The Shemale As A Figure in Art

" These factors combine to make "female beauty" rather than its male counterpart "the focus of attention" among humans and has led to the use by women of their beauty as a means of controlling men, which men have resisted "by increasing their economic and political power." In general, men have enjoyed superior status because, as they age, their economic and political prowess increases, whereas, as women age, their beauty fades. Two related consequence of this dynamic are voyeurism and exhibitionism, Beyst declares: "Under such regime, man only admires female beauty, while woman has only eyes for his economic power, not for his beauty." Another effect of this dynamic is that, because some women are more beautiful than others and only the wealthiest men can afford the most beautiful women, men of lesser wealth must be content to fantasize about such women.

This need for fantasy fuels the erotic impulse that is predicated upon the reduction of women to their bodies; the voyeurism and exhibitionism that results from the rebellion of the senses, as it were, in exchanging visual for tactile or other perceptions of the female body; the exchange of beauty by women for the benefits that are associated with the male's wealth and power; and lesser men's need to fantasize about the most beautiful, albeit unattainable, women.

Beyst next considers the respective beauty of the male sexual organs and the female bodies. He finds that the interiority of the female genitals makes them more attractive than the obvious external male organs, and the fact that male beauty, being the opposite of female beauty, tends also to enhance female beauty: "The beauty of the female body is further enhanced in that male beauty is in many respects the opposite of female beauty. The beard and the bald skull of the old man are the sheer negation of the beautiful mane and the naked chin and cheeks of the young girl," he writes, adding that "Where the female body shows its utmost treasures-the eyes, cheeks, and lips in the face; the breast, womb and the buttock on the body-the male body only shows a beard and hair, muscle and bone.