it is
possible to call pseudosexual attraction, by which I mean a tendency for
the invert to be attracted toward persons unlike himself, so that in his
sexual relationships there is a certain semblance of sexual opposition.
Numa Praetorius considers that in homosexuality the attraction of
opposites--the attraction for soldiers and other primitive vigorous
types--plays a greater part than among normal lovers.[201] This
pseudosexual attraction is, however, as Hirschfeld points out,[202] and as
we see by the Histories here presented, by no means invariable.

M.N. writes: "To me it appears that the female element must, of
necessity, exist in the body that desires the male, and that
nature keeps her law in the spirit, though she breaks it in the
form. The rest is all a matter of individual temperament and
environment. The female nature of the invert, hampered though it
is by its disguise of flesh, is still able to exert an
extraordinary influence, and calls insistently upon the male.
This influence seems called into action most violently in the
presence of males possessed of strong sexual magnetism of their
own. Such men are generally more or less conscious of the
influence, and the result is either a vague appreciation, which
will make the male wonder why he gets on so well with the invert,
or else the influence will be realized to be something
incongruous and unnatural, and will be resented accordingly.
Sometimes, indeed, the reciprocated feeling (circumstance and
opportunity permitting) will prove strong enough to induce sexual
relations. Reason will then generally overpower instinct, and the
feeling, aroused unaware, will probably be changed into
repulsion. Further, the influence reacts in the same way on
women, who, particularly if they are strongly sexual, experience
involuntary sensations of dislike or antagonism on association
with inverts. There is, however, one terrible reality for the
invert to face, no matter how much he may wish to avoid it and
seek to deceive himself. There exists for him an almost absolute
lack of any genuine satisfaction either in the way of the
affections or desires. His whole life is passed in vainly seeking
and desiring the male, the antithesis of his nature, and in
consorting with inverts he must perforce be content with the male
in form only, the shadow without the substan