Richard Long: Anal Secretaries

The illness which necessitated the visit to the doctor, about which she spoke at some length, was vaginitis. Specifically, she appears to have contracted a vaginal trichomonal infection. “Vaginitis caused by trichomonas,” writes the author of a popular health column found in many underground newspapers, “is characterized by itching and a foul smelling yellow-green discharge. In the male there are usually no symptoms though there may be a thin discharge and some burning or itching on urination.” (Eugene Schoenfeld, M.D., Dear Dr. Hip, p. 51.) The condition is caused by trichomonas vaginalis, “a single-celled organism which is readily identified under a microscope… and which “is identical in appearance” to an organism more commonly found in the digestive tract. (Ibid.) The theory, borne out all too frequently in practice, is that the organism is transferred from the anus to the vagina by careless lovemaking.

Curiously the trichomonad gives no difficulty as long as it is confined to the anal tract. Only when it is transferred to the vagina, does it begin creating problems.

Another common vaginal infection, perhaps even more often found, is the yeast infection. As the yeast organism grows, it creates a condition with symptoms similar to those found in trichomoniasis and gonorrhea. Ironically enough, broad spectrum antibiotics-normally so helpful in many cases-have the effect of killing off vaginal bacteria which keep down the yeast organisms. Thus, in treating one illness, we often open the door to another.

It is quite clear from Linda’s account that she willingly engaged in anal sexual relations. She was not forced into it by men who sought to work out hidden homosexual fantasies upon her. Not is there any evidence that she associated anal sexuality with “unclean” things and thereby derived extra pleasure from degrading herself in that manner. She displayed no signs of masochism, either overt or latent. Thus we can probably rule out two of the more common explanations of anal sexuality in human beings. We believe that another approach will be more fruitful.

Let us first note Linda’s extreme fear of pregnancy. She told us that even after she had begun taking oral contraceptives, she still had a deep fear of conceiving and had privately admitted to us that she had more than once considered having herself sterilized. There is also the matter of her extreme sensitivity to erotic stimulation. Her description of her first encounters with boys is graphic evidence of her ability to become aroused by even the slightest contact with the opposite sex.

Linda was thus superbly equipped with the sensory perceptions needed to gain a great deal of pleasure from sexual relations. She was also, however, gripped by a deep and unreasonable fear of the most obvious consequence of the sexual act, pregnancy. Her readiness to engage in masturbation with her boyfriends can thus be more easily understood. It afforded her an easy “out” and gave her an acceptable substitute for sexual intercourse. Her interest in the opposite sex extended to the phallus and she quickly became adept in fondling that organ, thereby providing her partners with considerable sexual pleasure.

It is not clear how Linda came to associate the anus with sexuality. Her account, as we have seen, had her acting upon a sudden whim and inserting a finger into the anus of the man whom she was fellating. Try as she might, she could not recall ever having given any special thought to the anus before that experience. Psychiatrists are rightly skeptical of the sudden, whimsical action and rightly suspect that startling variations from habitual behavior-such as Linda displayed in inserting her finger into her partner’s rectum-are almost always the result of a long, if unconscious, period of preparation. It is thus probable that she was unconsciously forming an interest in the anus long before that act and that she had in fact come to associate it with sexual response.

This kind of behavior is not unknown to students of human sexuality. Long ago, Havelock Ellis remarked that “it would thus seem probable that in some persons … there is a tendency for the centers of sexual excitation to be shifted posteriorly, such persons possessing unusually developed buttocks and an anus with greater sexual sensibility than the normal sexual centers. Such a state of things must be regarded as constituting a predisposition only; it is not necessarily final or beyond the reach of training. But it is obvious that it constitutes a favorable and even natural basis for various sexual deviations.” (Studies in the Psychology of Sex, vol. II, Part 2, p. 198.) We might also consider the fact of Linda’s relative lack of interest in vaginal intercourse. Even at the time of her interview, she stated a strong preference for the other types of sexual activity mentioned in the foregoing portion of her case history. We believe that her preferences can be accounted for by referring to her conditioning. The sex play to which she was introduced by her first boyfriends, together with her aversion to pregnancy-and Consequently to intercourse-had the effect of training her to find pleasure in sexual outlets other than vaginal intercourse. “Learning and conditioning in connection with human sexual behavior involve the same sorts of processes as learning and conditioning in other types of behavior. But man, because of his highly developed forebrain, may be more condition able than any of the other mammals.

The variations which exist in adult sexual behavior probably depend more upon conditioning than upon variations in the gross anatomy or physiology of the sexual mechanisms.” (Alfred C. Kinsey et at, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, p. 644.) “I guess it was about two years ago that I started working at the place where I work now.

There was another woman there then and I was supposed to sort of help her out around the place, look after the letters and pour the boss’s coffee. The boss is real nice. Hank-that’s his name, everybody there first names everybody else-is about six feet tall and pretty well built, considering that he’s a little over forty. Jean, the woman I was supposed to be helping, was getting it pretty regular from him, as I figured out in about a week after starting to work there.

“I didn’t begrudge it to her, though I was always a little uncomfortable about balling guys who — worked at the same place I did. It just makes things a little more complicated you know? But what the hell, I’d already figured out that Hank’s — wife — was a total bitch. She’d call him at the office all — the time and she’4 be drunk by noon. I still remember the way she bitched and whined at us.

She must have treated him worse. Anyway, he and Jean had a thing going. They used to take off in the afternoons sometimes. I guess they went off to a motel someplace and really sacked out. When they’d get back Jean would have this really satisfied look on her face and Hank, he just looked totally beat. I always figured that Jean was a real hot ass and liked her dick real regular.

She wasn’t married but from what I saw, she might just as well as have been married to Hank, they screwed that much.

“But then they had a big blowup about a year after I started working there. I never did know what it was that set them off but, whatever it was, it was a dilly of a fight. Jean lasted about two days after that and let me tell you, she was just impossible to work with. Finally, one morning when Hank asked her about some contracts she’d — filed away, she blew up and told him to shove it.

She flew out of the office and none of us ever saw her again. I don’t know if Hank missed her or not. It was hard to tell what he was thinking.

“For about two weeks around that office things were a little tense. I didn’t know what to say, so I just did my work and kept my mouth shut. Jean had been really inefficient, so I managed to do my work and hers too, without too much trouble. Hank didn’t have much to say at first but then he started loosening up and pretty soon it seemed as though Jean had never been there at all. I don’t know when he first got interested in me-maybe he’d been interested all along.