Male and female heterosexuality

Abstract

Female sexuality is generally thought to differ from male sexuality and almost every writer in the field of sexuality makes some attempt at defining the differences, for example, characterising it as receptive, gentle, enveloping, sensuous and so forth. For some writers, such as Jung, (a good collection of Jung’s views in this area can be found in Jung 1983), later analysts (Irigary, 1985) and some feminists (Brownmiller, 1971, Dworkin, 1981), these characteristics are seen as essential and internal to the nature of womanhood. For others, such as Freud (1931), they are the bittersweet fruits of the conflict between the soon-to-be-crushed activity of the little girl, the demands of culture, and the facts of anatomy.