DOI: 10.31038/PSYJ.2021314

Abstract

Despite the importance of the sexuality in the human life, most studies performed up to now have been generally limited to the only evaluation of sexual behaviour and orientation, rather than the intimate sexual feeling in terms of sexual fantasies. Some preliminary results would suggest the existence of some same sexual fancies beyond the difference occurring between homo and hetero sexuality, in particular the fantasy of androgyny. On this basis a preliminary study was planned to elaborate a sexual test carried out to investigate not only the sexual behaviour but the dimension of sexual fancies and imagination, by proposing a specific analysis that we have called Sexual Imagination Potency (SIP). The study included 150 consecutive healthy volunteers and the test was accepted in 111/150 subjects. No significant difference in SIP mean values was observed between men and women. Within the evaluated fancies, a particular importance has been shown to be played by the manner to imagine the androgyny aspect, and the pleasure for pegging. In fact, the subjects with pleasure for pegging showed significantly higher SIP mean values with respect to those, who had no pleasure for pegging. These preliminary results, which have to be confirmed in greater number of healthy subjects, seem to demonstrate the importance of the androgyny image in influencing the sexual mood by connecting hetero and homo sexual fancies in a unique imaginative psychosexual world.

Keywords

Androgyny, Heterosexuality, Homosexuality, Sexual fancies

Introduction

Imagination and desire are looked upon as major determinants of sexuality [1]. Moreover, it has to be considered that the imagination represents one of the fundamental dimensions of human cognition [2]. During the early phases of development, the close interaction of imagination and erotic desire leads to the formation of psychical representatives of experiences of satisfaction, that influence sexual and nonsexual behaviours by establishing an internalized structure of blueprints for satisfaction [3]. These blueprints can also be viewed as an important step in the development of autonomy. Sex differences can be found primarily in the function and employment of erotic fantasies [4]. Generally, men tend to use their erotic imagery to a much in the higher degree with respect to the women, as a compensation for a lack of sexual satisfaction [5]. However at present the fantasies of women have still to be better investigated and understood. Then, it has to be confirmed the lower degree of fancies in women with respect to men. Proceeding from the conceptual distinction of erotic and everyday realities, reflections on the zeitgeist of sexuality and the relationship between the sexes are put forward focussing on the ambiguity of erotic imagination and the border crossing between the two realities [6]. Based on these reflections, the potential therapeutic aspects of imagination and desire are touched upon the problems of integrating erotic reality and everyday reality in long-term male-female relationships would have to be further investigated in the clinical practices [7]. Same preliminary clinical studies carried out for many years to investigate the sexual male and female fancies, have allowed us to hypothesize that the original and primary fancy is represented by the androgyny image, which could constitute the sexual fancy, from which would depend all other human sexual fantasies, involving both men and women irrespectively of the sexual orientation, by overcoming the opposition between hetero and homo sexual fancies [8]. On this basis, we have elaborated a simple and synthetic clinical test to explore the major fancies reflecting the androgyny status, and most in general the potency of the sexual imagination, independently of the degree of sexual satisfaction and activity.

Subjects and Methods

The study included 150 consecutive healthy volunteers (M/F: 69/81) to whom the SIP test whose proposed. Test of acceptance in 111/150 (74%) subjects, without statistically significant difference between man and woman (53/69 (77%) versus 58/81 (70%)). The characteristic of subject are reported in Table 1. The subject were subdivided on the basis of six major variables, including age, profession, grade of studies, religion faith, marriage status and affective status of relatives. The SIP test, which was differentiate in relation to the sex, was consisting of five essential question, with the three type of response, with a score ranging from 0 to 2, for a total maximum values of ten points. The SIP test was reported in Table 2. Data were statistically analyzed by the Chi Square test and the Student’s T Test.

Table 1: Characteristics of subjects.

N Acceptance M F	150 111 (74%) 53 (47%) 58 (52%)
Marital status -Marriage/cohabitation -Single/widow -Apart/divorced	45 47 19
Occupation -Intellectual -Practise	58 53
Education  -Low-Middle-High	33 36 42
Faith –          Christian –          No faith –          Other religions	74 22 15
Status of relationship among parents –          Unity –          Separated	92 19
Age <50 > 0	57 54

Table 2: SIP Test values in a group of healthy women and men.

N	Question	Response	Points
1	Do you find more excitant the common vaginal or the anal relation?	– No opinion the vaginal relation the anal relation	1 2	0
2	Do you find the pegging (the woman penetrate the man) as an excitant sexual stimulation?	– No – I do not know 1 – yes 2	1-2**	0
3	How do you imagine the trio, with another woman or with another man?	– I do not like the trio – With another woman 1-2* – With another man	1 2	0
4	Do you feel more cheated on if your partner had a sexual relation with a person of the same sex or the other sex?	– With both sexes – with the same sex – With the other sex	0
5	How do you imagine the androgyne human subject? Like a trans	– No idea – Like a woman with the artificial penis	1

Note: ^*1 for man and 2 for woman; ^**1 for woman and 2 for man.

Results

The evaluation of each single fancy is reported in Table 3. As reported, not significantly difference occurred between men and women in the preferential of the type of sexual relation the genital and the anal one. On the same way not significantly difference between men and women was seen in relation to the fancy of man penetration by woman, the so-called pegging. As far as trio fancy with a male and a female is concerned, male subject statistically preferred a woman as third partner (p<0.05), whereas women did not show statistically significance preference between males and females. Moreover, in relation to the psychic sufferance due to betrayal with the another partner, the percentage of pain in the presence of betrayal with a person of the same sex was respect to a betrayal with a person of the other sex was lower in women and higher in men, but none of these difference was statistically significance. Finally in the women the androgyny is imagined more significantly as a women with the strap-on, while in the men as trans (p<0.05). SIP mean values in relation to the main characteristics of healthy subjects are reported in Table 4.

Table 3: Evaluation of the single fancy expressed in percentage in men and women.

Fancy	Men=53	Women=58	Men+Women= 111
Prefered sexual relation – Vaginal – Anal – no idea	31 (59%) 14 (26%) 8 (15%)	42 (72%) 7 (12%) 9 (16%)	73 (81%) 15 (16%) 23 (25%)
Love of pegging – Yes – No – no idea	13 (25%) 15 (28%) 25 (47%)	10 (17%) 39 (67%) 9 (16%)	25 (23%) 64 (57%) 22 (20%)
Trio – with men – with women – no love	10 (19%) 6 (11%) 37 (70%)*	13 (22%) 13 (22%) 32 (55%)	19 (17%) 50 (45%) 42 (38%)
Hurt by betrayal of the partner – Both – with men – with women	25 (47%) 6 (11%)	34 (59%) 9 (15%) 15 (26%)	59 (53%) 31 (28%) 21 (19%)
Androgynous -b no idea – trans – women with strap-on	33 (62%) 14 (27%)* 6 (11%)	34 (59%) 7 (12%) 17 (29%)**	67 (60%) 21 (19%) 23 (21%)

Note: * p<0.05 vs women.

**p<0.05 vs men.

In the women the androgyny is imagined more significantly as women with the strap-on, while in the men as trans.

Table 4: SIP values (X± SE) in relation to the main characteristics of men and women.

Variables	Men	Women
	N. X ± SE	N. X ± SE
Sex	53 3.9 0.5	58 3.3 0.6
Age
<50	26 4.7 0.4	31 3.5 0.5
>50	27 3.9 0.5	27 3.2 0.7
Religion
Christian	32 4.3 0.5	42 3.3 0.6
No faith	13 3.9 0.4	9 3.5 0.6
Other religion	8 3.0 0.6	7 3.0 0.7
Marriage Status
Married	20 4.2 0.5	25 2.2 0.4**
Single	24 4.5 0.4	23 3.6 0.2
Separate/divorced	9 3.3 0.6	10 5.1 0.6
Study Degree
Low	16 3.9 0.4	17 3.7 0.6
Middle	17 3.5 0.5	19 3.3 0.6
High	20 4.2 0.4	22 4.0 0.5
Profession
Practical	27 3.3 0.5	26 3.1 0.4
Intellectual	26 4.2 0.4	32 4.4 0.2
Affective Status of Relatives
Unity	44 4.4 0.4	48 3.8 0.3
Separation	9 3.0 0.7	10 2.3 0.4*

Note: ** p<0.05 vs. single women, p<0.01 vs. separated women.

* p<0.05 vs. united relatives.

The only statistically significance difference were those concerning the marriage status and the professional situation. In more detail, separate and divorced women showed SIP mean values significantly higher than those found in married women. On the contrary separate or divorced men showed lower SIP mean values than the married ones, even though the difference was not significance. In addiction both women and mans with an intellectual profession showed statistically significant higher SIP values then those with a practical professional. Finally, as far as an affective status of relations, relative separation was associated with a statistically significance redaction in SIP mean values in the only women (p<0.005). Table 5 shows SIP values in relation to the man androgyny-related fancies and the difference between man and women. SIP mean values were significantly higher in subjects who referred pleasure for Pegging (PG) than in those who did not like it in the only men (p<0.001), whereas in women the difference was not statistically significance. On the same way SIP values were significantly higher in men who referred pleasure for anal relation then in those who had no pleasure for it (p<0.005), whereas no significantly difference occurred in women. On the contrary both men and women, who referred pleasure for either pegging and anal relation showed statistically significance higher SIP values than those who had no interested for both pegging and anal relation ( p<0.001).

Table 5: SIP values (X±SE) in relation to the main androgyny-related fancies.

Type of Fancies	Men	Women
	N. X ± SE	N. X±SE
Pleasure for pegging
Yes	15 6.8 0.4*	10 6.9 0.8
No	25 2.3 0.3	39 3.3 0.6
Pleasure for anal relation
Yes	8 6.7 0.6**	7 4.8 0.8
No	45 2.6 0.6	51 3.9 0.3
Pleasure for both pegging and anal relation
Yes	6 7.5 0.6*	5 8.0 0.5*
NO	36 2.5 0.5	46 3.6 0.4
Pleasure for sexual trio
yes	43 4.5 0.3	26 4.9 0.6**
no	10 2.3 0.8	32 1.6 0.3
Androgyny imagination
Like transexual men	13 5.5 0.5	8 3.6 0.8
Like woman with strap-on	7 6.3 0.8	16 7.1 0.4*
No opinion	33 3.3 0.4	34 1.7 0.5

Note: * p<0.001; ** p<0.05.

The pleasure for trio was associated with higher SIP values than in those who showed no interested for trio, even though they were statistically significantly higher in the only women (p<0.005). Finally subjects who had no imagination of androgyny showed SIP values lower than those who had same imagine of androgyny. But the SIP values were statistically significant higher with respect to subject, who referred no androgyny imagine in the only women, who had the vision of androgyny like a woman with a strap-on (p<0.001), whereas no difference occurred in women who imagined the androgyny like a transgender man. The maximal SIP values occurred in both men and women, who referred pleasure for both pegging and anal relation as well as in the only women who had androgyny imagine as woman with a strap-on. Table 6 shows SIP values in subjects with pleasure for pegging and anal sexual relation or both fancies in relation to their religion. Christian men, who referred pleasure for pegging or for anal relation showed statistically significant higher SIP values than men with other religion or no religion who showed the same fancies, whereas no difference occurred in women. On the contrary both Christian man and women who had pleasure for both pegging and anal relation showed statistically significant higher SIP values than subjects with the same fancies, but who were without religion or of other religion.

Table 6: Pleasure for pegging and anal sexual coitus in relation to androgyny image in men and women.

Androgyny Image	Women	Men
	pleasure for pegging pleasure for anal relation	pleasure for pegging pleasure for anal relation
Like transexual man	2/8 (25%)* 2/8 (25%)	6/13 (46%) 3/13 (23%)
like woman with strap-on	8/16 (50%)** 4/16 (25%)	2/7 (29%) 2/7 (29%)
no image	2/34 (7%) 4/34 (12%)	9/33 (27%) 3/33 (9%)

Note: **p<0.01 vs. women without androgyny image; *p<0.05 vs. women without androgyny image.

Discussion

Even though limited to a relatively low number of normal subjects, this preliminary study seems to suggest that the maximal sexual imagination potency is associated with the fancies related to a change in the common manner to consider the male -female relation and interpretation of male-female identity and role, such as pleasure for pegging and sexual anal relation, which could be considered as an expression of the androgyny imagine. In more detail, the sexual imagination has appeared to be negatively influenced by the separation of relatives in the only women. The marriage was also associated with an evident decline in SIP values. On the contrary, the separation, the divorce and the single life were all associated with an evident increase in the sexual imagination power. In addiction this study shows that the pleasure for pegging was associated with the higher SIP values. Moreover, the apparently higher SIP values in Christian people than in those with other religion or no religion, would demonstrated the existence of interaction between spirituality and erotic profile, by suggesting that the interpretation of the Spirit may influence the human psychosexual life. Finally, this study seems to excluded that the men may have more sexual fantasies than women.

Then further studies would be required to analyze the sexual world of women. In fact, male subjects could have more sexual fantasies with the respect to women only from a quantitative point of view, but women could express more fantasies from a qualitative point of view, even though women are generally less unconscious on their sexual dimension. Unfortunately, most studies carried out up to now on the human sexuality, has been generally limited to the only sexual behaviour and orientation, rather than to explore the dimension of the sexual unconscious fancies [9-11]. Therefore, on the basis of the results of this study obtained in a group of healthy subjects, it would be interesting to evaluate in future studies the sexual profile and fancies occurring in the main human systemic diseases, namely cancer and autoimmunity.

In conclusion, by considering the difference between males and females in relation to androgyny imagination, this preliminary study would suggest that the original sexual fancy could be constituted of the image of androgyny itself, which could connected in the same sexual imagination homo and hetero fancies. Then, the only fancy, which may integrate hetero and homosexual fancies, in a same sexual imagination and excitation, is that of the androgyny status, which would constitute the origin of the human psychosexuality.

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