The main point of the primary reading (Sex and Character) is to answer the woman related questions by means of demonstrating the intellectual and moral inferiority of both the Jews and woman and determining the metaphysical connection in between. The Viennese-Jew author incorporates both the philosophical and scientific concepts in the literature.
The first Chapter of the book is about the subject of sexual complexity. This area is comprised of discussions about male and female, the law of sexual attraction, homosexuality, the science of character, and the freedom of women.
The second chapter focuses on sexuality, consciousness, genius, memory, ethics, and other subjects of interests surrounding motherhood, prostitution, and gender psychology. The third chapter of the book the arguments presented by Weininger encompasses applied Freudian principles about sexuality. The important areas that needed further examination are the topic of male and female, homosexuality and pederasty, sexual attraction, and female plasmas, which was highlighted in the fourth chapter.
Chapter 1 reaction
Chapter 2 reaction
However, Weininger also argues that science and findings are not enough to understand the gender types. This assumption can be also observed in the succeeding sections of the reading where the arguments were based from theoretical principles of plasmas. Furthermore, the concepts of plasmas suggest that every cell and tissues are complex and science was criticized by seriously disregarding measurements to attain relevant and useful results.
Chapter 3 reaction
After examining the complex nature of sexuality, the discussion moves to the determination of attraction. Weininger argues that sexual attraction is not as simple as male and female coming together, but rather the uniqueness of individual taste and preference. Chemotropism was the term used to describe sexual attraction, which the author believes to have shared similarities with chemical reaction. This brings the arguments to the subject of sexual inversion and the inclination of man or woman towards the same gender.
Chapter 4 reaction
It was further argued that the result of homosexuality is caused by the lack of gender uniformity. Homosexuality is therefore, a condition in which intermediate sexual forms stretched out from the nominally assigned genital into varying conditions involving attraction to similar sex.
B. Reading Reaction
Although Weininger’s arguments may sound obscure for conservative members of the scientific community, there are interesting subjects that have caught my attention. First is the unusual perspective about sexuality, which is a very critical issue particularly in today’s contemporary culture. The book talks about scientific flaws in terms of identifying definite sexuality, this leads to the question of whether the author’s argument demonstrates a form of sexual prejudice. As a reader, there are several reasons that persuade me to continue reading the book. For one, the theoretical principle that explains the nature of sexuality provides a different perspective towards the contemporary issues of gender acceptance. The modern society is still in a long debate because of the lack of understanding of sexuality. Another reason to continue reading the book is the fact that knowledge should not be confined in one direction, and all possibilities of intellectual enlightenment should be considered including the content of Weininger’s work and view the concept of sexual orientation from a different angle.
