Oddities and Origins of Human Sexuality

Abstract

The paper is devoted to discussion of the key problems of the nature and genesis of human sexuality. The classical concept (D. Symons, H. Fisher, D. Bass, etc.) includes statements about different sexual strategies of men and women, the primacy and naturalness of monogamy, the lack of interest of women in sex, the evolutionary “side effects” of female orgasm. The main counterarguments are related to the ineradicability of adultery, not only from the male, but also from the female side, a variety of sexual relations in pre-state societies with the widespread distribution of ideas of “partial paternity” among them, special mechanisms of competition and selectivity in anatomy and physiology of male and female reproductive organs. Particular attention is paid to modern versions of the adaptive value and functions of the female orgasm. It is shown that neither “egoistic” explanations (keeping a partner and “hunting” for good genes), nor aesthetic (the intrinsic value of pleasure) can be considered sufficient. An evolutionary hypothesis explains the genesis of emotional-sexual syncretism in women and the “split” (dualism) of male sexuality. Feminine feelings for men have origin from the love and commitment of girls to fathers and older men as protectors. These emotions remain intact. Women usually retain close relationships and at least partial identification with their mothers. Among boys the initial love for their mothers inevitably suffers a crisis both in phylogeny through sexual selection and in ontogeny through negative reinforcements. In result, the direct transfer of this feeling to potential female partners becomes impossible but it can sublimate as a platonic love for ideal or inaccessible women. At the same time "sinister" sexual need develops separately and cannot always be combined with "high feelings". This male split is compensated (at least partially) due to especially close relationships with a woman who reward herself and her partner with violent outpourings of sexual pleasure.