CULTURAL DETERMINANTS OF BEHAVIOR 



1475 



ture, bad company, strip tease burlesque, 

 etc., is bad. 



Good sex activity involves face-to-face 

 intercourse and should end in satisfaction, 

 seen as ejaculation for the male, and in 

 satisfaction, seen as orgasm, real or feigned, 

 for the female. Either partner may feel 

 justified in self-reproach, or reproach of 

 the other, if this does not occur. All varia- 

 tions on this full sex act of whatever sort, 

 different position, various types of stimu- 

 lation of other body parts, coitus inter- 

 ruptus as a contraceptive, are felt to be bad 

 for one, resulting in nervousness and tension. 

 They are also against the law in many 

 states and acceptable causes for divorce. 



To stabilize marriage, sex compatibility 

 is not enough; there must also be children, 

 either conceived within marriage, adopted, 

 or produced by artificial insemination. 

 However, inability to conceive is not re- 

 garded as a bar to marriage; childlessness 

 is a socially remediable state. 



Sex is "natural," but because of the ex- 

 tent to which it is still a taboo subject, it 

 is hard to get enough information about it; 

 one is never sure that the practice of one- 

 self and one's marriage partner is "normal," 

 and information on the subject should be 

 sought from books, experts, lovelorn col- 

 umns. Sex relations should occur between 

 people who are as near as possible equals 

 in class, race, education, only a few years 

 apart, the male preferably slightly older, 

 and all extreme differences in ages or ex- 

 perience which M'ould put one individual in 

 a teaching position toward the other are 

 disapproved. Technique is permissible if 

 learned from books, but disapproved of as a 

 sign of wide experience. 



The old double standard in which a male 

 was expected to sow his wild oats has al- 

 most disappeared, as has the double stand- 

 ard for class, although Ehrmann's study 

 (Ehrmann, 1959) shows greater frequency 

 of boys dating a girl of a lower class than 

 of middle-class girls dating below their class 

 level. Interest in technical virginity is also 

 disappearing. In the 1940's a marriageable 

 couple made "a clean breast" to each other 

 and started with "a clean slate." Today, 

 with the convention of early going steady, 



neither may have had any sex experience 

 except with the other. 



In practice, new double standards have 

 developed. Boys are more protective and 

 more likely to postpone full sex relations 

 with a girl whom they plan to marry than 

 with a casual date. Girls are less self-pro- 

 tective and rejecting with boys whom they 

 plan to marry. As a result, other men's girls 

 are treated with less chivalry, and elaborate 

 protections have grown up against inter- 

 fering between another man and his girl. 

 Young people without specific heterosexual 

 alliances of some sort are treated as po- 

 tential sex partners, and unmarried and un- 

 committed people over 25 may be expected 

 to meet each other's sex needs or run the risk 

 of arousing a great deal of hostility. 



Within this narrow and demanding set 

 of formal standards and informal expecta- 

 tions, the anxiety about normality and fear 

 of inversion or inadequacy are very great. 

 The pressure on the young male to as- 

 sume full sexual activities and accompany- 

 ing social and psychologic responsibilities is 

 extreme, and his probable adequacy a source 

 of anxiety to his parents. Any anomaly of 

 anatomy, physiology, stance, posture, ges- 

 ture, voice, preference for any type of activ- 

 ity regarded as female, too strong and 

 persistent friendships for other boys, or en- 

 thusiams for the company of older or 

 younger males, anomalies of height — failing 

 to grow fast enough being worse than being 

 unusually tall— are lamented, and medical 

 and psychiatric help is likely to be sought. 

 The pressure is only a little less for girls, but 

 whereas a generation ago it was the tomboy 

 who was disapproved, today prepubertal 

 girls are scrutinized for lack of positive 

 female attractiveness rather than for too 

 mucli virility. Sexual attractiveness is be- 

 lieved to be something which can be arti- 

 ficially enhanced by grooming, practice in 

 social relations, drugs and medications, and 

 various forms of psychologic devices. All 

 these devices serve to offset the anxieties in- 

 duced by the constant scrutiny of adults 

 and peers. There is no general allowance 

 for the existence of individuals who natu- 

 rally have more or less libidinal attraction ; 

 male successes are explained by the fact 

 that the fortunate male wears a special hat, 



