Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/87



Sex Instinct in Woman. In the previous chapter, we have observed that the sexual impulses are normally more powerful in man than in woman. On the other hand, woman's sexual nature, because of her biological function of motherhood (nature, of course, makes no distinction between the actual and potential) is more diversified in its manifestations. It is less dominated by a powerful urge that seeks specific expression, less centered upon the immediate goal of concrete sexual experience. It is, however, instinctively more concerned with the mate as a companion and protector, with children as "flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood," and with the feelings that are bound up in these relationships.

The tendency in this direction is not a question of choice or will, but is due to the character of woman's physiological being, with its highly organized nervous system. The particular development of her visceral organization, which is