing sexual infantilism.