Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/134

Much of this is quite inevitable under the stress of our modern society, where after all sufficient material means are a necessity—even when love is present. People raised under certain standards of living can not successfully revert to lower standards and remain happy and contented. The old saying, "When poverty enters the door, love flies out of the window," is not altogether a meaningless aphorism.

In view of the pressure of economic and other influences in our artificial society (and I do not use the term "artificial" in altogether a derogatory sense, as there are both desirable and undesirable features in it), it is remarkable that people act so true to form as they do. The marvel is that men and women retain even as much of their "natural" tendencies as they do, surrounded as they are by so many factors that are not a part of the natural scheme of things.

The essential reason for the passiveness and caution of the female is that she plays a tremendously more significant rôle than the male in the sphere of sex.

The Sex Act Means More to the Female. The male, in the sex relations, is concerned primarily with the prospect of a pleasant episode. The female, in the same situation, is concerned (and she seems subconsciously to sense the responsibility, even when it may not consciously be in mind) with the possibility of motherhood. In submitting to the sexual act, she risks suffering and dangers to which the male is not exposed.

Fatherhood, it is true, incurs responsibilities—even more so under civilization than in the primitive state. But they are the responsibilities that have been imposed by tradition, social custom and education, and are not so deeply rooted in the biological foundation of man that they subconsciously influence his automatic behavior, as is the case with woman.

Whereas, fatherhood is, biologically, an incident—mother-