Page:The Power of Sexual Surrender.pdf/153

 Chapter 11

THE MASCULINE WOMAN

She was a strikingly handsome woman. I looked at her as she sat opposite me in my office and I remember being struck by the extreme femininity of her appearance: the glossy, clean softness of her brown hair, the peaches-and-cream texture of her complexion, the care she had given her toilette and her clothes. Everything was perfect. I recall I thought then: "Perhaps a little too perfect. It's almost as if she is dressing for a role."

First impressions are not always correct, but in this case mine were. My new patient, whom I shall call Toni (her real nickname was also based on a boy's name) was suffering from the form of frigidity that is often called the "masculinity complex." She was, in short, the "clitoridal woman," whose general characteristics we looked at briefly before. Her case is so typical and illustrates so many aspects of this very widespread type of frigidity that I have selected it to tell here.

In my first sessions with her I could see that Toni's clear thinking and logical mind, her emotionless, almost masculine forthrightness in expressing herself belied her softly feminine appearance. Her way of dressing was an uncon