several cities in the United States were troubled by such hair-despoilers.
(b) The Fetich is an Article of Female Attire.—The great importance of adornment, ornament, and dress, in the normal vita sexualis of man, is very generally recognized. Culture and fashion[1] have, to a certain extent, endowed woman with artificial sexual characteristics, the removal of which, when woman is seen unattired, in spite of the normal sensual effect of this sight, may exert an opposite influence.[2] It should not be overlooked that female dress often shows a tendency to emphasize and exaggerate certain sexual peculiarities,—secondary sexual characteristics (bosom, waist, hips). In most individuals the sexual instinct awakes long before there is any possibility or opportunity of intimate intercourse, and the early desires of youth are concerned with the ordinary appearance of the attired female form. Thus it happens that not infrequently, at the beginning of the vita sexualis, ideas of the persons exerting sexual charms and ideas of their attire become associated. This association may be lasting—the attired woman may be always preferred—if the individuals dominated by this perversion do not in other respects attain to a normal vita sexualis, and find gratification in natural charms.
In psychopathic individuals, sexually hyperæsthetic, as a result of this, it actually happens that the dressed woman is always preferred to the nude female form. It may be recalled that in Case 48 the woman was not to take off a garment, and
- ↑ The frequent changes of style of dress which fashion dictates may be referred to a physiological law. The reaction of the nervous system to a constant stimulus diminishes in proportion to the duration of the action of the stimulus. Constant association with nudity removes its power to excite sexually. Owing to this, the savage endeavors to attract attention by changing his physical peculiarities; he dresses his hair in some remarkable way, or paints his body; then he tattooes his skin, or performs striking self-mutilation, such as half-castration and circumcision (comp. Westermarck, op. cit., p. 205). Finally, mutilation is replaced by movable appendages, upon which ornaments are worn; and thus there is afforded opportunity for change, in obedience to the unconscious physiological requirement, which is called a “taste for change.” Undoubtedly, woman’s desire for changes of fashion is primarily dependent upon man’s desire to be pleased; and her function in this direction has certainly been transferred from him to her by civilization (comp. p. 16).—Trans.
- ↑ Comp. Goethe’s remarks about his adventure in Geneva (“Briefe aus der Schweiz,” 1. Abtheil., Schluss).
