In some people, to be sure, the taboos against any kind of anal sexual activity are sufficiently strong that these stimuli result in a negative reaction. In these cases, it seems clear the individual is applying a learned form of behavior to his physical reactions and is negatively stimulated. The sensations which arouse excitement and a desire to continue the stimulation can produce either a violent revulsion or a strong inclination to repeat the Stimulus, depending upon the training of the individual concerned.

To make the situation even more complex, we must also recognize that in many individuals the “forbidden acts” are even more arousing and exciting than those which are sanctioned by society. Moralists may be depressed by the fact that they can sometimes respond so energetically to violations of their own moral code, but the fact remains: there is sometimes more real excitement in violating social codes than in upholding and observing them.

As the foregoing discussion suggests, anal sex can provide real physical stimulation and also a form of psychological stimulation. These stimuli are not mutually exclusive, of course. They can easily be combined in the same individual. Anal sexuality, to use modern vernacular, “has a lot going for it.”

This being the case, we ought not to be surprised to find that a considerable number of people make use of the arousal potential of this form of sexual activity. While that number might not bulk especially large in the total population of the United States, even a minuscule percentage can equal a sizable body of people. Devotion to the anus, as a mode of achieving sexual satisfaction, is by no means a monopoly of the male homosexual, as some would have us believe.