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That hostilities and fears may in fact be associated with all human sexual excitement, both male and female, is the thesis of a recent article by Robert Stoller in The Archives of General Psychiatry:
… hostility, overt or hidden, is what generates and enhances sexual excitement, and its absence leads to sexual indifference and boredom. This dominance of hostility in erotism attempts to undo childhood traumas and frustrations that threaten the development of masculinity and femininity (gender identity).1
Stoller presents this thesis not as an established conclusion but as an hypothesis to be explored; his own very extensive research on the subjects of gender identity and perversion2 has led him to suspect that for most people, hostility is an important element in the scenario of sexual fantasy which heightens sexual excitement. His thorough survey of the vast body of literature on sexuality has revealed what he finds to be a surprising omission—the study of sexual fantasy itself—and thus he proposes that an essential step in testing his hypothesis be the collection and analysis of these crucial fantasies using various methods:
Sexual fantasy can be studied by means of a person's daydreams (including those chosen in magazines, books, plays, television, movies, and outright pornography), masturbatory behavior, object choice, foreplay, techniques of intercourse, or postcoital behavior, (p. 908)