Richard Long: Anal Secretaries

Violation of moral — laws, many of which turn upon sexual acts, is widely supposed to breed its own peculiar retribution. This is no new idea; many a Greek dramatist built enduring literature out of just such a situation. One might well ask: what are the consequences of anal sexuality? Our considered conclusion, based upon the evidence presented here and available elsewhere, is that anal sexual intercourse appears to be no more debilitating to either partner than vaginal intercourse, provided it is used moderately and sensibly.

If there is a danger in anal sexuality, it is mostly a psychological one. That is to say, the individual who submits to anal intercourse may be so overwhelmed with guilt that he will react strongly and develop psychological damage. In many cases the individual who does something which he or she knows is wrong will develop a kind of self-punishment to fit the occasion. But, it would be rash indeed to say that the act of anal intercourse, ‘rather than the guilty conscience following the act, was primarily responsible for the consequences.

Another conclusion which we must stress is drawn from the subject’s early sexual experiences. These experiences need not be overtly sexual; all that is necessary is for the child to associate an experience with sexuality. The case history of Judy, given in Chapter 3 provides us with a perfect example of this truism. Many people would not link defecation with sexuality, and indeed there is no necessary connection between the two acts, but Judy’s mother helped the young girl make such an association. As we saw in the girl’s case history, that association was to prove to be very crucial when the girl later came around to expressing her inner sexual desires. These associations need not be logical or apparent to the outside observer. It is enough for them to be made and, then they continue to exert a powerful shaping force upon the subject.

Perhaps we are not all “prisoners of sex,” as Norman Mailer has phrased it, but it seems quite clear that his terminology would apply to some of us. Certain of the cases noted here exemplify that phrase perfectly, so much so that one often has the impression of human beings who are shaped and guided willy-nitty by uncontrollable inner drives of a surpassing power and complexity. It is easy for a superficial, disinterested observer to scoff at the people depicted here, to label them as “weak degenerates,” but in most cases they appeared to have had little real choice about the way in which their lives developed. If, as certain recent research would lead us to suspect, we are all condemned to live out our lives within the perimeters determined by a few molecules of DNA-perimeters which were forced upon us before — we were conscious beings-then it would seem to be useless to speak of punishment and reward where such vital choices are concerned. Indeed, it is perhaps illogical even to speak of “choices.”

Our investigation of anal sexuality has not been undertaken with an eye toward settling such weighty issues as “free-will versus determinism?” Our principal concern has been, first, to describe certain cases as fully as space permits and, second, to bring to bear as much current medical and psychological knowledge as may help us to understand these cases. The philosophically minded reader may wish to pursue the matter further and draw his own conclusions.

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