It is suggested that in girls the introitus and vagina represent the third zone following the oral and anal for the discharge of sexual tension. The entire sequence of normal female development may be 'based on orifice and cavity cathexis'. Several reasons are offered in an attempt to explain the repression of vaginal awareness in the developing child: the lack of voluntary muscular control over the vagina poses a threat to body integrity and it is difficult for the girl to incorporate this organ into her body image. Since it is difficult for her to maintain vaginal awareness without anxiety, clitoridal cathexis emerges to aid in the repression of vaginal awareness.