Some doctors suspect that about three out of every four U.S. women are frigid, i.e., get no sexual satisfaction. In the current Journal of the American Medical Association, Gynecologist William S. Kroger of Chicago and Endocrinologist S. Charles Freed of San Francisco chide U.S. gynecologists for not paying more attention to the problem.
Old Maids & Agitators. Drs. Kroger and Freed believe that U.S. wives should enjoy sex as much as their husbands do. After serious study of the "psychosomatic aspects" of female coldness, Kroger and Freed view the sexual sensitivity of U.S. women as varying all the way from "complete anesthesia to exquisite receptivity." Convinced that 75% of U.S. women are more or less "sexually anesthetized," the doctors suggest a few basic causes of frigidity:
¶Fear of punishment for violations of society's sexual prohibitions.
¶Conflicting loves, e.g., "love of father as opposed to love of husband, love of self as contrasted to love of husband, and love of other women as opposed to love of men as represented by the husband."
¶Unconscious resentments and hates, such as "a wish for revenge on men ... or a wish to avenge the mother for all the suffering she went through at the hands of the father . . ."
These and other factors, say Kroger and Freed, account for "aggressive old maids, agitative female 'champions' in constant competition with men, narcissistic women and violent espousers of virginity."
Combat & Clothes. In another classification of frigid women the doctors lump the 'gold-digger,' who is financially exploiting many sexual partners and husbands ... the prostitute ... and the nymphomaniac, the latter in search for satisfaction which is never achieved . . .
"The members of this class may make a partial adjustment and become involved in marriage, but this solves the problem only outwardly ... A closer inspection will demonstrate the same pattern of flight and combat interwoven with the marriage thread. There may be an excessive . . . interest in card playing and club and sport pursuits and a proportionate neglect of the husband. This type will take great interest in traveling alone, in purchasing expensive clothes, perhaps even in the aggressive pursuit of a career. Pregnancy is avoided as a nuisance or even a calamity."
Frigidity in women has received far too little attention from gynecologists, say Kroger and Freed, because "relatively few women present themselves . . . with the complaint of frigidity alone." But almost all married women see a gynecologist at one time or another in their lives, the doctors indicate, and the gynecologist should "attempt re-education and reassurance" of frigid women. "If these measures are ineffective, psychotherapy by a psychiatrist or psychoanalyst (preferably a man) should be recommended."